NEW YORK (AP) — A judge barred federal agents from routinely detaining people who show up for proceedings in New York City’s immigration courts, saying that people shouldn't have to risk arrest to exercise their legal right to pursue an asylum claim or attend a deportation hearing.
A day after the ruling, a 21-year-old man was arrested Tuesday in one of the federal buildings subject to the court order, a group that advocates for immigrant rights said,
raising questions about how closely the judge's decision was being followed.
The order Monday by Judge P. Kevin Castel addressed a practice begun under the Trump administration that enabled agents to detain people who followed requirements to appear before immigration judges. The arrests resulted in dramatic scenes in courthouse hallways as those being detained were sometimes pulled away from emotional family members.
Castel said in a written decision that while there was “a strong governmental interest in enforcing immigration laws,” there also was a serious interest in letting people attend their own court hearings “without fear of arrest.”
He said federal agents could still detain people at locations away from immigration courts and could also make arrests at courthouses when there are serious threats to public safety.
It wasn't immediately clear whether the arrest that happened Tuesday fell under that exception.
The New York Legal Assistant Group said it would file a legal petition seeking the man’s release. The organization said it has had lawyers in the hallways of Manhattan buildings where immigration proceedings occur for most of the past year.
“We’re not shocked that ICE kept their presence in 26 Federal Plaza despite Judge Castel’s ruling yesterday,” said Benjamin Remy, coordinating senior attorney at NYLAG’s Immigrant Protection Unit.
Kaye Dyja, a spokesperson with the New York Civil Liberties Union, said it was looking into the arrest and "gathering information” to see if it complied with the narrow rules in which agents could still make arrests.
U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, a New York Democrat, said the arrest seemed to be a “blatant violation of a court order.”
“This is an absolutely outrageous thumb-in-the-eye of our Constitution,” he said.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately comment. In an earlier statement criticizing the judge's ruling, it said it was “common sense to take illegal aliens into custody following the completion of their removal proceedings”
“Nothing prohibits arresting a lawbreaker where you find them. We are confident we will ultimately be vindicated in this case,” said a statement released by the department.
Castel’s decision, which did not apply nationwide, pertained to immigration courts at 26 Federal Plaza, 201 Varick Street and 290 Broadway in Manhattan. New York’s FBI headquarters is also located at 26 Federal Plaza, a large building across from two federal courthouses near City Hall.
The judge had previously declined to halt immigration arrests in those buildings, but he changed course after government lawyers informed the court that they learned that certain policies regarding arrests in and around courthouses set by the President Donald Trump's administration in 2025 did not apply to immigration courts after all.
Castel said the new position by government lawyers meant it was necessary to “correct a clear error and prevent a manifest injustice.”
The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by the NYCLU, the American Civil Liberties Union, Make the Road NY and others.
It was praised by Amy Belsher, director of the NYCLU's Immigrants’ Rights Litigation.
She called it “an enormous win for noncitizen New Yorkers seeking to safely attend their immigration court proceedings.”
