Federal Agents Ordered to Stop the Bait and Switch Arrests in NYC Immigration Courts

Beginning in late May, immigrants appearing for routine hearings at New York City's three immigration courthouses in Lower Manhattan were finding themselves suddenly ensnared in a trap by the federal government. At first, they were told their deportation cases were being dropped by Department of Homeland Security prosecutors, a welcome development. But then, as soon as they left the courtroom, immigrants were being arrested and placed in a newly-expanded process known as "expedited removal," where they would be subject to a fast-track deportation process that had very few of the rights afforded to them in their just-closed removal case. This bait-and-switch resulted in hundreds of kidnappings by federal agents in Lower Manhattan from the spring into the summer. (At some point this summer, agents began arresting people who hadn't even had their cases closed by DHS prosecutors.)

But late last week, a federal judge in Washington D.C. blocked the Trump administration's expansion of "expedited removal" after the immigrant-led, Queens-based organization Make The Road New York, along with groups like the New York Civil Liberties Union, sued the Department of Homeland Security.