A federal judge limited ICE’s ability to make arrests of immigrants without criminal records inside immigration courts, including the Federal Plaza complex in Lower Manhattan, after a year of emotional and sometimes violent detentions inside judicial halls.
Judge Kevin Castel issued an order Monday prohibiting federal agents from arresting immigrants while they attend mandatory court hearings, as long as they have not committed crimes. For immigrant advocates, the decision represents an important victory in their efforts to protect New Yorkers from arbitrary detention at the 26 Federal Plaza building and the nearby 290 Broadway, both converted into centers of ICE activity in New York.
“Every New York immigrant deserves to be able to access immigration courts and face their legal processes without fear of being illegally detained or separated from their family. ICE courthouse arrests have spread fear throughout New York’s immigrant communities, discouraging people from appearing in court and weakening trust in the legal system by targeting those who simply comply with federal requirements,” said Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition. “ICE must fully comply with this court order, the detention center at 26 Federal Plaza must close once and for all, and all New Yorkers who were deceived and entrapped during their court appearances must immediately be reunited with their families.”
The court order blocking ICE arrests in courthouses emerged approximately two months after the agency itself admitted in documents filed in federal court that it lacked authority and jurisdiction to conduct immigration operations within immigration judicial facilities. However, that admission did not stop masked agents from continuing to patrol the hallways of Federal Plaza and 290 Broadway to arrest immigrants attending their hearings, as occurred in an arrest witnessed on May 18, just hours before Castel issued the order.
Former City Comptroller Brad Lander, who was arrested in Federal Plaza last year while trying to defend immigrants, said the order makes clear what ICE must do.
“ICE will have to stop arresting our immigrant neighbors the moment they appear in court at places like 26 Federal Plaza, 290 Broadway and 201 Varick,” Lander said. “This is a huge victory for our communities in the fight against ICE.”
For nearly a year, New York immigrants were trapped in what advocates described as an impossible situation: being arrested by ICE agents while obeying court orders to attend hearings related to their applications to remain in the United States.
Reports of these operations caused a rapid decline in attendance at the hearings, as many immigrants feared becoming the next victims of the raids. However, by not attending, they increased the risk of losing their immigration status and facing deportation, something an ICE supervisor apparently acknowledged during a discussion in the hallways of 26 Federal Plaza last week.
“Not many come anymore. That’s another reason to stop them in the streets,” he said.
Melissa Chua, director of NYLAG’s Immigrant Protection Unit, expressed hope that the order will allow families to stop choosing between violating court orders or remaining in hiding to continue in the country.
“This ruling brings relief to hundreds of immigrants with future hearings and appointments at 26 Federal Plaza, who will no longer be afraid to follow the rules when attending their routine hearings and registrations,” Chua said. “Even with this decision, our advocates will remain vigilant because, even though the Trump administration can no longer use the courts as capture nets for immigrants, it will continue to blatantly violate due process rights on our streets, workplaces, and public spaces across the state and country.”
Over the past year, our sister publication, amNewYork, has documented everything from tearful family separations — with children crying as their parents were led away — to a mother being violently thrown to the ground as her husband was led away by agents, to physical attacks against members of the press.
In statements to The New York Times, the Department of Homeland Security defied the court order, called the arrested undocumented immigrants “illegal aliens” and assured that it “will ultimately prevail in this case.”
