Federal judge blocks ICE from arresting immigrants who show up for court appointments in Northern California

"A federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday barred Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its Justice Department counterpart from "sweeping" civil arrests at immigration courthouses across Northern California, teeing up an appellate challenge to one of the Trump administration's most controversial deportation tactics."

""This circumstance presents noncitizens in removal proceedings with a Hobson's choice between two irreparable harms," Judge P. Casey Pitts wrote in his Christmas Eve decision. "First, they may appear in immigration court and face likely arrest and detention," the judge wrote. "Alternatively, noncitizens may choose not to appear and instead to forego their opportunity to pursue their claims for asylum or other relief from removal.""

"Authorities have long curbed arrests at "sensitive locations"- such as hospitals, houses of worship and schools - putting them out of reach of most civil immigration enforcement. The designation was first established decades ago under ICE's predecessor agency, Immigration and Naturalization Services. ICE absorbed the prohibitions when the agency was formed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Courts were added to the list under President Obama. The policy prohibiting most courthouse arrests was suspended during the first Trump administration and reinstated by President Biden."

A federal judge in San Francisco barred Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review from carrying out sweeping civil arrests at immigration courthouses across Northern California, finding that noncitizens face a Hobson's choice between arrest or foregoing removal hearings. The order prevents ICE and EOIR from lying in wait for asylum seekers and others at routine hearings and would effectively restore pre‑Trump prohibitions on courthouse arrests. Sensitive-location protections originated under the Immigration and Naturalization Service, expanded under Obama, were suspended under Trump, and reinstated under Biden.

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