OAKLAND, Calif. – California Attorney General Rob Bonta is co-leading a multistate coalition opposing a federal immigration detention policy that requires many undocumented immigrants to be held without the opportunity for a bond hearing, arguing the policy violates due process and federal law, according to a California Department of Justice press release issued Wednesday.
The Department of Justice reported that Bonta is leading the coalition alongside New York Attorney General Letitia James, and that the group has filed an amicus brief in Rodriguez Vazquez v. Bostock challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s nationwide adoption of the policy, which the coalition says violates federal statutes and constitutional due process protections and causes irreparable harm to families, communities and states across the country.
In the release, Bonta said “the Trump Administration has carried out its inhumane immigration agenda by abducting, incarcerating, and deporting members of our communities without regard for the rule of law,” adding that he will “continue to fight it.”
In prior decades, immigrants placed in removal proceedings had the right to request a bond hearing, the DOJ explained, allowing them to argue for release and receive an individualized determination while their cases were pending. DHS’s recent policy removes that right, resulting in immediate detention without the opportunity to seek release on bond, even in cases where there may be strong evidence supporting relief.
Many of the individuals impacted by the policy have lived in the United States for years, but now face detention in what the California DOJ described as “overcrowded, unsafe, and unsanitary facilities with no clear end in sight.” The release warned that as immigration enforcement expands, the number of people subject to mandatory detention under the policy could increase dramatically.
The DOJ emphasized that the policy also has wide-ranging consequences for U.S. citizens, noting that more than 9 million people, including approximately 4 million children, live with an undocumented family member.
According to the release, the detention of loved ones increases the risk of poor mental health and financial instability for affected households, and fear of detention already discourages people from seeking essential resources such as health care and food assistance, as well as from reporting crimes.
The attorneys general argued that the policy has magnified these harms through what the DOJ characterized as “excessive and unlawful” mandatory detention, intensifying the emotional and social impacts already experienced by mixed-status households.
The release also highlighted the economic consequences of the policy, noting that undocumented immigrants make up nearly 5% of the U.S. workforce and that undocumented-led households paid nearly $90 billion in taxes in 2023, contributing almost $300 billion in consumer spending. The coalition maintained that unnecessarily detaining undocumented workers disrupts labor markets and undermines local and state economies.
The California DOJ also pointed to the financial burden of detention on taxpayers. In 2024, immigration detention cost U.S. taxpayers $3.4 billion, or about $152 per detainee per day. By contrast, the release said DHS’s Alternatives to Detention program costs less than $4.20 per day and similarly ensures that individuals appear for required court proceedings.
The coalition is urging the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn DHS’s “no bond” detention policy, the DOJ said, noting that Rodriguez Vazquez v. Bostock challenges the same policy at issue in Bautista v. Noem, a case in which Bonta and James led a similar coalition in filing a brief in support of the plaintiffs last year.
According to the California Department of Justice, the filing is joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
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