A federal judge has banned Immigration and Customs Enforcement from arresting illegal immigrants in most cases at New York immigration courthouses.
In a Monday ruling, U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel determined that federal arrests cannot be conducted without exceptional circumstances in and around three Manhattan immigration courts. The ruling does not apply to immigration courts nationwide.
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The decision effectively ends the practice that started last year under the Trump administration. The practice was heavily criticized by Democrats in June 2025, when ICE briefly arrested then-New York City Comptroller Brad Lander while escorting out of immigration court a defendant whom ICE officers wanted to detain.
In delivering the ruling, Castel, a George W. Bush appointee, said while there was “a strong governmental interest in enforcing immigration laws,” there was also a serious interest in letting immigrants attend removal proceedings and pursue asylum claims in a court “without fear of arrest.” He previously declined to ban the practice until this week.
Federal arrests at immigration courthouses in Manhattan, however, can still be conducted if there are serious threats to public safety. Also, Castel didn’t forbid federal agents from detaining immigrants away from immigration courts in New York City.
The Department of Homeland Security disputed the ruling.
“It is common sense to take illegal aliens into custody following the completion of their removal proceedings,” the department said. “Nothing prohibits arresting a lawbreaker where you find them. We are confident we will ultimately be vindicated in this case.”
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Meanwhile, one of the plaintiffs who brought the lawsuit on behalf of immigrant advocacy groups last year celebrated the decision.
“[Monday’s] ruling is an enormous win for noncitizen New Yorkers seeking to safely attend their immigration court proceedings,” said Amy Belsher, director of immigrants’ rights litigation at the New York Civil Liberties Union.
