A federal judge on Tuesday issued a nationwide order prohibiting immigration arrests inside U.S. courthouses, putting a stop to a practice that began shortly after President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
U.S. District Judge Casey Pitts of San Francisco ruled that the Trump administration’s decision to reverse decades of policy banning courthouse arrests came not from poor reasoning, but from a total absence of reasoning altogether. In his written opinion, Pitts noted that federal authorities never adequately considered the “chilling effect” such arrests could have on whether individuals choose to show up for their scheduled court hearings.
Pitts pointed to the Administrative Procedure Act, a 1946 federal law requiring government agencies to explain and justify their actions. “For 80 years, Congress has commanded federal agencies to think before they act,” he wrote. He added that while the law doesn’t require agencies to make the choice a court would prefer, “it demands that an agency at least provide sound reasons for following its chosen course.”
This marks the second time courthouse immigration arrests have been blocked by a judge. Back in May, a federal judge in New York issued a similar order, though that ruling only covered New York. Tuesday’s decision applies across the entire country.
James Percival, the general counsel for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, pushed back sharply against the ruling, calling it an example of judicial overreach. “When a judge sentences a defendant, the defendant is taken into custody. If an alien is ordered removed by an immigration judge, the same should happen. A district judge ordering otherwise is naked judicial activism in service of an anti-American, open borders agenda,” Percival wrote in an online post.
Following Trump’s return to office, immigration hearings around the country frequently ended with the government dismissing cases, which officials then used as an opportunity to have plainclothes agents arrest individuals in courthouse hallways — often working in coordination with attorneys from the Department of Homeland Security.
Judge Pitts, who was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden, also criticized the administration for detaining individuals in nearby holding cells beyond the legally allowed 12-hour limit.
