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Comment by vharuck | Hacker News Reader

>The law specifically permits detention pending a determination of immigration status, and in some cases requires such detention

In many cases, they are using detention where a simple bond would work. There's a NY Times opinion today detailing this: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/opinion/mass-detention-im...

It's hard to see this policy choice as anything other than putting pressure on people alleged to have committed a misdemeanor. Meanwhile, it will cost the federal government gobs of money to set up these camps, hire guards, and provide for the detainees. I don't want the government to waste my taxes on cruelty.

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> In many cases, they are using detention where a simple bond would work.

But the bonds didn't work! That is what the prior administrations did, and the result of that was 22 million illegal immigrants in the country (according to a Yale and MIT study from 2018: https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/yale-study-finds-twic...).

The law specifically provides for detention and release on bond as two alternatives the Attorney General may choose between:

"On a warrant issued by the Attorney General, an alien may be arrested and detained pending a decision on whether the alien is to be removed from the United States. Except as provided in subsection (c) and pending such decision, the Attorney General— (1) may continue to detain the arrested alien; and (2) may release the alien on— (A) bond of at least $1,500 with security approved by, and containing conditions prescribed by, the Attorney General; or (B) conditional parole..." 8 USC 1226(a).

The law does not allow for cruel and unusual punishment. The Eight Amendment is strongly being violated by the administration. The ICE facilities are extremely poor, unfit for habitation, and are essentially concentration camps. Refer to https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/opinion/mass-detention-im...

The person you're arguing with is simply in favor of concentration camps and ethnic cleansing. They have 15 years of comments you can skim to verify this, they are very consistent.

You are not changing their mind and are just giving them a venue to present this abominable "if it's legal it's fine" framework.

Invoking the eight amendment here is like some “sovereign citizen” theory of why they don’t have to pay taxes. The eighth amendment means you can’t draw and quarter people, it doesn’t mean that jails have to be nice: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/cruel_and_unusual_punishment

There is a big difference between being nice and being habitable. The ICE facilities are not habitable.

The study mentions a total number of immigrants may be up to twice as many as thought (10 mil vs 20 mil) but it doesn't say anything about when they arrived, how long they have been in the country, etc. You entirely blaming the last admin with no actual evidence, and muddying the facts between the total undocumented vs the amount that entered under Biden.

Also... what years was Biden president...? Your study from 2018 would be under a Trump admin, before the Biden admin was even able to "stop enforcing" this portion of immigration law and cause the (supposed) flood of undocumented immigrants. So how is it at all relevant except to confuse the issue?

I wasn’t blaming Biden. I said “prior administrations,” plural. The U.S. has failed to enforce the immigration laws since the 1960s: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/29/podcasts/the-daily/electi...

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