ICE, DOJ Face Class Action Lawsuit Over Courthouse Arrests, Expedited Deportations

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) have caused a widespread obstruction of justice by enacting and enforcing policy changes that enable ICE to arrest individuals upon their arrival at immigration courthouses and expedite their removal.

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The 53-page lawsuit, filed by nonprofits Immigrant Advocates Response Collaborative and American Gateways, says that the recent policy changes regarding ICE courthouse arrests and removal proceedings in immigration court have stripped noncitizens of their right to due process and caused many to be “abruptly ripped from their families, lives, homes, and jobs for appearing in immigration court.”

Previously, DHS guidance from 2021 and an EOIR memorandum from 2023 strictly limited ICE’s capacity to conduct civil immigration enforcement actions in or near courthouses. Per the case, immigration courthouse arrests were permitted only when there was a threat of violence, death or physical harm to a person, a public safety risk, a threat to national security, or a risk of destruction of evidence in a criminal case.

The EOIR specified that these guidelines, which were formally adopted as policies in late 2023, were enacted so as not to impede the fair administration of justice, given a higher threat of courthouse arrests could produce a chilling effect and discourage people from appearing at immigration hearings, the filing notes.

Per the lawsuit, policies limiting ICE enforcement actions near courthouses, despite being codified only recently, have been in practical effect for at least the past decade. However, the case says, they were abandoned in a series of documents issued between January and May 2025 that gave ICE agents authority to conduct interviews, arrests, searches and other civil immigration enforcement actions in or near immigration courts and other courthouses. The use of enforcement actions against noncitizens’ family members or friends accompanying them to the courthouse, or serving as witnesses, was also authorized and left up to the discretion of the ICE agents present, the lawsuit relays.

The suit claims that the courthouse arrest policy changes do nothing to address the issues the previous policies sought to address, such as the chilling effect, and that there is no substance to the claim that the new policies reduce security risks at the court, since weapons and “other contraband” are screened for upon entry to the courthouse.

Additionally, the lawsuit states that DHS issued guidance in May 2025 instructing its attorneys to seek dismissal of full removal proceedings and place noncitizens in expedited removal proceedings instead, which generally subjects them to mandatory detention. According to the suit, the new guidance stipulates that attorneys must notify ICE of cases marked for dismissal at least two days prior to the set court date to give the agency time to prepare for a courthouse arrest.

The complaint alleges that the altered proceedings, which are designed to increase and expedite deportations, “[come] at substantial cost to the fairness of the removal process.” Per the suit, the switch to expedited removal unfairly strips away the legal rights of noncitizens undergoing full removal proceedings, such as opportunities to apply for asylum or appeal for adjustment of their citizenship status based on their marriage status.

Per the case, the new DHS guidance allows for dismissal motions to be made “orally and decided from the bench,” and without “additional documentation or briefing… [or the] 10-day response period” called for by typical immigration court rules, as well as allowing DHS attorneys to pursue expedited removal at the same time as the dismissal of full removal proceedings.

The lawsuit alleges that the concurrent pursuit of expedited removal and dismissal of full removal proceedings violates U.S. Code 1229a, which, per the complaint, states that full removal proceedings are the “‘sole and exclusive’ process for adjudicating cases.”

Finally, the case alleges that the use of expedited removal itself is, in many recent cases, unlawful, as the expedited removal statute states that it can only be applied to noncitizens who have been present in the U.S. for two or fewer years prior to the date they are determined to be inadmissible to the U.S. The lawsuit claims, however, that the process is being illegally enforced on noncitizens whose presence in the U.S. exceeds the two-year limit on expedited removal.

The class action lawsuit against ICE, the DOJ, DHS and EOIR looks to represent all noncitizens who were arrested, or are arrested in the future, by the defendants in a civil immigration enforcement action at or near an immigration courthouse on the day of their hearing in a removal proceeding under 8 U.S.C. § 1229a on or after January 21, 2025.

The lawsuit also aims to cover all noncitizens whose removal proceedings under 8 U.S.C. § 1229a were dismissed by the defendants, or are dismissed in the future, without the noncitizen’s consent on or after May 20, 2025.

Learn all about the legal process: What is a class action lawsuit?