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A federal judge in New York ordered that federal agents stop routinely detaining people as they arrive for immigration court proceedings at multiple Manhattan locations, and the order was immediately put to the test after advocates said a man was arrested the following day. The judge’s decision focused on people’s ability to exercise their legal right to pursue asylum or attend deportation hearings without risking arrest.
Judge P. Kevin Castel’s order, issued Monday, addressed what advocates described as a practice that had developed during the Trump administration: detaining people who met requirements to appear before immigration judges. The case was brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union, Make the Road NY and others.
In a written decision, Castel said there was “a strong governmental interest in enforcing immigration laws,” but that there was also a serious interest in allowing people to attend their own hearings “without fear of arrest.” The judge said federal agents could still detain people at locations away from the immigration courts, and could also make arrests at courthouses when there are serious threats to public safety.
The arrest that advocates pointed to came the day after the ruling. A group that advocates for immigrant rights said a 21-year-old man was arrested Tuesday in one of the federal buildings subject to Castel’s court order, raising questions about whether the decision was being followed closely enough. It was not immediately clear whether that arrest fit within the order’s stated exceptions for serious threats to public safety.
The New York Legal Assistant Group said it planned to file a legal petition seeking the man’s release. Benjamin Remy, the coordinating senior attorney at NYLAG’s Immigrant Protection Unit, said in a statement, “We’re not shocked that ICE kept their presence in 26 Federal Plaza despite Judge Castel’s ruling yesterday.”
The New York Civil Liberties Union said it was trying to determine whether the arrest complied with the narrow rules Castel laid out. Kaye Dyja, a spokesperson for the organization, 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 Democrat, said the arrest appeared to violate the court order. Goldman called it “a blatant violation of a court order,” and said it was “an absolutely outrageous thumb-in-the-eye of our Constitution,” according to his remarks cited by the AP.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately comment on the Tuesday arrest. In an earlier statement that criticized Castel’s ruling, the department said it was “common sense to take illegal aliens into custody following the completion of their removal proceedings,” and it added, “Nothing prohibits arresting a lawbreaker where you find them. We are confident we will ultimately be vindicated in this case,” per the AP report.
Castel’s ruling applied to immigration courts at 26 Federal Plaza, 201 Varick Street and 290 Broadway in Manhattan, and it also accounted for the fact that the New York FBI headquarters is located at 26 Federal Plaza across from two federal courthouses near City Hall. The judge previously had declined to halt immigration arrests in those buildings, but changed course after government lawyers told the court that they learned certain policies set by President Donald Trump’s administration in 2025 did not apply to immigration courts after all.
Castel said the revised position from government lawyers made it necessary to “correct a clear error and prevent a manifest injustice.” The ruling was praised by Amy Belsher, director of the NYCLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Litigation, who said it was “an enormous win for noncitizen New Yorkers seeking to safely attend their immigration court proceedings.”