Trump issued an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to put together a list of states and local jurisdictions with cashless bail policies. His administration will then identify federal funds being provided to those jurisdictions that can be paused or terminated, according to a statement from the White House.
Notably, Trump also issued a separate executive order specifically targeting the District of Columbia, where he recently deployed the National Guard. In the order, Trump said there's a "crime emergency" in the district, and its pretrial release policies are partly to blame.
"The radical left's fantasy of so-called 'cashless bail' has turned the streets of America's cities into hunting grounds for repeat criminals who mock our justice system by committing crime after crime without consequence," the White House said.
Meanwhile, proponents of bail reform criticized the executive order, arguing that there's no link between the policies and increased crime. David Gaspar, CEO of the nonprofit Bail Project, said in a statement, "Efforts to expand pretrial detention or restrict so-called cashless bail are dangerous, counterproductive and out of step with the evidence."
Cashless bail policies are designed to ensure that no one is held in jail only because they cannot afford to pay for their freedom, according to the project. Justice reform advocates have long said that using money to ensure that suspects show up for court appearances unfairly conditions pretrial liberty on wealth and weighs more heavily on low-income defendants and especially people of color. In 2023, Illinois became the first state to abolish the use of money bonds after its Supreme Court found that doing so was indeed constitutional.
Trump pointed to cases in Illinois, New York and D.C. where he said cashless bail policies allowed people to commit further crimes. In one instance, he said, a suspected member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua was set free without bail after an attempted murder in New York. Enyerbert Blanco, 27, was later arrested for drug trafficking and released again before being arrested and held for sex trafficking in Florida. In another instance, the White House said, an Illinois murder suspect walked free under the state's no-cash bail system.
However, studies have shown that bail reform has had no statistical impact on crime rates across the country. Last year, a study from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law looked at 33 U.S. cities, 22 of which have implemented bail reform — like Atlanta and Dallas — and 11 that have not. Researchers found no statistically significant difference between the crime rates in either category.
"In other words, there is no reason to believe that bail reform has led to increased crime," the Brennan Center said in the August 2024 report.
In Monday's statement, Gaspar said bail reforms "have sought to undo the two-tiered system of justice created by cash bail where wealth, not safety, determines who goes free."
"People with money can pay bail — no matter the risk they pose — while those without are forced to remain in jail, even if they pose no risk at all," he said.
Gaspar said reforms have reduced unnecessary jail time, strengthened court appearance rates and actually made communities safer.
"Despite claims to the contrary, bail reform is not about letting people off the hook," he said. "It's about replacing a wealth-based system with one rooted in fairness, due process and evidence. If President Trump truly wants to 'Make America Great Again,' he should strengthen the values that define our justice system — fairness, equality and the presumption of innocence."
--Additional reporting by Rachel Rippetoe and Marco Poggio.
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