Trump administration admits error in lawsuit over immigration court arrests it justified with ICE memo
A federal immigration officer waits for respondents in a hallway to conduct targeted detainments at US immigration court in Manhattan
(CNN) — The Justice Department admitted to a federal judge Tuesday it’s been incorrectly relying on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo to justify arrests at immigration courts, according to a new court filing in an ongoing lawsuit.
The lawsuit – brought by civil rights groups last year – challenges the Trump administration’s policy of arresting people at immigration courts, a practice that garnered national attention last year as immigrants showed up to their court hearings as part of the legal immigration process.
In a letter addressed to Judge Kevin Castel and filed Tuesday, Jay Clayton, US attorney for the Southern District of New York, conceded that the administration made misrepresentations to the court about a May 2025 ICE memo that has been repeatedly referenced in the case.
In its defense of the policy, the federal government leaned on the ICE guidance, but that memo, DOJ learned this week, is about enforcement actions in or near courthouses, not immigration courts specifically. Immigration courts fall under 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, adding counsel from ICE informed DOJ earlier in the day that the guidance “does not and has never applied to civil immigration enforcement actions” near immigration courts.
Clayton said the government would withdraw portions of its briefs and statements made at oral arguments last September that relied on the guidance.
“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.
CNN has reached out to ICE for comment.
In response to the federal government’s admission, the New York Civil Liberties Union and American Civil Liberties Union, both of which are involved in the lawsuit, said 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 judge.
Last year, the Trump administration began detaining migrants in courthouse hallways nationwide, sometimes moments after pleading their cases. The move raised alarm among attorneys and advocates who said the practice was turning immigration courts from places of due process into zones of fear and punishing people who were following the rules.
The-CNN-Wire
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