A group of immigrants who were arrested inside courthouses are suing Donald Trump’s administration and the Department of Justice over sweeping enforcement actions taking place inside immigration courts across the country.
The 12 plaintiffs — most of whom are LGBT+ or victims of female genital mutilation who fear persecution and violence in their home countries — sought protection in the United States only to have their cases abruptly dismissed, with masked federal officers waiting to arrest them on the other side of the courtroom doors.
All of the plaintiffs appeared at their immigration court hearings intending to seek asylum or other relief to remain legally in the United States, but government attorneys requested the cases be dismissed, making them vulnerable to immediate arrest, detention and swift removal from the country by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The lawsuit filed by a group of immigrant advocacy and legal groups on Wednesday accuses the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice of unleashing a “new campaign of courthouse arrests through coordinated policies designed to strip noncitizens of their rights” and due process, “exposing them to immediate arrest and expedited removal.”
Many of the plaintiffs have lived in the United States without issue for years before their arrest before they were abruptly separated from their families, including U.S. citizens, without notice, according to the lawsuit.
One plaintiff, a gay man from Ecuador, was deported to his home country within weeks after his arrest moments after a hearing where he intended to file an asylum claim describing the persecution he faced for his advocacy for LGBT+ rights. He is living in hiding, according to the complaint.
All but two other plaintiffs are detained and anticipate their removal to Cuba, Venezuela, the Republic of Guinea, and the Chechen Republic, where they fear persecution for their political activism and LGBT+ identities.
When immigrants have appeared for their hearings, Homeland Security attorneys have moved for the cases to be dismissed, while the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review has issued guidance to judges to grant those motions “on the spot, depriving noncitizens of their rights,” according to the lawsuit.
Targeted immigrants who have been in the country for less than two years have been placed in expedited removal proceedings, which allow the government to deport an immigrant without a hearing.
Unlike federal district courts, immigration court judges operate under the direction of the attorney general’s office.
“We are witnessing an authoritarian takeover of the U.S. immigration court system by the Trump administration,” said Keren Zwick, director of litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Center.
“People who attend their hearings to seek permission to remain in this country and comply with U.S. immigration law are being rounded up and abruptly ripped from their families, homes and livelihoods,” Zwick said. “Meanwhile, the administration is issuing directives telling immigration judges to violate those same immigration laws and strip people of fundamental due process rights. We must continue fighting to overcome the administration’s escalating attacks on the U.S. Constitution and rule of law.”
Thousands of people who are following immigration law — including showing up for court-ordered ICE check-ins, immigration court hearings and U.S. Customs and Immigration Services appointments — have become easy targets for arrests.
The Trump administration has effectively “de-legalized” tens of thousands of immigrants who were granted humanitarian protections to live and work in the country, as well as thousands of people who show up to immigration courts each week only to have their cases dismissed, with federal agents waiting to arrest them on the other side of the courtroom doors.
Policy that has since been abandoned by the Trump administration sought to prevent courthouse arrests from creating a “palpable fear that disincentivizes people from appearing for their hearings,” according to the lawsuit.
“But in the first few days of the Trump administration, defendants repealed those policies, exposing individuals who properly appear for their hearings, including to seek asylum and other relief, to the imminent threat of arrest and indefinite detention,” the lawsuit states.
This is a developing story
