By Prime Path Immigration Law Firm Limited USA, on Immigration Updates
Between October 17 and October 23, 2024, U.S. District Court judges in Colorado issued five rulings challenging a Trump administration policy that denies bond hearings to immigrants who entered the country without permission. The policy change was formally announced on July 8, 2025, when Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons issued interim guidance stating that individuals who entered without inspection are ineligible for bond hearings before an immigration judge and may only be released through parole. This followed the Board of Immigration Appeals' September 5, 2025 precedential decision in Matter of Yajure Hurtado, which ruled that Immigration Judges completely lack authority to conduct bond hearings for anyone present in the United States without lawful admission, overturning nearly 40 years of established practice. Entry without inspection is the most common charge in immigration court cases, used in over a million of the 1.76 million cases initiated in fiscal year 2024, representing 62% of new cases in 2025, and approximately 100,000 people could be affected by potential class action litigation.
In one notable case, U.S. District Court Judge Regina M. Rodriguez ordered the release of Nestor Gutierrez, originally from El Salvador and a Colorado resident for more than twenty years, ruling that ICE's new policy "likely violates federal law" and that Gutierrez was being unlawfully detained without bond. Judge Rodriguez found that if Gutierrez had been provided with a bond hearing, he would have been granted conditional release because he is unlikely to abscond or be a danger to the community, and she cited his status as his family's main financial provider in rejecting ICE's argument that he was not suffering irreparable harm. Immigration attorney Hans Meyer, who brought the case alongside the ACLU, stated that the government had the correct interpretation for three decades before the Trump administration's about-face, and noted that dozens of federal district courts have resoundingly rejected the administration's re-interpretation of the law. Meyer is working to certify the Gutierrez case as a class-action lawsuit, with certification arguments scheduled for November 2025.
For more information on this, and other immigration matters, contact the attorneys at Prime Path Immigration Law Firm Limited USA today.
Reference:
Matter of Yajure Hurtado, 29 I. & N. Dec. 216 (B.I.A. 2025).
Gutierrez v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, No. [case number], 2024 WL (D. Colo. Oct 2024).
