Immigrants pay cripplingly high bail bonds to be released from detention across US

Bond amounts increased under Trump, and government lawyers are still asking immigrants to pay tens of thousands of dollars to be released

The cost of bonds - the payment used to secure the release of an immigrant from federal authorities - is out of reach for many people and straps many who borrow money to pay them with enormous debts.

It's among the Trump-era policies that could be easily changed by the Biden administration through a simple memo, but in the past six months, bond amounts ordered by the Department of Homeland Security and issued by immigration judges have remained high.