BS BULLETIN:
- A federal judge has struck down the Trump administration’s 2025 policy allowing broader ICE arrests in and around immigration courthouses.
- U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled that ICE failed to adequately explain why it abandoned earlier restrictions.
- The ruling restores tighter 2021-era limits on civil immigration arrests at courthouses, except in limited circumstances.
A George W. Bush-appointed federal judge has dealt the Trump administration another setback in its immigration enforcement campaign, blocking ICE from using immigration courthouses as routine arrest locations.
U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel ruled that the administration’s 2025 courthouse-arrest policy was invalid because Immigration and Customs Enforcement failed to adequately explain why it abandoned the more restrictive policy that had previously governed those arrests.
Castel found that ICE had offered no sufficient explanation for replacing the earlier limits with significantly broader discretion for officers.
The dispute centers on civil immigration arrests involving people who show up for hearings at immigration courts.
Under the 2021 policy now effectively restored, civil immigration enforcement in or near courthouses is generally restricted, with exceptions for limited circumstances.
Castel had already imposed temporary restrictions on ICE courthouse arrests earlier this year while the lawsuit moved forward.
His latest ruling makes the core restriction final by vacating the 2025 policy to the extent that it rescinded the earlier courthouse protections.
The case was brought by immigrant-rights organizations African Communities Together and The Door, which argued that aggressive courthouse enforcement discouraged immigrants from appearing for required hearings.
The New York Civil Liberties Union, which helped litigate the case, described the ruling as applying to civil immigration enforcement in or near immigration courthouses except under narrow circumstances.
The administration had argued that courthouse arrests served a legitimate enforcement purpose.
Castel acknowledged the government’s strong interest in enforcing immigration law in an earlier phase of the case, but also pointed to the competing interest in allowing people to attend required immigration proceedings without fear that simply appearing would result in arrest.
DBS WIRE SOURCES:
- Washington Examiner — Federal judge blocks ICE from arrests in New York courthouses
- Immigration Analytics — Judge vacates ICE immigration courthouse arrest policy
- NYCLU — Federal court strikes down ICE’s courthouse arrest policy
- Fox News — Judge blocks ICE courthouse arrests after government reverses earlier claims
- CBS New York — Federal judge bans ICE arrests in New York City immigration courts
