Federal judge strikes down ICE courthouse arrest, detention policies

A federal judge who has repeatedly blocked the Trump administration’s immigration policies dealt another blow Tuesday, striking down rules that expanded courthouse arrests and long-term detentions in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holding facilities.

In a 71-page decision, U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts, nominated by former President Joe Biden, struck down the policies after finding that ICE and the Justice Department’s Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) failed to provide the reasoned explanation required under the Administrative Procedure Act.

The decision continues Pitts’ pattern of interfering with the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Earlier this year, he blocked an ICE effort that would have allowed the agency to re-arrest immigrants it had previously released. In another case, he ordered sweeping changes to an ICE detention facility in San Francisco, citing overcrowding and conditions he thought likely violated constitutional standards.

BIDEN REJECTED JUDGE TRUMP’S BASIC IMMIGRATION POLICY

While Pitts’ order applies nationwide, the Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Trump v. It differs from the broad injunctions he found unconstitutional in the CASA case. Instead of issuing an injunction banning the government from enforcing the policies, Pitts struck them down under the Administrative Procedure Act. When a court strikes down a policy, it strikes down the policy itself rather than merely limiting how it can be enforced.

Pitts’ decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of asylum seekers challenging ICE’s 2025 policies that lifted restrictions on civil immigration arrests in courthouses, including immigration courts, and a separate ICE policy that allows detainees to remain in short-term detention facilities for up to 72 hours instead of the agency’s longstanding 12-hour limit.

The judge found that ICE failed to adequately explain why it abandoned previous guidance limiting courthouse arrests because of concerns it could deter immigrants from attending hearings and interfere with the course of justice.

“As the Court has previously detailed, the policies completely fail to address the chilling effect of courthouse arrests on noncitizen participation in court hearings, which is both a critical factor underlying ICE’s 2021 guidance and a ‘significant aspect of the problem’ in itself,” Pitts said. wrote Pitts.

FEDERAL JUDGE LIMITS ICE ARRESTS WITHOUT WARRANTY, PROBABLE CAUSE

Dozens of immigrants were detained by ICE agents at the Federal Plaza courthouse in New York City following their legal proceedings on June 26. (Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu)

Pitts specifically criticized the government’s handling of arrests in immigration courthouses. The administration spent months arguing that the policy applied to immigration courts, then explained that ICE internally thought the policy did not apply there at all, according to the ruling.

“Nothing in ICE’s 2025 courthouse arrest policies or administrative records indicates that ICE acknowledges that it has lifted all previous restrictions on civil enforcement activities in immigration courthouses without any backup guidance,” Pitts wrote.

He ultimately concluded that the agency provided almost no explanation for the change.

“ICE’s 2025 courthouse arrest policies lack rational explanation for (or even acknowledgment of) the agency’s choices,” the judge wrote.

Pitts also rescinded a related EOIR policy that rescinded restrictions on immigration enforcement activities at immigration courthouses. The judge found the agency relied on flawed assumptions and failed to grapple with evidence that courthouse arrests could deter immigrants from attending hearings.

The judge separately revoked ICE’s waiver of the nationwide 12-hour detention limit. The waiver was granted after ICE reported that increased enforcement activity was straining detention capacity and complicating transfers to long-term facilities.

FEDERAL JUDGE RULES MAN ILLEGALLY ARRESTED BY ICE IN IOWA WAS ‘TRYING TO COVER HIS TRACES’

Pitts found that the agency did not consider alternatives, reconcile the policy with its own detention standards, or adequately address the issue of whether holding detainees in detention centers for long periods of time would create unconstitutional conditions.

“Nothing in the memorandum or administrative record granting the waiver of 12-hour detention suggests that ICE reasonably considered its obligation to avoid creating criminal conditions of imprisonment,” he wrote.

President Donald Trump speaks during the Medal of Honor Ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on June 18, 2026. The ceremony commemorates Capers, an 88-year-old Vietnam veteran, Colonel John W. Ripley, U.S. Marine Corps (posthumous), and Major Nicholas Dockery, U.S. Army (retired). (Al Drago/Getty Images)

Throughout the opinion, Pitts emphasized that the administration remains free to pursue stricter immigration enforcement policies if it complies with procedural requirements imposed by federal law.

“An institution cannot be separated from the silence of previous policy,” Pitts wrote, citing the Supreme Court precedent.

The ruling follows a similar ruling last month by U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel in New York that largely barred ICE from making civil immigration arrests at or near three Manhattan immigration courthouses while a separate appeal was pending.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FOX NEWS APPLICATION

The Department of Homeland Security harshly criticized Pitts’ decision.

“When a judge sentences a defendant, the defendant is placed in custody. If an alien is ordered removed by an immigration judge, the same must be done. A district judge ordering otherwise is naked judicial activism in service of the anti-American, open borders agenda,” DHS General Counsel James Percival said in a statement. he said.