Immigration Bonds Are Growing. Does Your Bail License Cover Them?

When ICE detains someone, some families call a bail agent first. Many agents turn the call away. The business they pass up is growing: about 2,000 people a month have left ICE detention on a bond this year, and by June the average bond was about $9,500. But an immigration bond is a different product, under a different law, with a different kind of risk.

The numbers

ICE's latest detention spreadsheet, current to July 11, 2026, shows 65,765 people in custody. The monthly average peaked at 71,937 in January 2026. For comparison, the highest month in fiscal 2019, the earliest year in those files, was 55,238, in August 2019.

Bonds have grown with it. ICE counted 17,370 people bonded out between October 2025 and July 11, 2026, already more than the 11,394 for the whole of fiscal 2024. From December through June it ran at about 2,000 a month. The average bond posted rose from about $7,350 in October 2025 to about $9,540 in June 2026.

In June, a bond was the most common way out for people ICE released inside the country rather than deported: about 2,000 of about 5,600, more than a third.

What an immigration bond is

Federal law sets the floor: release on a bond "of at least $1,500." The bond that releases someone from detention while the case runs is a delivery bond, posted on ICE Form I-352. Whoever posts it, called the obligor, promises to bring the released person to ICE whenever ICE demands. Think of it as an appearance bond where ICE, not a judge, sets the dates. ICE's own bond page warns that even showing up one day late can, depending on the circumstances, count as a failure to perform.

A family can post the full amount in cash. Otherwise it takes a surety company approved by the Treasury to write federal bonds. The approved list is called Circular 570. The surety's agent signs too. The form is blunt about what that means: the agent is a co-obligor, "jointly and severally liable with the surety company for any breach of this bond." In plain terms, ICE can collect the full amount from you, not only from the surety.

Why most bail agents stay out

The license. A criminal bail license is not a general surety license. Florida's insurance rules say a bail bond agent's license "does not qualify the licensee to transact business involving other types of surety bonds, including immigration bonds." California's attorney general said the same of a California bail license in 1980, and New York's insurance regulator in 2006 said selling immigration bonds there takes a property and casualty license. In Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee we found no statute, rule or regulator opinion on the point. That does not mean a bail license covers it, so ask your insurance department which license you need for federal surety bonds before you write one.

The surety. You need a Treasury-listed surety willing to appoint you for federal bonds. ICE may refuse new bonds from a surety with a poor record: 10 or more past-due breach invoices, $50,000 or more owed on them, or a breach rate of 35 percent or more in a fiscal year. So sureties choose their immigration agents carefully.

The liability. On a criminal bond you fight forfeiture in a local court you know. On an immigration bond the breach is decided by ICE, appeals go to USCIS's Administrative Appeals Office, and the agent's own name is on the form. The bond usually stays open until the immigration case ends, which can take years.

The price, in California. Since July 2022, California has barred charging more than one premium on an immigration bond, or any renewal premium, with $3,000 in statutory damages per violation. That means one fee, however long the case runs. The state's insurance commissioner said in 2021 that immigration bond agents typically charged 10 to 20 percent of the bond.

Who gets a bond is now a Supreme Court question

In September 2025 the Board of Immigration Appeals, the Justice Department's immigration appeals board, ruled in Matter of Yajure Hurtado that immigration judges "lack authority to hear bond requests or to grant bond" to people in the country without admission, meaning people who entered without inspection, never checked and admitted at a port of entry, however long they have lived here. Bonded releases had already fallen from 2,051 in July 2025 to 899 in August, and ICE counted 464 in the first 20 days of September.

Federal appeals courts split. The Fifth Circuit, which covers Texas, sided with the government. The Fourth (North Carolina), Sixth (Tennessee), Ninth (California) and Eleventh (Florida and Georgia) did not. Releases ICE records as "court ordered" rose from 119 in October 2025 to about 1,500 to 2,000 a month from February to June 2026. ICE does not say which courts ordered them, and its figures do not show why bond releases climbed back to about 2,000 a month after the ruling. On October 1, 2026 the Supreme Court agreed to hear Rhoney v. Barbosa da Cunha, which asks whether the law requires holding these people without a bond hearing while their cases run.

