As news of immigration court arrests spread, some migrants weigh self-deporting

CBS News

2 days ago

As the Trump administration continues to adopt new tactics to reform the U.S. immigration system, conditions have grown increasingly inhospitable for migrants in the country illegally, even those in court proceedings to earn legal status. It's led some asylum-seekers to reconsider whether they want to continue with their court cases or voluntarily leave.
A young Venezuelan mother attending a check-in at Dallas' immigration court Monday said her fear right now is that she'll be deported, and her five-year-old son will be left to fend for himself.
"El juez dijo que mi próxima cita en la corte es el primero de octubre de 2025 y que vendré sola. Si ese día me ordenan deportarme, ¿dónde quedará mi hijo, en manos de quién?"
"The judge said my next court date is the first of October 2025, and to come by myself," she said in Spanish. "If that day I'm ordered deported, where will my son stay, in whose hands?"
As she walked into the courtroom on Monday, the woman was stopped by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in plainclothes. He was there as part of an operation to detain two other migrants that morning, not her.
But the experience still left her nervous and validated her growing fear that coming to this country the way she did wasn't worth it.
""Es mejor no venir. Todos esperamos tener mejor suerte, pero no todos podemos venir. Es demasiado complicado".
"It's better not to come," she said. "We all hope for better luck, but we can't all come. It's too complicated."
When her court date arrives in four months, she said she plans to have already self-deported.
The new tactic: Immigration court arrests
Two weeks ago, the Trump administration began carrying out its latest tactic aimed at fast-tracking deportations and clearing the immigration court backlog.
Under the direction of the Department of Homeland Security, ICE attorneys are now dropping cases against some migrants who have arrived in the U.S. in the past two years, removing their temporary protected status, and making them immediately eligible for arrest and deportation. The migrants are then arrested as they leave their hearings and detained for expedited removal from the U.S.
ICE agents in plainclothes arrest a migrant at the Dallas federal courthouse moments after an immigration judge dropped his asylum case.
CBS News Texas
While expedited removals are nothing new, some legal experts said this way of carrying them out is.
"This is really unprecedented that you have this coordination between the immigration court, between the ICE attorneys, between ERO to dismiss these cases for the purpose of putting people in expedited removal procedures and removing them quickly," said immigration attorney Paul Hunker, who formerly served as chief counsel for ICE in Dallas."
Expedited removal has historically been applied to migrants caught near the border, not long after entering the country. But in January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order expanding its scope.
"Constitutionally, it's premised on a procedure for an arriving alien, somebody who just got here and doesn't have ties," Hunker said. "The longer someone's been here, the more ties they have to the country, the better argument they have that the expedited procedure doesn't give them their due process."
Hunker said if he had been asked in his former role if expedited removal should be expanded in this way, he would have said the big problem with this tactic is it applies expedited removal to people that it really wasn't meant to be applied to. He said
"I would say it's a bad idea because there's a significant risk courts are going to say that's illegal to do," Hunker said.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has stated this move is an attempt to reverse the former administration's so-called "catch-and-release" policy that it says allowed "millions of unvetted illegal aliens to be let loose on American streets."
In an emailed statement, a senior DHS spokesperson emailed CBS News Texas:
"Most aliens who illegally entered the United States within the past two years are subject 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. ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been."
The statement goes on to say that migrants with valid, credible fear claims will be allowed to continue immigration proceedings.
But as news spreads of these courthouse arrests, immigrant advocates say more migrants will choose to skip their court check-ins, leading to them receiving automatic removal orders.
"Which might be part of why the Trump administration is doing this," Hunker said. "Because once a person has a removal order, it's much easier for ICE to pick them up and remove them."