{"id":35243,"date":"2025-07-03T12:11:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T12:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/35243\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T12:11:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T12:11:19","slug":"ice-agents-now-snatching-migrants-with-open-court-cases-nyc-officials-lawyers-say-its-utterly-unlawful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/35243\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE agents now snatching migrants with open court cases; NYC officials, lawyers say it’s ‘utterly unlawful’"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a sudden escalation in President Trump\u2019s mass deportation<\/a> efforts, ICE agents<\/a> are snatching and detaining migrants<\/a> with pending immigration court cases at lower Manhattan courthouses, a move which city officials and attorneys blasted as \u201cutterly unlawful.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past month, Department of Homeland Security<\/a> attorneys have routinely moved to dismiss asylum seekers\u2019 cases in court, in hopes that the judge will grant the dismissal, rendering those individuals\u2019 asylum cases nonexistent and making them subject to expedited removal.<\/p>\n

Federal agents have been seen sitting inside, or just outside of courtrooms, and staging themselves in the hallways to ambush and arrest these migrants<\/a> as they step foot outside the courtroom.<\/p>\n

More recently, ICE agents are detaining migrants regardless of whether the judge tossed their case or not, according to city Comptroller Brad Lander<\/a> and several immigration attorneys.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s happening now, is that people who clearly have status as asylum seekers, either a motion to dismiss is not being made or not being granted, they have pending asylum applications, the judge is granting them a hearing to present their credible fear,\u201d Lander told reporters last week. \u201cAnd nonetheless, ICE without any rationale whatsoever is disappearing with them. It is an utterly unlawful process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BradBrad Lander arrives at the Ted Weiss Federal Building on Friday, June 20, 2025 in Manhattan, New York, to observe federal agents outside an immigration court. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Lander said he observed asylum hearings<\/a> at 290 Broadway<\/a> on Thursday, including one case where the judge gave a Guatemalan woman another hearing for her case in February 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cNonetheless, in the hallway on her way out of the courtroom, masked ICE agents detained her,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I ask, \u2018Do you plan to produce them for the February 2027 hearing? Or are you processing them for deportation, of course they refuse to answer questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lander said he also watched two brothers break down crying in the courtroom, saying \u201cthey are certain they will be killed,\u201d as their father had been, if they were to be deported back to Colombia.<\/p>\n

Because the pair\u2019s private immigration attorney was a no-show, the judge granted them another hearing in February 2027. ICE agents arrested them both anyway when they left the courtroom, Lander said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine what the legal ground here could be if they were not stripped of status,\u201d Lander said. \u201cThey have status as asylum seekers. The federal government accepted their asylum applications and a federal immigration judge granted them a hearing on those asylum applications. So what grounds there could be for their arrest and removal, I have no idea. And I\u2019m pretty sure the ICE agents who removed them have no idea, either.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA woman cries after her husband was detained by federal agents following an Intensive Supervision Appearance Program office hearing on June 4, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Benjamin Remy, an immigration attorney with New York Legal Assistance Group<\/a>, has been at 26 Federal Plaza<\/a> nearly every day since courthouse arrests began, giving legal advice to migrants on their way into court, and as they\u2019re being hauled away by federal agents.<\/p>\n

Remy and his NYLAG colleague, attorney Allison Cutler said they had previously seen federal agents detaining people whose cases had not been dismissed when courthouse arrests began in late May. For several weeks this appeared to be less common, but in the past week they said they have seen numerous people get detained despite having open cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell these ICE guys, this really just boils down to getting people their day in court. The judge denies their case, that\u2019s that. The judge grants their case, that\u2019s that,\u201d Remy told The News. \u201cBut people deserve to have that opportunity to go into court, present evidence, testify and let the chips fall where they may. And basically everyone we\u2019re seeing detained is being robbed of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cutler, chimed in, emphasizing that asylum is a right.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are obligated under international law to hear asylum applications. If someone expresses fear of returning to their country, we must hear their asylum case,\u201d she said. \u201cThe reason those laws were created was because of the holocaust, and the genocide, and so to avoid that again, this is what this government decided to do. And this administration is refusing to follow that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those who are detained with open asylum cases will have to fight their case from detention, often in faraway states like Texas and Louisiana, where many are shipped off to, Cutler added.<\/p>\n

\"FederalFederal authorities detain a man after attending a court hearing at immigration court at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building on July 1, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Paige Austin, an attorney with Make the Road New York<\/a> said she has seen judges write detailed written decisions denying the government\u2019s motions to dismiss in some migrants\u2019 cases, and still witnessed ICE detain them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe totally think that is not legal,\u201d Austin said plainly. \u201cIt feels like they\u2019re just grabbing people, snatching people, even the people that can\u2019t be removed. They\u2019re just trying to funnel them into this system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Austin noted that fighting a case from detention, often across the country, becomes logistically complicated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are they supposed to do? Their families [are] in New York, right? They may have trouble affording counsel. It\u2019s hard to gather evidence,\u201d Austin said.<\/p>\n

Data gathered by the American Immigration Council<\/a> analyzing over 1.2 million deportation cases decided between 2007-2012 found that only 3% of detained migrants without legal representation avoided deportation, compared with 32% of detained migrants who had legal representation.<\/p>\n

\"FederalFederal law enforcement officers detain a man at 26 Federal Plaza Tuesday, June 10, 2025 in the Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

As for migrants who were never detained, 78% with legal representation avoid deportation, versus only 15% for those without representation.<\/p>\n

Austin said she has seen many migrants decide to give up and self-deport just to avoid possible detention, despite being in the middle of a legal court process to obtain asylum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat includes a lot of people who remain scared to go to their country. So they\u2019re saying, \u2018I\u2019m going to get deported, and then I\u2019m going to flee again,’\u201d Austin said.<\/p>\n

When asked to explain why ICE agents are detaining migrants whose cases had not been dismissed, a DHS spokesperson did not address the question directly.<\/p>\n

In a statement attributed to Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, they stated that most \u201caliens\u201d who \u201cillegally\u201d entered the U.S. in the past two years are subject to expedited removals.<\/p>\n

\u201cBiden ignored this legal fact and chose to release millions of illegal aliens, including violent criminals, into the country with a notice to appear before an immigration judge,\u201d the statement said. \u201cICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal as they always should have been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally Published: July 2, 2025 at 6:53 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a sudden escalation in President Trump\u2019s mass deportation efforts, ICE agents are snatching and detaining migrants with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":35244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5295,1370,728,405,403,5294,5296,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-35243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-county","15":"tag-new-york-news","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkcity","19":"tag-ny","20":"tag-nyc","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114789239159156730","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}