Immigration court arrests spark legal challenge

Migrants are suing to bar the Trump administration from arresting people making appearances at immigration court proceedings.

The class-action suit, brought by migrants who have had cases dismissed or expect to see their cases dismissed, accuses government agencies of a “campaign of courthouse arrests through coordinated policies.”

They say the administration is luring migrants to court hearings after attorneys for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ask for cases to be closed.

People going to such hearings believe the government may be ending efforts to deport them, but authorities after closing cases are free to arrest migrants then place them in expedited removal proceedings that do not typically come before an immigration judge, fast-tracking their removal from the country.

“For years, both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) had policies limiting civil immigration-related arrests in immigration courts. These policies were rooted in the commonsense recognition that such arrests hamper the fair administration of the immigration process and create a palpable fear that disincentivizes people from appearing for their hearings,” the plaintiffs wrote in a suit brought Wednesday by Democracy Forward.

“But in the first few days of the Trump administration, Defendants repealed those policies, exposing individuals who properly appear for their hearings, including to seek asylum and other relief, to the imminent threat of arrest and indefinite detention.”

Such arrests are often conducted by officers not in uniform, and lawmakers who have witnessed courthouse arrests have condemned some officers for doing so while wearing masks.

Reps. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) and Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), who is also chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, have introduced legislation to bar the use of masks during such arrests.

The Department of Homeland Security has broadly defended the practice of courthouse arrests, whether at immigration court proceedings or within the regular court system.

“The ability of law enforcement to make arrests of criminal illegal aliens in courthouses is common sense,” DHS said in a statement in May.

“It conserves valuable law enforcement resources because they already know where a target will be. It is also safer for our officers and the community. These illegal aliens have gone through security and been screened to not have any weapons.”

The suit, however, argues the practice is an end-run around due process and said there have been cases of arrests where an immigration court judge has not agreed to dismiss the case.

“Noncitizens, including most of the Individual Plaintiffs here, have been abruptly ripped from their families, lives, homes, and jobs for appearing in immigration court, a step required to enable them to proceed with their applications for permission to remain in this country,” the suit states.

The suit claims the practice violates various provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act and seeks class certification — a practice more common in the wake of a Supreme Court decision limiting judges from imposing nationwide injunctions.