Immigration arrests in courthouses have become the new deportation tool, stripping migrants of a legal process

NBC News

4 days ago

After Julio David Pérez Rodríguez attended an immigration hearing last week in pursuit of a refugee status in the U.S., the Cuban national was stopped by undercover agents at an elevator, handcuffed and taken into custody.
'If I have done nothing illegal, why do you have me handcuffed?' the 22-year-old implored in Spanish amid tears. The arrest in Miami was captured in an emotional video aired by Noticias Telemundo.
'We're coming to this country to seek freedom. ... What is happening with this country?' he said before plainclothes officers whisked him away.
Pérez Rodríguez is one of dozens of immigrants caught in similar dragnets drawn in cities around the country since last week, as the reality of President Donald Trump's mass deportation operation penetrates further into American families' consciousness.
Many of those who saw loved ones handcuffed and taken away had accompanied their family members to ongoing immigration processes seeking asylum or hoping to make a case before a judge to stave off deportation, a legal process long afforded to immigrants and spelled out for immigration judges in court practice manuals.
The arrests are happening immediately after immigration cases are dismissed or closed, leading some people to express joy, give thanks in prayer or celebrate, only to have all that replaced by sorrow, fear and anger, as they are handcuffed and taken into custody, said Billy Botch, an observer who works for the American Friends Service Committee Florida, a social justice nonprofit formed by Quakers.
"We are talking about people who are already complying with the legal court process and who have claims of asylum or have other legal protection," Gregory Chen, senior director of government relations for American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), told NBC News. "They should have a right to a fair day in court."
Trump campaigned for the presidency on a pledge to focus on eradicating violent criminals, often invoking the names of crime victims of immigrants illegally in the country.
But Chen said that, with arrests taking place in courthouses and in immigration and citizenship services offices, 'the dragnet is sweeping in foreign nationals of all stripes, people who are members of our communities, who have been here for a long time, who have family here, who have jobs here. ... Those are the people who are really getting targeted now in mass numbers.'
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the Trump administration is reinstating the rule of law after President Joe Biden adopted policies that "allowed millions of unvetted illegal aliens to be let loose on American streets."
But immigration attorneys and advocates said the dragnets appear to be an attempt by the Trump administration to bypass constitutional due process protections for immigrants.
Based on observations by attorneys and advocates who have been monitoring the arrests, Chen said Immigration and Customs Enforcement trial attorneys are showing up in immigration courts where people have scheduled hearings and asking the judges to dismiss the cases.
"They are doing it in most cases verbally, even though the practice manual of the court typically requires a written motion," Chen said, "and they are asking that these be granted immediately, even though people are required in the practice manual to be given time to respond."
Similar arrests have been witnessed at field offices of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which handles such things as applications for citizenship or legal permanent residency, also known as green cards, as well as visas for workers and other benefits.
"There have been arrests in several cities at those USCIS interviews," Chen said.
He said AILA and immigration attorneys are instructing people at the court hearings to insist on a written motion from the government spelling out their dismissal request, to ask for time to respond to the motion — 10 days, according to the court manual — and to ask judges to not immediately rule on the government motions to dismiss.
Some immigration judges, who are part of the administrative branch of government under the Department of Justice and not the judicial branch, appear to be going along with ICE requests and dismissing cases.
"Some judges are granting the motions immediately, even without a written motion and not giving a person 10 days to have that due process to understand and to respond to the motion," Chen said.
With the case dismissed, plainclothes officers who have been stationed in hallways or other locations arrest them and set up the immigrants for accelerated deportation, which is known as expedited removal.
Criminality often isn't an issue in these immigration arrests. Instead, the criteria seem to be to capture immigrants who came under the Biden administration and haven't been living in the country more than two years.
Rendering legal pathways illegal
The Trump administration has eliminated many of the programs that allowed immigrants to come to seek asylum or allowed them into the country through parole. Administration officials deem the people who used these programs as having entered the U.S. illegally, a misdemeanor.
McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary, said Biden disregarded the fact that most of those people are subject to expedited removal and released millions of immigrants, "including violent criminals," with a notice to appear before an immigration judge.
"If they have a valid claim, they will continue in immigration proceedings, but if no valid claim can be found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation," she said.
Expedited removal typically has been reserved for people who are apprehended less than 100 miles from the border and people who are in the country for two years or less. But the Trump administration is using expedited removal everywhere in the country.
Chen said the way the dragnets are playing out is troubling, because of the lack of due process and because ICE attorneys are not being required to present written motions explaining their basis for dismissal.
"We are also concerned that there is a high level of cooperation between the courts and ICE, which is increasingly appearing to be a cooperative law enforcement operation where the judges are making these speedy decisions to dismiss the cases so that ICE can take them into custody and rapidly deport them," he said.
DHS did not respond to questions about whether immigration judges had been instructed to close cases and, if so, provide copies of those instructions.
Botch, the hearings observer from American Friends Service Committee Florida, said a Miami judge refused one person's request for their case not to be dismissed, saying, "We all have bosses."
Botch said another judge stood out because he denied government attorneys' dismissal requests in six of seven cases and granted the immigrants six-day continuances, giving them time to find attorneys.
He said most of the immigration cases he observed in court dated back to 2022.
'Already complying with the law'
The arrests of people who are seeking asylum or relief is a waste of law enforcement resources, Chen said, because ICE will have to give them a "credible fear" interview. Such interviews determine if the person has reason to fear persecution due to race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion if returned to their home country.
Immigrants who already are in the asylum process have a good chance of passing the credible fear interview and will end up back in front of a judge for a hearing on the asylum claim, Chen said.
"You are seeing this dramatic scale-up of not only ICE law enforcement but several other agencies coming into these courts; that's a huge expenditure of resources, taking them to detention, and expending taxpayer resources to detain these people already complying with the law," Chen said.
According to attorneys, ICE officers have been clearing courtrooms during hearings, which are open to the public, and threatening with arrests or intimidating people who try to observe the proceedings or arrests. In some cases, they've forced closure of courtrooms even when hearings are public, Chen said.
The immigration court arrests have put immigrants on edge, shocking and panicking those with pending cases and their families.
On Tuesday, when Peréz Rodríguez showed up to his hearing, another 20 or so people went through similar scenarios in different floors of the building, said Karla De Anda, a legal observer who has been watching the arrests.
Among those arrested was a New York City high school student who ICE took into custody after his hearing last week, prompting a clamor of protests. Arrests have been reported last week and this week at courthouses in Miami; San Francisco; Sacramento, California; San Antonio; and several other cities.
On Wednesday night, protesters clashed with police as they tried to interrupt arrests at a New York City building where immigration courts are located, The City news site reported.
Chen said the law enforcement presence at courthouses has become "essentially a cooperative arm" and is intimidating. He said it is going to frighten people from coming to court appearances "when they have a legal right to their fair day in court."
"It's going to undermine the rule of law that Americans expect," he said.