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A coalition of civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups has filed a class-action lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging a controversial immigration enforcement tactic that allows federal agents to arrest immigrants at courthouse doors.
The suit, filed Wednesday at the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks to halt the policy that has led to the detention of dozens of immigrants appearing for legal hearings.
The lawsuit was brought by four legal organizations: Democracy Forward, the National Immigrant Justice Center, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.
They filed the suit on behalf of 12 immigrants from countries including Cuba, Ecuador, Guinea, and Venezuela. All plaintiffs are identified by pseudonyms for their protection.
The lawsuit targets the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and several federal officials.
It argues that the administration’s courthouse arrest policy violates due process rights, federal immigration law, and constitutional protections.
“Noncitizens, including most of the individual plaintiffs here, have been abruptly ripped from their families, lives, homes and jobs for appearing in immigration court, a step required to enable them to proceed with their applications for permission to remain in this country,” the suit reads.
The arrests follow a change in policy after the Trump administration rescinded previous DHS guidelines that limited enforcement actions in and around courthouses.
This reversal allowed ICE agents to begin making arrests inside courthouse lobbies and hallways across the country.
Federal agents, often masked, have been arresting immigrants immediately after their court hearings, placing many in expedited removal proceedings without the right to full hearings.
Immigrant advocates argue that this practice targets people following legal procedures and discourages others from attending their court appointments.
“The Trump-Vance administration is weaponizing immigration courts by threatening people who follow the law and appear for their hearings as directed by the court,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward.
Among the plaintiffs is a Cuban man, identified as P.D., who was arrested in May after appearing for a hearing on his pending asylum case. According to the lawsuit, government attorneys suddenly asked the judge to dismiss his case without providing a reason. After the dismissal, ICE agents arrested P.D. outside the courtroom.
Similar tactics were used against other plaintiffs, many of whom had applied for asylum after entering the United States without authorization between 2021 and 2024.
Most of the plaintiffs are currently detained in states including New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas. One plaintiff was deported to Ecuador less than a month after his courthouse arrest.
ICE officials defend the policy as a practical method to locate and detain undocumented immigrants.
“The ability of law enforcement to make arrests of criminal illegal aliens in courthouses is common sense,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for DHS.
She added that making arrests at courthouses conserves resources because agents already know where targets will be and argued that it is safer for officers and the public.
But the lawsuit alleges that ICE agents have arrested immigrants even when immigration judges did not dismiss their cases, violating legal protections. In some cases, migrants were arrested after ICE prosecutors persuaded judges to drop civil proceedings, using what lawyers call legal traps.
Carlos Javier Lopez Benitez, an asylum seeker from Paraguay, became a visible example of the new policy in early July.
Lopez Benitez had been scheduled to appear in Manhattan immigration court for a hearing related to his asylum claim. His sister, a U.S. citizen, accompanied him. The judge set a next court date for July 2029, giving him time to gather documentation regarding threats he faced in Paraguay.
However, as Lopez Benitez exited the courtroom, federal agents waiting in the hallway seized him. His sister tried to hold onto him but was pushed aside by masked agents, according to onlookers.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who had attended the hearing, described the process as a “trap” during a press conference after the arrest.
“Carlos not only has status as an asylum seeker, not only has an application pending for asylum, Carlos has a court date in this building in July of 2029. Unfortunately, Carlos is going to have a hard time complying with the judge’s order because he was just abducted by ICE agents,” said Mr. Lander.
In June, Mr. Lander himself was arrested after attempting to intervene during the detention of another immigrant at a New York courthouse.
The lawsuit argues that such incidents highlight the dangers posed by the new policy. It claims the courthouse arrests are forcing immigrants to avoid attending their court hearings out of fear, undermining the legal process.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs are asking a federal judge to block ICE and the Department of Homeland Security from continuing the practice, calling it unconstitutional and illegal.
Behind the lawsuit are organizations that have frequently challenged the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Democracy Forward has led several suits against the federal government.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, RAICES, and the National Immigrant Justice Center have also been at the forefront of advocating for immigrant rights nationwide.
The administration’s move to prioritize courthouse arrests comes as part of a broader effort to increase daily immigration detentions.
Internal reports cited in the lawsuit reveal that officials aimed to secure at least 3,000 arrests per day, a target driven by White House advisor Stephen Miller.
For now, plaintiffs await a ruling from the federal court in Washington, hoping the judiciary will step in to limit what they describe as a misuse of the immigration court system.
The Department of Justice and DHS have yet to respond formally in court.
By: Joshua Narh.