Civil Rights Groups Sue to Stop ICE Abductions in New York Courthouses

Civil rights groups are suing the Trump administration to stop ICE officers from abducting people who show up to New York courthouses for their immigration appointments.

On August 1, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), and others filed suit in the Southern District of New York on behalf of The Door and African Communities Together, organizations that work with noncitizens in immigration proceedings.

Masked officers have been stalking the hallways of New York’s courthouses, disappearing people who attend their mandatory immigration appointments. In June, this practice made headlines when ICE agents arrested New York City Comptroller Brad Lander at a Manhattan courthouse. Lander linked arms with a man ICE agents were attempting to arrest and demanded to see a judicial warrant. The officers arrested both Lander and the man.

The day after President Donald Trump took office, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rescinded a 2021 directive that barred, with few exceptions, immigration arrests in or near courthouses. In its place, ICE issued a memorandum that permits arrests in or near courthouses even when such actions are prohibited by state or local laws, according to the complaint. The directive also allows agents to arrest other noncitizens, including “family members or friends accompanying the target alien to court appearances or serving as a witness in a proceeding,” on a “case-by-case basis.”

The suit is asking the court to vacate the courthouse memo, as well as the directives related to case dismissals. The Trump administration has directed its attorneys to dismiss “large categories of noncitizens’ full removal proceedings,” and has advised immigration judges that motions to dismiss “may be made orally and decided from the bench” and that “no additional documentation or briefing is required.” However, the complaint notes, ICE is arresting people at courthouses whether or not their case is dismissed.

Many of those abducted from courthouses are “held incommunicado, unable to contact their loved ones for several days,” the complaint says.

Beth Baltimore, deputy director of The Door’s Legal Services Center, said in a statement that the organization regularly hears “reports from members whose friends and classmates have disappeared after routine court appearances.”

In June, federal agents abducted Derlis Chusin, an 11th grader from Queens, when he showed up for his asylum hearing at a Manhattan courthouse. He was jailed for more than a month in Texas.

“He’s such a loving, kind and hardworking kid,” his high school English teacher, Michelle Koenig, told CBS News. “He’s the kind of kid that’s always smiling. And to think about him being taken like that was, truly, the whole community was devastated.”

In another case, ICE officers arrested 19-year-old Oliver Mata Velazquez when he arrived for his asylum hearing in Buffalo. He was jailed for weeks until a federal judge ordered his release. While incarcerated, jailers threatened to put him in solitary confinement and he was harassed by older detainees.

According to the court’s ruling, Mata Velazaquez arrived in the United States from Venezuela, seeking asylum. DHS granted him authorization to live and work in the U.S., and assigned him a social security number.

“Oliver Eloy Mata Velasquez followed all the rules,” the judge wrote. “Since his arrival almost a year ago, Mata Velasquez has done everything asked of him. He appeared for every appointment and court date. He committed no crimes. He did what he was supposed to do.”

The Trump administration, the judge wrote, “cannot make up new rules as it goes along when the new rules abridge constitutional rights.”