In a sudden escalation in President Trump’s mass deportation efforts, ICE brokers are snatching and detaining migrants with pending immigration court docket circumstances at decrease Manhattan courthouses, a transfer which metropolis officers and attorneys blasted as “utterly unlawful.”
Previously month, Division of Homeland Safety attorneys have routinely moved to dismiss asylum seekers’ circumstances in court docket, in hopes that the decide will grant the dismissal, rendering these people’ asylum circumstances 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 just lately, ICE brokers are detaining migrants no matter whether or not the decide tossed their case or not, in response to metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander and several 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 informed 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 court docket. (Barry Williams/ New York Every day Information)
Lander stated he noticed asylum hearings at 290 Broadway on Thursday, together with one case the place the decide gave a Guatemalan girl 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 non-public immigration legal professional was a no-show, the decide 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 girl 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 Photos)
Benjamin Remy, an immigration legal professional with New York Authorized Help Group, has been at 26 Federal Plaza practically day by day since courthouse arrests started, giving authorized recommendation to migrants on their method into court docket, 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 circumstances had not been dismissed when courthouse arrests started in late Could. For a number of weeks this gave the impression to be much less frequent, however prior to now week they stated they’ve seen quite a few folks get detained regardless of having open circumstances.
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 circumstances should combat their case from detention, usually in faraway states like Texas and Louisiana, the place many are shipped off to, Cutler added.
Federal authorities detain a person after attending a court docket listening to at immigration court docket on the Jacob Okay. Javitz Federal Constructing on July 1, 2025 in New York Metropolis. (Photograph by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Photos)
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’ circumstances, 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 preventing a case from detention, usually 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.
Knowledge gathered by the American Immigration Council analyzing over 1.2 million deportation circumstances determined between 2007-2012 discovered that solely 3% of detained migrants with out authorized illustration averted deportation, in contrast with 32% of detained migrants who had authorized illustration.
Federal legislation enforcement officers detain a person at 26 Federal Plaza Tuesday, June 10, 2025 within the Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams/ New York Every 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 resolve to surrender and self-deport simply to keep away from doable detention, regardless of being in the course of a authorized court docket 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 clarify why ICE brokers are detaining migrants whose circumstances had not been dismissed, a DHS spokesperson didn’t tackle the query straight.
In an announcement attributed to Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, they said that the majority “aliens” who “illegally” entered the U.S. prior 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
