Agencies violate federal law during immigration court arrests, new lawsuit claims
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The New York Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union, Make the Road new York and Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP filed a lawsuit on behalf of The Door and African Communities Together arguing civil arrests in courthouses carried out by federal agents violate federal law. AP file photo by Yuki Iwamura
By Noah Powelson
A new lawsuit brought by a group of law firms and nonprofit organizations claims the Trump administration violated federal law by sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to arrest migrants at their court hearings.
The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against ICE and other government entities on Friday, accusing several government agency leaders of violating federal law by targeting people appearing for their immigration court appointments. Agency leaders are accused of violating the Administrative Procedure Act – a federal law that establishes how agencies can create and administer their own regulations – by arbitrarily infringing on noncitizens’ rights in order to meet deportation quotas set by President Donald Trump.
According to the lawsuit, agency leaders at ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and the Executive Office of Immigration Review instituted several new policies in the months after Trump’s election that gave federal agents expanded power to detain noncitizens in civil courthouses. These new policies not only infringed common law practice of not arresting persons at courthouses, the lawsuit argues, but also violated the regulations established by the agencies themselves.
The result of these policy changes became immediately apparent, as ICE agents arrested 495 people in New York City in the first ten days of June 2025, more than double the number of arrests ICE made in all of June 2024.
Additional data published by ICE and other agencies likewise shows the recent change in tactics.
ICE agents arrested 2,365 immigrants in New York City between late January and the end of June, which accounts for a 200 percent increase from the five months before Trump took office, according to recent reporting by the New York Times. Since Jan. 20, 2025, half the migrants arrested in the city were detained after being summoned to the federal immigration offices or immigration courts in Manhattan.
According to data from the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkley, only 45 percent of noncitizens arrested by ICE in New York City had any convictions or pending criminal charges. Of the 706 noncitizens who were convicted of a crime, 157 had been convicted of violent crimes.
As a result of this change, the NYCLU lawsuit claims, a chilling effect has taken over as noncitizens fear attending their court mandated hearings regardless of their criminal status. These new policies not only infringed common law practice of not arresting immigrants at courthouses, the lawsuit argues, but also violated the regulations established by the agencies themselves.
Defendants listed in the lawsuit include Secretary of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Acting Director of ICE Todd Lyons, Acting Director of the EOIR Sirce Owen and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two New York based non-profits, African Communities Together and The Door, who both offer social and legal services for noncitizens. ACT and The Door both argue ICE agents unlawfully arrested their members during routine immigration case hearings, and their services have been disrupted as a result of ICE’s actions.
“In its fervor to expel as many immigrants as possible from the country, the Trump administration is targeting immigrants in the very place set up to adjudicate their status: immigration court,” Diana Konaté, deputy executive director of Policy and Advocacy at ACT, said. “Every day, our members are forced to choose between being kidnapped and/or put into expedited removal, or risking deeper legal consequences because they're too scared to go to court.”
Attorneys who work for The Door, whose legal services wing primarily represents young adults and minors, said these new federal policies have overburdened their offices with new clients and their resources have been drained as a result. Several of their clients fear attending court hearings in person, and file virtual appearance requests to avoid the risk of detainment, a spokesperson said.
One of The Door’s clients, a 21-year-old noncitizen who entered the country when he was 19, was applying for asylum when his request for a virtual appearance was denied. When he appeared in court in June 2025, a DHS attorney moved to dismiss his full removal proceedings and ICE agents immediately arrested him. He is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center, according to the lawsuit.
“What we have been witnessing in immigration court in the last few months is unconscionable,” Beth Baltimore, deputy director of The Door’s Legal Services Center, said in a statement. “We now regularly hear reports from members whose friends and classmates have disappeared after routine court appearances, and our members are afraid to go to court, school, and even leave their homes out of fear they will be detained by ICE. No child should have to choose between their safety and their right to due process.”
Including the NYCLU, the lawsuit was also filed by American Civil Liberties Union, Make the Road New York and Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP. A spokesperson for the NYCLU said the lawsuit seeks to end the policies of targeting noncitizens at immigration court hearings.
“Noncitizens across the country are arriving at immigration courts expecting to present their case and return home to their families — instead, ICE is arresting them as they leave the courthouse,” Director of Immigrants’ Rights Litigation at the NYCLU Amy Belsher said. “This practice turns mandatory immigration proceedings — where noncitizens are entitled to pursue safety and relief into yet another weapon of the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda. These cruel tactics are unlawful, unfair, and unjust.”
