On April 6, 2018, President Trump signed Memorandum 2018-07962 directing the Department of Homeland Security to dismantle the catch-and-release practice at the southern border. Under the previous enforcement approach, migrants apprehended while crossing the border were often released pending their immigration court hearings, which could take months or years to schedule. The memorandum reversed this protocol, instructing DHS to detain individuals in custody throughout their legal proceedings rather than release them with notice to appear in court. The directive applied broadly to all categories of migrants, including asylum seekers, families with children, and individuals with pending cases.

The immediate effect was a dramatic expansion of immigration detention capacity at the southern border. Families who previously would have been released to pursue their claims from within communities were instead held in detention facilities, often in conditions that advocates and inspectors documented as inadequate for children and vulnerable populations. DHS substantially increased detention bed space and shifted resources toward maintaining larger detained populations pending adjudication.

This memorandum formed a cornerstone of the Trump administration's detention-focused immigration enforcement strategy that would intensify throughout subsequent years. The 2026 closure of the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman removed independent oversight precisely as detention populations expanded under policies rooted in this 2018 directive. Meanwhile, federal courts began pushing back against the no-bond detention policies that emerged from this framework, with the Second Circuit rejecting blanket detention without financial bail consideration in May 2026, establishing that indefinite detention without bond consideration raised constitutional concerns.

The legal viability of prolonged detention without bond determinations remains contested across circuit courts, creating ongoing uncertainty about enforcement practices derived from this memorandum. Reversing the policy would require either executive action reinstating case-by-case release decisions or legislative restoration of alternatives to detention, fundamentally reshaping how DHS processes migrants at the border.