In a new tactic, ICE is arresting migrants at immigration courts, attorneys say
Federal agents are arresting migrants at immigration courts -- in some cases after their deportation cases have been dismissed -- in the Trump administration's latest tactic to fast-track deportations, immigration attorneys have told ABC News.
The attorneys said that immigration enforcement officers have been waiting in immigration court buildings and arresting migrants who have had their cases dismissed, after which the migrants are placed into expedited removal proceedings by the Department of Homeland Security.
Gregory Zhen, the Senior Director of Government Relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said his group has tracked such courthouse arrests in 13 states and 19 cities over the past two weeks.
"They're being fast-tracked for deportation and now are going to be deprived of getting a fair day in court and a fair opportunity for their case to be heard," Zhen told ABC News. "These kinds of tactics are ultimately undermining people's sense of the courts as a safe, neutral space for them to come to have their fair day in court."
Deportation hearings in immigration court are legal proceedings initiated by DHS in which an immigration judge determines whether a migrant should be removed from the United States. Often, an immigration judge will dismiss a case in order to allow the individual to pursue legal relief by seeking asylum, according to attorneys.
Other times, DHS attorneys will request dismissals if the individuals are not a priority for removal.
In most cases, when a deportation case is dismissed, it is a positive outcome for a migrant, attorneys told ABC News.
"Dismissals used to generally be good news," said Michelle Brane, the executive director of the immigration support group Together and Free. "It means that the government has decided it's not worth pursuing your case, that you're going to be able to either be free to pursue some other avenue."
But immigration attorneys ABC News spoke with said the Trump administration is now using dismissals to detain people at immigration courts and place them into expedited removal without allowing them to fight their case.
"It feels like it's playing dirty with people because they're not giving people a chance," Brane said.
ABC News has reached out to DHS for comment.
Priscilla Olivarez, an attorney with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Antonio, Texas, told ABC News she witnessed several individuals being apprehended by immigration officials at a courthouse this past week.
"We saw [a] mother and one of her young children zip-tied while her other children looked on ... quite distressed and very emotional," Olivarez said.
"It's clear that it's a coordinated campaign of fear mongering, to put fear into our immigrant communities and undermine the constitutional right to due process," she said.
Several videos of migrants being detained after their cases were dismissed have gone viral on social media.
ABC News spoke Wednesday with several migrants outside a San Antonio, Texas, courthouse who expressed fear about coming to court.
One couple was relieved to have made it out of their hearing without being detained -- but were still scanning the parking lot outside the courthouse, nervous that agents would approach them.
The wife of one of the migrants who attended a hearing said they were scared and nervous to come to court, but they wanted to follow the law.
"Damned if you do, damned if you don't. It feels like none of us are safe," she said.
