(no) Libre By Nexus: the Fight Against Immigrant E-carceration and Exploitation

(NO) LIBRE BY NEXUS: THE FIGHT AGAINST

IMMIGRANT E-CARCERATION AND EXPLOITATION

LISA LEDVORA*

With growing support for the movements to abolish the U.S. Immigration

and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE),

1

end family separation during im-

migration proceedings,

2

and normalize alternatives to immigrant detention

(ATD),

3

Libre by Nexus (Libre) has found a way to bridge the gap between

detention and liberation. Founded in 2014 by current president and CEO

Mike Donovan, Libre is a private, for-prof‌it company that functions similarly

to a bail-bond company within the immigrant detention system.

4

Libre repre-

sents itself as an immigration legal aid provider that reunites families who

have been inhumanely separated because of the broken U.S. immigration sys-

tem by providing “affordable” immigration bond payment options for ICE

detainees and their families.

5

The company facilitates bond payments

6

for

* Lisa Ledvora, J.D. Candidate, 2022, Georgetown University Law Center; B.A., summa cum laude,

International Relations and Anthropology/Sociology, 2016, Lake Forest College. © 2021, Lisa Ledvora.

1. See generally Rachel Levinson-Waldman, The Abolish ICE Movement Explained, BRENNAN CTR.

FOR JUST. (July 30, 2018), https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/abolish-ice-

movement-explained; Sean McElwee, It’s Time to Abolish ICE, THE NATION (Mar. 9, 2018), https://

www.thenation.com/article/archive/its-time-to-abolish-ice.

2. See generally KIDS IN NEED OF DEF., FAMILY SEPARATION: TWO YEARS LATER, THE CRISIS

CONTINUES (2020), https://supportkind.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Family-Separation-Report-

2020-FINAL-2.pdf; Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks & Zoe Greenberg, Protests Across U.S. Call for End

to Migrant Family Separations, N.Y. TIMES (June 30, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/30/

us/politics/trump-protests-family-separation.html.

3. See generally Fatma E. Marouf, Alternatives to Immigration Detention, 38 CARDOZO L. REV.

2141 (2017); Robyn Sampson & Grant Mitchell, Global Trends in Immigration Detention and

Alternatives to Detention: Practical, Political and Symbolic Rationales, 1 J. ON MIGRATION & HUM.

SECURITY 97, 103–11 (2013), https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/233150241300100302; Livia

Luan, Prof‌iting from Enforcement: The Role of Private Prisons in U.S. Immigration Detention, MIGRATION

POL’Y INST. (May 2, 2018), https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/prof‌iting-enforcement-role-private-

prisons-us-immigration-detention.

4. Corporation Entry Information for Libre by Nexus Inc., VA. ST. CORP. COMM’N CLERK’S INFO.

SYS., https://cis.scc.virginia.gov/EntitySearch/BusinessInformation?businessId=115146 (last visited Dec.

30, 2020). “Libre by Nexus Inc.” re-incorporated in Georgia as “Libre by Nexus, Inc.” in 2019. See

Corporation Entry Information for Libre by Nexus, Inc., VA. ST. CORP. COMM’N CLERK’S INFO . SYS.,

https://cis.scc.virginia.gov/EntitySearch/BusinessInformation?businessId=121726 (last visited Dec. 30,

2020).

5. How Libre Helps with Your Immigration Bond Payment, LIBRE BY NEXUS, https://librebynexus.

com/what-we-do (last visited Feb. 20, 2020) [hereinafter LIBRE, What We Do].

6. Libre is not a licensed bail bond company, and thus cannot pay immigrant detainees’ ICE bonds.

Instead,

Libre obtains [detainees’] release by instructing a bond agent to post the bond. . . . Libre acts as an

intermediary between the detainees and the sureties and their bond agents. Libre requires

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