The answer will decide whether people who entered without inspection, a large share of those held, can get a bond hearing at all. The government's main written argument is due November 30. A ruling would normally come by early July 2027, when the Court's term usually ends.

Does the November 3 election change this?

CBS News projects that Democrats will control both the House and the Senate in the new Congress, which takes office on January 3, 2027. Some races were still being counted on November 4. Three things decide how much immigration bond business there is: how many people ICE holds, who can get a bond, and who may write one. The last stays with your state insurance department, whatever Congress does.

ICE's money is already approved. Two laws, in July 2025 and June 2026, gave ICE more than $100 billion, including $45 billion for detention space. All of it stays available until September 30, 2029. From January, any new ICE money has to get through a Democratic House and Senate, but taking back what is already given needs a new law the President signs, or a two-thirds vote of both chambers to override a veto. What the new majorities get on their own is the committee chairs and the oversight hearings.

The Texas jail law stays. A 2025 Texas law requires the sheriff of every county that runs a jail to ask ICE for a 287(g) agreement by December 1, 2026. Under one, the sheriff's staff can enforce federal immigration law. CBS News projects that Democrat Gina Hinojosa has defeated Governor Greg Abbott, but the deadline falls before she takes office, and repealing the law would take the legislature, not just a new governor.

Bond hearings stay with the Supreme Court. Congress could rewrite the detention law, but that bill would face the same veto math.

Our read. With the money in place through September 2029, the administration and the courts, not the new Congress, will mostly set how many people ICE holds and how many leave on a bond. Expect oversight hearings on detention, not a quick change in how many families need a bond. The bigger swing is the Supreme Court's ruling, likely by next summer.

Should you write them?

For an agency with the right license, a willing Treasury-listed surety and a way to keep track of clients for years rather than months, it is a growing line of business, though the Supreme Court could change its size by next summer. For everyone else, the honest answer to the family on the phone is a referral to someone who does. Before you decide, make three calls:

• Your insurance department: which license do I need to write a federal immigration bond on ICE Form I-352?
• Your surety: are you on Treasury's Circular 570, and will you appoint me for immigration bonds?
• An agent who already writes them: how often does ICE call clients in, and what did your last breach cost you?

Your turn

Do you write immigration bonds? Why or why not? Write to us at info@bailwatcher.com. We will share what the trade tells us, without names.

Sources: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, detention statistics spreadsheets for fiscal 2019, 2024, 2025 and 2026 (FY2026 data current to July 11, 2026), and "Bonds" page, updated July 1, 2026; 8 U.S.C. 1226(a)(2)(A); 8 C.F.R. 103.6; ICE Form I-352, Immigration Bond; Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Department Circular 570; Florida Administrative Code rule 69B-221.006; California Attorney General Opinion No. 80-102 (1980); New York Department of Financial Services, Office of General Counsel Opinion 06-09-10 (2006); California Penal Code 1276.1; California Senate Committee on Public Safety, analysis of AB 1347 (June 15, 2021); Board of Immigration Appeals, Matter of Yajure Hurtado, 29 I&N Dec. 216 (BIA 2025); Supreme Court of the United States, docket No. 26-104, Rhoney v. Barbosa da Cunha. All read from the source on October 28, 2026. For the election section, read November 4, 2026: Public Law 119-21, sections 90003 and 100052; Public Law 119-98, section 202; U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 7, and Twentieth Amendment; Texas Senate Bill 8 (2025), Texas Government Code 753.051; Supreme Court docket No. 26-104, order of October 28, 2026, and the Court's procedures page; Rodriguez Vazquez v. Bostock, No. 25-6842 (9th Cir. July 30, 2026); Lopez Garcia v. Guadian, No. 25-7044 (4th Cir. Sept. 10, 2026); CBS News election coverage, November 3 and 4, 2026.

This article is general information about the law and the market, not legal advice. Rules on who may write immigration bonds differ by state; confirm yours with your insurance department. Spotted an error? Write to info@bailwatcher.com and we will correct it.