In a sudden escalation in President Trump’s mass deportation efforts, ICE brokers are snatching and detaining migrants with pending immigration courtroom instances at decrease Manhattan courthouses, a transfer which metropolis officers and attorneys blasted as “utterly unlawful.”
Prior to now month, Division of Homeland Safety attorneys have routinely moved to dismiss asylum seekers’ instances in courtroom, in hopes that the choose will grant the dismissal, rendering these people’ asylum instances nonexistent and making them topic to expedited elimination.
Federal brokers have been seen sitting inside, or simply exterior of courtrooms, and staging themselves within the hallways to ambush and arrest these migrants as they step foot exterior the courtroom.
Extra lately, ICE brokers are detaining migrants no matter whether or not the choose tossed their case or not, in keeping with metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander and a number of other immigration attorneys.
“What’s happening now, is that people who clearly have status as asylum seekers, either a motion to dismiss is not being made or not being granted, they have pending asylum applications, the judge is granting them a hearing to present their credible fear,” Lander advised reporters final week. “And nonetheless, ICE without any rationale whatsoever is disappearing with them. It is an utterly unlawful process.”
Brad Lander arrives on the Ted Weiss Federal Constructing on Friday, June 20, 2025 in Manhattan, New York, to look at federal brokers exterior an immigration courtroom. (Barry Williams/ New York Day by day Information)
Lander stated he noticed asylum hearings at 290 Broadway on Thursday, together with one case the place the choose gave a Guatemalan lady one other listening to for her case in February 2027.
“Nonetheless, in the hallway on her way out of the courtroom, masked ICE agents detained her,” he stated. “When I ask, ‘Do you plan to produce them for the February 2027 hearing? Or are you processing them for deportation, of course they refuse to answer questions.”
Lander stated he additionally watched two brothers break down crying within the courtroom, saying “they are certain they will be killed,” as their father had been, in the event that they had been to be deported again to Colombia.
As a result of the pair’s personal immigration legal professional was a no-show, the choose granted them one other listening to in February 2027. ICE brokers arrested them each anyway once they left the courtroom, Lander stated.
“I can’t imagine what the legal ground here could be if they were not stripped of status,” Lander stated. “They have status as asylum seekers. The federal government accepted their asylum applications and a federal immigration judge granted them a hearing on those asylum applications. So what grounds there could be for their arrest and removal, I have no idea. And I’m pretty sure the ICE agents who removed them have no idea, either.”
A lady cries after her husband was detained by federal brokers following an Intensive Supervision Look Program workplace listening to on June 4, 2025 in New York Metropolis. (Photograph by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Photographs)
Benjamin Remy, an immigration legal professional with New York Authorized Help Group, has been at 26 Federal Plaza practically day-after-day since courthouse arrests started, giving authorized recommendation to migrants on their manner into courtroom, and as they’re being hauled away by federal brokers.
Remy and his NYLAG colleague, legal professional Allison Cutler stated they’d beforehand seen federal brokers detaining folks whose instances had not been dismissed when courthouse arrests started in late Might. For a number of weeks this gave the impression to be much less frequent, however up to now week they stated they’ve seen quite a few folks get detained regardless of having open instances.
Cutler, chimed in, emphasizing that asylum is a proper.
“We are obligated under international law to hear asylum applications. If someone expresses fear of returning to their country, we must hear their asylum case,” she stated. “The reason those laws were created was because of the holocaust, and the genocide, and so to avoid that again, this is what this government decided to do. And this administration is refusing to follow that.”
Those that are detained with open asylum instances must struggle their case from detention, typically in faraway states like Texas and Louisiana, the place many are shipped off to, Cutler added.
Federal authorities detain a person after attending a courtroom listening to at immigration courtroom on the Jacob Okay. Javitz Federal Constructing on July 1, 2025 in New York Metropolis. (Photograph by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Photographs)
Paige Austin, an legal professional with Make the Highway New York stated she has seen judges write detailed written choices denying the federal government’s motions to dismiss in some migrants’ instances, and nonetheless witnessed ICE detain them.
“We totally think that is not legal,” Austin stated plainly. “It feels like they’re just grabbing people, snatching people, even the people that can’t be removed. They’re just trying to funnel them into this system.”
Austin famous that combating a case from detention, typically throughout the nation, turns into logistically difficult.
“What are they supposed to do? Their families [are] in New York, right? They may have trouble affording counsel. It’s hard to gather evidence,” Austin stated.
Information gathered by the American Immigration Council analyzing over 1.2 million deportation instances determined between 2007-2012 discovered that solely 3% of detained migrants with out authorized illustration prevented deportation, in contrast with 32% of detained migrants who had authorized illustration.
Federal regulation enforcement officers detain a person at 26 Federal Plaza Tuesday, June 10, 2025 within the Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams/ New York Day by day Information)
As for migrants who had been by no means detained, 78% with authorized illustration keep away from deportation, versus solely 15% for these with out illustration.
Austin stated she has seen many migrants determine to surrender and self-deport simply to keep away from doable detention, regardless of being in the midst of a authorized courtroom course of to acquire asylum.
“That includes a lot of people who remain scared to go to their country. So they’re saying, ‘I’m going to get deported, and then I’m going to flee again,’” Austin stated.
When requested to elucidate why ICE brokers are detaining migrants whose instances had not been dismissed, a DHS spokesperson didn’t tackle the query instantly.
In a press release attributed to Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, they said that almost all “aliens” who “illegally” entered the U.S. up to now two years are topic to expedited removals.
“Biden ignored this legal fact and chose to release millions of illegal aliens, including violent criminals, into the country with a notice to appear before an immigration judge,” the assertion stated. “ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal as they always should have been.”
Initially Printed: July 2, 2025 at 6:53 PM EDT
