Federal judge blocks Trump policy that allows immigration court arrests | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
A federal judge in California struck down the Trump administration’s nationwide policies that extended detentions in immigration courthouses and detention of noncitizens in short-term facilities, finding the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and another branch of government “arbitrary and capricious.”
US district judge P Casey Pitts of the northern district of California on Tuesday rescinded ICE’s policies that rescinded previous restrictions on arrests in immigration courthouses and allowed detainees to be held in cells for short periods of time for up to 72 hours. He did the same for a similar policy administered by the U.S. Department of Justice’s executive office of immigration enforcement that lifted limits on courthouse arrests.
The 71-page ruling in a lawsuit filed by an asylum seeker who was arrested as he was leaving a routine hearing in San Francisco immigration court shook up key parts of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies. Appointed by Joe Biden, Judge Pitts effectively reinstated Biden-era policies that limited detentions at immigration courthouses to narrow conditions and detentions at short-term facilities to 12 hours.
Since Donald Trump took office again in January last year, his administration has stepped up detentions of immigrants suspected of being in the United States illegally as part of an aggressive deportation drive.
James Percival, general counsel for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, criticized the decision on Twitter/X, calling it “naked judicial activism in service of an anti-American, open borders agenda.”
The decision stated that the previous directive limited arrests in courthouses to situations such as national security threats, imminent danger and “hot pursuit” of someone who poses a public security risk. The judge concluded that the Trump administration failed to provide “reasoned explanations” for rescinding previous policies under the Administrative Procedure Act.
“For 80 years, Congress has commanded federal agencies to think before acting,” the judge said in his ruling, adding that the law requires “at a minimum, an agency must present sound reasons for pursuing its chosen course.”
