The Trump administration’s tactics “discourage people from attending court or from feeling safe in court, where folks are simply seeking to access the process that is accorded to them,” said Bobby Hodgson, assistant legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Immigration officers outside 26 Federal Plaza in June. (Ayman Siam/Office of NYC Comptroller)
Several New York organizations are suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Executive Office of Immigration Review, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for repeatedly arresting migrants who show up to routine, mandatory check-ins at immigration courts.
The New York Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union, Make the Road New York, and Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP filed the lawsuit Friday on behalf of The Door and African Communities Together, two local nonprofits that serve New Yorkers and immigrants.
They say ICE’s courthouse policy, which has recently allowed officers to arrest people after their court hearings, and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR)’s dismissal policy, which allows Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attorneys to move to dismiss orally in court without a written motion, are unfair and capricious.
The lawsuit seeks to reverse ICE’s policies under the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal law that governs how agencies create and enforce regulations.
The administration’s tactics “discourage people from attending court or from feeling safe in court, where folks are simply seeking to access the process that is accorded to them,” said Bobby Hodgson, assistant legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Before these measures were put in place, the Trump administration pushed for more arrests of immigrants without legal status, but officials were failing to reach the numbers they expected.
But arrests increased significantly since May, when these measures were put in place. That same month, Stephen Miller, the president’s top immigration adviser, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem pressed immigration officials to increase detentions to reach at least 3,000 people a day.
Of the 2,365 immigrants arrested in the New York area since January, more than half had no prior criminal charges or convictions, according to a New York Times analysis of data obtained by the Deportation Data Project. About half of those arrests were people detained at immigration offices or courts.
“The ability of law enforcement to make arrests of criminal illegal aliens in courthouses is common sense,” an unnamed spokesperson from the DHS press office told City Limits, echoing words that had been used before by DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin. The Executive Office for Immigration Review referred questions to DHS and declined further comment.
The lawsuit describes how members of two organizations, The Door and African Communities Together, have been affected by arrests and detentions.
The Door works with young people under the age of 24, some of whom are immigrants seeking legal relief, such as asylum or Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS). This status is available to individuals under the age of 21 who are unmarried and currently living in the United States, among others.
Advocates and attorneys have suggested that people ask to appear virtually in immigration court as a means to avoid ICE agents.
One of The Door’s clients filed a motion to appear online, according to the lawsuit. However, the court rejected his request, and he had to appear in court in person, where he was arrested.
The 21-year-old is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, which officials have decried for its “dangerous, inhumane conditions.”
Thursday morning, Congressmembers Adriano Espaillat, Nydia Velázquez, and Dan Goldman—who filed a lawsuit against ICE last week over being barred access to ICE holding areas—were again denied entry to the Brooklyn facility during an oversight visit.
The Door fears the young man’s SIJS petition will be lost if he is deported; they have not been able to speak with him since his arrest in June.
“We see the fear of our members in a way that I haven’t seen in the past,” said Beth Baltimore, the deputy director of The Door’s Legal Services Center.
Baltimore explained that out of all the motions to appear virtually that they’ve filed on behalf of clients in the last couple of months, only a couple have been approved.
“A lot of people are just losing access to counsel that might be provided in New York and losing access to services at The Door,” said Baltimore about the young people, including migrant youths, who get access to services through the organization. They can’t come to our health center, can’t come to our arts programming, and lunch and dinner every day.”
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