The detentions have become a relatively easy way for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to detain immigrants who are appearing for court dates.
A coalition of legal groups representing immigrants filed a class-action lawsuit against the Trump administration on Wednesday, arguing that the federal government’s campaign to arrest people at immigration courthouses so that they can be swiftly deported is unlawful and violates due process protections.
The lawsuit, filed by Democracy Forward and three other legal organizations on behalf of 12 immigrants, aims to stop the arrests at immigration courts, a contentious tactic that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency began using in May to increase deportations nationwide.
From New York to California, ICE agents have arrested immigrants appearing for routine proceedings at immigration courts, prompting criticism from Democrats and activists that ICE is unfairly targeting people who are following the rules by showing up to court. Federal agents, typically wearing masks, have become a mainstay in courthouse lobbies and hallways, where they have arrested scores of migrants who are leaving courtrooms and who are placed in expedited deportation proceedings that don’t require hearings.
The lawsuit was filed in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia against the Department of Justice, which oversees the immigration courts; the Department of Homeland Security; and ICE. Several officials at federal agencies also were sued.
The plaintiffs include 12 immigrants, identified only by pseudonyms, from Cuba, Ecuador, Guinea, Venezuela and elsewhere. Many had entered the country without authorization from 2021 to 2024 and had applied for asylum. They were arrested when they showed up at courthouses this year. Most are in detention — in New York, Pennsylvania and Texas — and fear persecution in their home countries, the lawsuit said.
One immigrant was deported to Ecuador less than a month after he was arrested in June.
“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 lawsuit says.
