A federal judge has indefinitely blocked ICE officers from arresting illegal immigrants at immigration courthouses in New York City on the basis that the Trump administration’s policy for it was invalid.
U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel for the Southern District of New York, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled Thursday that federal law enforcement officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not be permitted inside courthouses.
ICE “offered no explanation of why the exercise of unfettered discretion by ICE officers with no guidance whatsoever was a better option” than how it used to operate under previous White House administrations, Castel wrote in the 36-page ruling.
Castel had temporarily blocked ICE from entering courthouses across the five boroughs in May, but his decision this week concluded that the government’s arguments were “silent as to whether the policy is arbitrary and capricious” under the Administrative Procedure Act. In response, the temporary ban has been indefinitely extended.
Immediately upon taking office, President Donald Trump reversed ICE’s long-standing approach of not making arrests in hospitals, courthouses, schools, and places of worship. Of those four sites where ICE is now permitted to enter, the agency has primarily focused on courthouses, because immigrants must regularly report to court.
A pair of immigrant advocacy groups, African Communities Together and The Door, brought a lawsuit in August 2025 alleging that arresting individuals who showed up for court was “unreasoned and contrary to law.”
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Amy Belsher, the New York Civil Liberties Union lawyer who represented the plaintiffs, said Castel’s ruling on Thursday was “an enormous win for every noncitizen seeking to safely attend their immigration court proceedings.”
“For too long, we watched masked, often armed, ICE officers ambush noncitizens in courthouse hallways, throw immigrants to the ground, and tear sobbing children from their parents,” Belsher said in a statement. “But with today’s order, the Court made clear: ICE’s cruel, unjustified policy of conducting mass immigration arrests in courthouses is unlawful and cannot stand.”