ICE banned from making courthouse arrests nationwide, in case that began in San Francisco
SAN JOSE -- A federal judge in San Jose has temporarily banned ICE from making arrests at courthouses nationwide, siding with a coalition of Bay Area immigration attorneys who say they documented hundreds of cases of immigrants being detained the moment they showed up for scheduled hearings.
"We saw ICE regularly coming to court and arresting people," said Millie Atkinson, director of the Immigrant Legal Defense Program. She said that in 20 years of practicing immigration law, she had never seen anything like what she witnessed last summer.
"These are people who have no criminal violations, no immigration violations," Atkinson said. "They're simply going to court to have their case be heard, and then ICE is using that as a place to entrap them."
She said her organization tracked the arrests in real time. "We had attorneys and volunteers and courtwatch observers on the ground," Atkinson said. Those records were presented to U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts, whose Tuesday ruling bars ICE from arresting immigrants at courthouses across the country — not just in California.
Pitts found the policy violated the federal Administrative Procedure Act, ruling it was a procedural failure rather than a violation of constitutional rights.
UC Law San Francisco professor Rory Little said the ruling reflects long-standing legal norms. "It's a disturbing idea that you can be arrested if you're going into court," Little said. "We don't have a practice of arresting people when they show up for their court hearings," Little said, speaking historically. "Unless they happen to be fugitives."
CBS News Bay Area's request for comment from the Department of Homeland Security has not yet been returned. The Trump administration has defended the courthouse arrests as part of its broader immigration enforcement push, saying the goal is to remove dangerous criminals from the streets and make communities safer.
But Little pointed to government data showing that immigrants without criminal histories make up the largest group in ICE detention. "The statistics show a huge impact on people who are not criminals," he said.
Even so, Little said he doesn't view the ruling as a major setback for the administration. "They have arrest authority under immigration laws and other rules all around in lots of places," he said. He expects the administration to appeal.
For immigrants with hearings still on the calendar, Little's advice was blunt. "I don't think you can feel safe anywhere," he said. "I wouldn't rely on this if I had a choice, if I could delay my hearing. But you still have to go to the store. You still have to go to the Home Depot or wherever you go."
The ruling applies nationwide while the case proceeds, though legal experts expect the Trump administration to seek a stay from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the coming weeks.
