Judge Bars ICE From Making Immigration Arrests at Courts in New York

A decide on Monday largely barred federal brokers from making arrests in immigration courts in New York City, placing an abrupt halt to a coverage that emerged final yr because the centerpiece of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Manhattan.

The federal decide, P. Kevin Castel, issued the ruling two months after the Manhattan US legal professional’s workplace despatched a extremely uncommon letter to the courtroom saying that it had mistakenly relied on a Department of Homeland Security coverage memo when detaining noncitizens in immigration courtroom.

Opponents of the Trump administration, together with Brad Lander, the previous comptroller of New York City who’s working for Congress as a Democrat, stated the letter amounted to an admission of a “bombshell lie” that had been used as a rationale for the detention of 1000’s of immigrants.

The coverage had led to remarkable scenes within the immigration courts at 26 Federal Plaza in downtown Manhattan, as immigrants attending courtroom for routine hearings have been instantly detained and, typically, dragged away from their households. Protesters started to attend in droves and a few — including Mr. Lander —have been arrested alongside the immigrants.

Lawyers for 2 nonprofit immigrant advocacy teams, the Door and African Communities Together, had argued towards the constitutionality of the courthouse arrests. They referred to as on the decide to cease the coverage, which left scared immigrants to attend hearings for worry of being detained.

Federal officers had defended the arrests, saying they allowed brokers a safer atmosphere in which to detain their targets, permitting them to keep away from the dangers of deploying groups into native communities.

Judge Castel, of Manhattan federal courtroom, had beforehand declined to halt the coverage. But in mild of the federal government’s March admission, he revised that opinion, saying Monday that he had completed so “both to correct a clear error and prevent a manifest injustice.”

His earlier choice, he wrote, “relied upon the clearly erroneous premise that the 2025 policies applied to immigration courthouses.”

A lawyer for the immigrant advocacy teams, Amy Belsher, director of immigrants’ rights litigation at the New York Civil Liberties Union, stated the ruling was “hugely important,” assuming that the Trump administration complied.

“People can now go to immigration court with the understanding that they won’t be arrested there,” she stated.

Ms. Belsher famous that beneath the ruling, ICE officers should adhere to earlier tips that permit immigration courtroom arrests solely in very restricted circumstances.

A spokesperson for the US legal professional’s workplace declined to remark.

In an announcement, the Department of Homeland Security stated: “It is common sense to take illegal aliens into custody following the completion of their removal proceedings. Nothing prohibits arresting a lawbreaker where you find them. We are confident we will ultimately be vindicated in this case.”

Judge Castel stated that his ruling utilized to immigration courts at 26 Federal Plaza and two different Manhattan places — 201 Varick Street and 290 Broadway. The ruling doesn’t apply nationwide.

It continues to be unclear why ICE abruptly reversed its steerage. In its March letter, the federal government had stated solely that the error had been a results of “agency attorney error.”

In August 2025, the Door and African Communities Together challenged what they referred to as the Trump administration’s “sweeping, unprecedented campaign of targeting noncitizens” at immigration courts.

The go well with famous that for many years, ICE brokers and different federal officers largely shunned conducting civil immigration arrests at immigration courthouses, in half as a result of such arrests may deter noncitizens from attending necessary courtroom proceedings. That coverage let an April 2021 ICE memo that prohibited such enforcement actions “in or near a courthouse.”

In May of final yr, because the Trump administration pressured federal regulation enforcement companies to extend each day arrests of noncitizens, the go well with stated, ICE issued a brand new coverage permitting brokers to make immigration arrests at courthouses. The memo explicitly stated that ICE officers may detain noncitizens — at immigration courthouses.

“ICE began arresting noncitizens in record numbers,” the lawsuit stated, “causing chaos both for families who were abruptly separated and for the noncitizens themselves, who were in many cases held incommunicado, unable to contact their loved ones for several days.”

The go well with requested Judge Castel to put aside the brand new ICE courthouse arrests coverage as arbitrary, capricious and “contrary to law.”

The authorities opposed such motion, citing the May 2025 memo and saying a steadiness wanted to be struck between permitting ICE to conduct the arrests it was mandated to make and the chilling impact of these arrests.

In September 2025, heeding the federal government’s arguments, the decide denied the request.

But in March, the federal government revealed its gorgeous reversal of place to the courtroom. “We write respectfully and regrettably to correct a material mistaken statement of fact that the government made to the court and plaintiffs,” the US legal professional’s workplace instructed the decide.

Judge Castel stated his ruling will stay in impact pending a full overview of the deserves of the ICE insurance policies challenged in the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs had additionally indicated that they supposed to ask the decide to punish the federal government for its swift and unexplained reversal.

“The question of sanctions is an important one — it’s a very important one,” Judge Castel stated at an April listening to after the federal government revealed its mistake. But he stated he would defer the problem till later in the litigation.