| Photo by Berry van der Velden on Unsplash
NEW YORK – The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is implementing a new web-based system as part of the agency’s modernization of immigration processes. Called Cash Electronic Bonds Online (CeBONDS), the system provides a fully automated online capability to request verification of bond eligibility, make cash immigration bond payments, and send electronic notifications to cash bond obligors (people paying the bond).
According to ICE, this process and system enhancement increases convenience for people paying the bond obligors – to initiate and process immigration bonds online from anywhere without making the payment at a local field office. It also saves time via the electronic processing of bonds and saves money and materials by significantly reducing paper and physical storage requirements. Individuals can still make in-person bond payments until the online system takes over on June 1.
“This is another step in how we continue our efforts to build and promote a fair and efficient immigration process,” said Enforcement and Removal Operations Executive Associate Director Corey A. Price. “CeBONDS modernizes a legacy bond process that was inconvenient, time consuming, and costly, and transforms it to provide obligors an electronic method of requesting immigration bonds.”
ICE said immigration bonds serve as a mechanism to encourage noncitizens to appear in immigration court and are not punitive. Bond decisions are based on a noncitizen’s flight risk and potential public safety threats. Each case is reviewed individually, ICE said, considering factors like immigration history, criminal history, and community ties. Although it is not uncommon for a noncitizen to be afforded the option to bond out of custody, there are many exceptions and complexities surrounding releasing noncitizens from ICE custody on bond, for example, those individuals subject to mandatory detention by law.
Noncitizens can appeal ICE’s bond decision to an immigration judge at various points throughout their immigration court proceedings. When an immigration judge grants a person an immigration bond or orders their release from detention, ICE said, it complies with those decisions.
Noncitizens are afforded due process in removal proceedings before immigration judges in the immigration courts administered by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). EOIR is an agency within the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and is separate from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE. Immigration judges in these courts make decisions based on the merits of each case. ICE officers carry out the removal decisions made by the immigration judges.
The immigration laws of the United States allow noncitizens to pursue relief or protection from removal; however, they remain subject to a final order of removal from an immigration judge once they have completed proceedings before the immigration court and exhausted all administrative appeals. ICE is charged with executing that order.
Individuals requiring additional assistance or experiencing an issue accessing the CeBONDS application can email ICECeBONDS-Helpdesk@ice.dhs.gov.
–-With Jay Domingo/PDM
