Immigrant rights groups say ICE officers 'ambush noncitizens' in courthouse arrests, ask judge to intervene
Immigrant rights groups are asking a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to provide "emergency relief" and bar the Trump administration from continuing to ramp up its use of expedited removal.
The motion, filed on Tuesday, is part of an ongoing lawsuit that is challenging the administration's expansion of the process which allows the government to quickly expel migrants sometimes without going before a judge.
The filing has taken a renewed sense of urgency for the groups. In recent weeks, there's been a dramatic spike of arrests in courthouses after DHS moves to dismiss cases against migrants in removal proceedings.
"With no advance notice to the noncitizens, Defendants are moving for [immigration judges] to dismiss people's removal proceedings; arresting and detaining people who have appeared for their court hearings as directed; and placing them in expedited removal proceedings, thereby denying them any meaningful opportunity to be heard before quickly removing them," the groups wrote in the filing.
The filing added, "This aggressive new implementation of the Rule and Guidance has sown fear in immigrant communities, as noncitizens who have been complying with their legal obligations now face the risk of arrest and summary deportation at their next court dates."
The groups accuse ICE officers of coordinating with Department of Homeland Security attorneys and "stationing themselves in immigration courts" to "ambush noncitizens" after their cases are dismissed.
Even those who have pending asylum applications and other petitions for relief are being targeted for expedited removal, the groups say.
They claim that those who have been detained include "man whose partner was 8 months pregnant and who had applied for asylum, gay couple who feared persecution, asylum seeker married to a U.S. citizen, and 19-year-old who appears eligible for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status."
The groups are asking the judge to halt expedited removals while the court battle continues.
A senior DHS spokesperson previously defended the courthouse arrests in a statement to ABC News, saying: "Most aliens who illegally entered the United States within the past two years are subject to expedited removals. Biden 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. ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been."
The statement added on the migrants, "If they have a valid credible fear claim, they will continue in immigration proceedings, but if no valid claim is found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation."
