By Priscilla Alavarez
CNN
A federal judge in California on Tuesday issued a nationwide block against the Trump administration’s policy of making arrests at immigration courts, putting an end to a practice that garnered national attention.
Last year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement began detaining migrants in courthouse hallways across the country, sometimes moments after pleading their cases. The move raised alarm among attorneys and advocates who said the practice was turning immigration courts from places of due process into zones of fear and punishing people who were following the rules.
Tuesday’s ruling marks a major blow to the Trump administration, which rescinded long-held guidance that had limited immigration enforcement in or near courthouses. Trump officials had argued the previous guidance hampered the ability of immigration enforcement officers to apprehend dangerous individuals.
In a 71-page ruling, Judge P. Casey Pitts acknowledged the “chilling effect” of ICE’s policy, finding that it was “arbitrary and capricious.”
“For the avoidance of doubt, simply extending the 2025 courthouse-arrest policies to cover immigration courthouses would not cure those policies’ fatal defects. As the Court has previously detailed, the policies entirely fail to address the chilling effect of courthouse arrests on noncitizens’ attendance at court proceedings, which is both a critical factor underlying ICE’s 2021 guidance and an ‘important aspect of the problem’ in its own right,” Pitts said.
“In sum, ICE’s 2025 courthouse-arrest policies are devoid of rational explanation for (or even acknowledgement of) the agency’s choices (1) to remove its earlier restrictions on civil arrests at immigration courthouses and (2) not to extend the new policies’ limitations to immigration courthouses,” Pitts added.
Jordan Wells, senior staff attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Fransico Bay Area, applauded the ruling.
“The courthouse is meant to be a refuge for the pursuit of justice, not a hunting ground for ICE. No immigrant, whether appearing in San Francisco, Miami, Chicago, or New York, should be forced to choose between their liberty and their day in court,” Wells said in a statement to CNN.
Department of Homeland Security General Counsel James Percival also weighed in on the ruling on X, saying: “When a judge sentences a defendant, the defendant is taken into custody. If an alien is ordered removed by an immigration judge, the same should happen. A district judge ordering otherwise is naked judicial activism in service of an anti-American, open borders agenda.”
A federal judge in California on Tuesday issued a nationwide block against the Trump administration’s policy of making arrests at immigration courts, putting an end to a practice that garnered national attention.
Last year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement began detaining migrants in courthouse hallways across the country, sometimes moments after pleading their cases. The move raised alarm among attorneys and advocates who said the practice was turning immigration courts from places of due process into zones of fear and punishing people who were following the rules.
Tuesday’s ruling marks a major blow to the Trump administration, which rescinded long-held guidance that had limited immigration enforcement in or near courthouses. Trump officials had argued the previous guidance hampered the ability of immigration enforcement officers to apprehend dangerous individuals.
In a 71-page ruling, Judge P. Casey Pitts acknowledged the “chilling effect” of ICE’s policy, finding that it was “arbitrary and capricious.”
“For the avoidance of doubt, simply extending the 2025 courthouse-arrest policies to cover immigration courthouses would not cure those policies’ fatal defects. As the Court has previously detailed, the policies entirely fail to address the chilling effect of courthouse arrests on noncitizens’ attendance at court proceedings, which is both a critical factor underlying ICE’s 2021 guidance and an ‘important aspect of the problem’ in its own right,” Pitts said.
“In sum, ICE’s 2025 courthouse-arrest policies are devoid of rational explanation for (or even acknowledgement of) the agency’s choices (1) to remove its earlier restrictions on civil arrests at immigration courthouses and (2) not to extend the new policies’ limitations to immigration courthouses,” Pitts added.
Jordan Wells, senior staff attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Fransico Bay Area, applauded the ruling.
“The courthouse is meant to be a refuge for the pursuit of justice, not a hunting ground for ICE. No immigrant, whether appearing in San Francisco, Miami, Chicago, or New York, should be forced to choose between their liberty and their day in court,” Wells said in a statement to CNN.
Department of Homeland Security General Counsel James Percival also weighed in on the ruling on X, saying: “When a judge sentences a defendant, the defendant is taken into custody. If an alien is ordered removed by an immigration judge, the same should happen. A district judge ordering otherwise is naked judicial activism in service of an anti-American, open borders agenda.”
7 comments:
In court
I behave
In the streets
I plot
In the bars
I drink
In the clink,
I think. . .
The situation in California is quite absurd, particularly with its Democratic judges attempting to meddle in federal law. This ruling will likely be contested. I find it difficult to comprehend how Democrats do not grasp the definition of the term illegal. Is it sheer ignorance or merely obstinacy? Despite losing the presidential election, they behave like a child throwing a tantrum when things do not go their way. It is time to move on. You have just two more lengthy years ahead.
The picture says a thousand words. All illegal.
This is an iconic photograph. Very touching, it's poison to MAGA.
ICE is going to do what they want.
You are issued a court date and you comply. Only to be arrested for following procedure. Now we see if the Trump administration will abide by the ruling.
Only White South Africans are exempt from being arrested.
Your stupidity is showing, you insipid imbecile!!!
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