The Justice Department admitted to a federal choose Tuesday it’s been incorrectly counting on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo to justify arrests at immigration courts, based on a brand new court submitting in an ongoing lawsuit.
The lawsuit – introduced by civil rights teams final yr – challenges the Trump administration’s coverage of arresting individuals at immigration courts, a observe that garnered nationwide consideration final yr as immigrants confirmed as much as their court hearings as a part of the authorized immigration course of.
In a letter addressed to Judge Kevin Castel and filed Tuesday, Jay Clayton, US lawyer for the Southern District of New York, conceded that the administration made misrepresentations to the court a couple of May 2025 ICE memo that has been repeatedly referenced in the case.
In its protection of the coverage, the federal authorities leaned on the ICE steering, however that memo, DOJ discovered this week, is about enforcement actions in or close to courthouses, not immigration courts particularly. Immigration courts fall below the Justice Department’s jurisdiction.
“We write respectfully and regrettably to correct a material mistaken statement of fact that the Government made to the Court and Plaintiffs,” Clayton wrote in the letter, including counsel from ICE knowledgeable DOJ earlier in the day that the steering “does not and has never applied to civil immigration enforcement actions” close to immigration courts.
Clayton mentioned the federal government would withdraw parts of its briefs and statements made at oral arguments final September that relied on the steering.
“We deeply regret that this error has come to light at this late stage, after the parties have expended significant resources and time to litigate this case and this court has carefully considered Plaintiffs’ challenge to the 2025 ICE guidance,” the prosecutor wrote in the letter.
NCS has reached out to ICE for remark.
In response to the federal authorities’s admission, the New York Civil Liberties Union and American Civil Liberties Union, each of that are concerned in the lawsuit, mentioned the “implications of this development are far-reaching.”
“In the months since the Court relied on the government’s representation to deny Plaintiffs preliminary relief, Defendants have continued arresting noncitizens at their immigration court hearings, resulting in their detention—often in facilities hundreds of miles away,” they wrote in a letter addressed to the choose.
Last yr, the Trump administration started detaining migrants in courthouse hallways nationwide, generally moments after pleading their circumstances. The transfer raised alarm amongst attorneys and advocates who mentioned the observe was turning immigration courts from locations of due course of into zones of concern and punishing individuals who have been following the principles.