Federal judge in San Jose blocks immigration courthouse arrests
Judge blocks immigration court arrests
A federal district judge in San Jose has thrown out a Trump administration policy that permitted ICE agents to make mass arrests inside immigration courthouses nationwide.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - A federal judge in San Jose has thrown out a Trump administration policy that allowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to make mass arrests inside immigration courthouses.
Judge's ruling
The Tuesday ruling by U.S. District Court Judge P. Casey Pitts means immigration agents must immediately reduce their presence inside those courthouses.
The decision in the case filed by Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen, an asylum seeker from Guatemala, and Ligia Garcia, an asylum seeker from Colombia, who were arrested after leaving court hearings at San Francisco immigration hearings, applies to immigration courthouses across the country.
The asylum seekers were represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California, the Central American Resource Center of Northern California, and Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass LLP.
Judge orders halt on ICE courthouse arrests in Northern California
A federal judge in San Jose has ordered a halt to ICE arrests at courthouses, arguing that immigrants are between a rock and a hard place: They face either getting arrested for trying to follow the law, or are not showing up to court and facing automatic deportation.
No more arrests at courthouses
Federal agents took a man into custody outside immigration court in Concord. The operation was conducted by ICE, FBI and IRS agents. June 11, 2025
For the past year and a half of the Trump administration, dramatic pictures and videos have surfaced showing ICE agents stationed in immigration courthouse hallways, unexpectedly arresting and taking away individuals waiting inside for routine hearings.
As of Tuesday night, ICE is no longer permitted to conduct those actions.
For the past 10 years, ICE held an official policy to avoid arresting people inside courthouses in most cases.
The rationale behind the previous policy was that courthouse arrests would make individuals too afraid to show up for their hearings and take the necessary steps to gain legal status in the United States.
However, the Trump administration changed that policy last year.
Pitts, who was appointed by former President Biden, ruled in favor of the asylum seekers.
Pitts stated that ICE was acting "arbitrarily and capriciously" and ordered that the agency must limit its practices of making courthouse arrests to only the most dangerous criminal suspects.
The judge also ordered immigration officials to limit the amount of time they keep people in short-term detention, cutting it from 72 hours to just 12 hours.
Trump expected to challenge
A man is being detained for unknown reasons at the immigration court in Concord. June 10, 2025
The Department of Homeland Security responded to the ruling late Tuesday night.
In a post on X, the General Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security stated: "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."
Legal scholars expect the Trump administration to challenge the ruling.
In the past year, the Supreme Court has sided with the Trump administration on issues of executive power.
For the time being, however, ICE agents cannot be stationed inside immigration courthouses to arrest people showing up for routine hearings.
The Source: US District Court Judge ruling, Department of Homeland Security, prior KTVU reporting. KTVU's Lisa Fernandez contributed to this report.