The Ninth Circuit has issued a decision requiring Immigration Judges to consider a detainee's financial circumstances and alternatives to detention during an initial bond hearing under section 236(a) of the INA. "Since the government’s purpose in conditioning release on the posting of a bond in a certain amount is to 'provide enough incentive for released detainees to appear in the future, we cannot understand why it would ever refuse to consider financial circumstances: the amount of bond that is reasonably likely to secure the appearance of an indigent person obviously differs from the amount that is reasonably likely to secure a wealthy person’s appearance. Nor can we understand why the government would refuse to consider alternatives to monetary bonds that would also serve the same interest the bond requirement purportedly advances." The decision also calls for new bond hearings where these considerations were not taken into account during the original bond determination.
The full text of Hernandez v. Sessions can be found here:
http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2017/10/02/16-56829.pdf