(The Center Square) – A federal judge has banned most arrests by ICE agents in several New York City immigration courts, siding with civil liberties groups that sued to stop the practice.
The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge P. Kevin Castel prevents U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from detaining immigrants who show up for scheduled hearings at three Lower Manhattan federal immigration buildings.
Federal authorities will still be allowed to make arrests in the courthouses under “exceptional” circumstances and when there is a “serious threat” to public safety, under the ruling.
Castel, appointed by former President George W. Bush, had previously given a greenlight to the ICE courthouse arrests in a September ruling in the legal challenge. But he said attorneys for the federal government recently conceded that the 2025 policy the Trump administration relied on to make arrests at the courthouses didn’t apply to federal immigration courts.
“Here, defendants’ concession that the 2025 ICE Courthouse Arrest Policies never applied to immigration courts warrants reexamination of the prior ruling, both to correct a clear error and prevent a manifest injustice,” Castel wrote in the 15-page ruling.
The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit by American Civil Liberties Union and other groups in August that asked the court to strike down the Trump administration’s policy of arresting immigrants at immigration court, citing “inhumane conditions” and a “lack of due process” at holding facilities.
Amy Belsher, director of Immigrants’ Rights Litigation at the New York chapter of the ACLU, called the ruling “an enormous win for noncitizen New Yorkers seeking to safely attend their immigration court proceedings.”
“For nearly a year, we’ve watched masked ICE officers ambush noncitizens in courthouse hallways, throw immigrant New Yorkers to the ground, and tear children from their parents,” she said in a statement. “Now, ICE has admitted that it does not and has never had an explanation or justification for conducting mass arrests at immigration courts. We look forward to a final ruling in the case that sets aside these cruel, pointless policies once and for all.”
The Justice Department is expected to appeal the ruling. It has previously defended the practice, saying arrests in courthouses reduce “flight and safety risks to the public, law enforcement officers, and targets themselves” because individuals are “usually screened for weapons or other contraband before entering a courthouses.”
“It is common sense to take illegal aliens into custody following the completion of their removal proceedings,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement in response to Castel’s ruling. “Nothing prohibits arresting a lawbreaker where you find them. We are confident we will ultimately be vindicated in this case.”
Immigration enforcement actions in courthouses have been a flashpoint in pushback to Trump’s administration enforcing the law. Advocates, court officials and even some judges have been accused of resisting attempts by ICE to apprehend suspects who show up for court hearings. Democrats have staged protests outside courthouses to decry ICE tactics and shield immigrants from apprehension.
New York is also facing several federal lawsuits over its sanctuary policies that restrict cooperation with federal immigration crackdowns.
