How ICE is seeking to ramp up deportations through courthouse arrests

WASHINGTON — A hearing on Tuesday at immigration court in Van Nuys, California, was supposed to be routine for a young family from Colombia, the first step in what they hoped would be a successful bid for asylum.

To their surprise, the judge informed the father, Andres Roballo, that the government wished to dismiss his deportation case. Taken aback, Roballo hesitated, then responded: “As long as I stay with my family.”

Moments later, as they exited the courtroom into a waiting area, Roballo was encircled by plainclothes federal agents who ushered him into a side room. Other agents guided his shaken wife, Luisa Bernal, and their toddler toward the elevator.

Outside the courthouse, Bernal collapsed on a bench. “They have him, they have him,” she wailed. “We didn’t understand this would happen.”

Roballo’s arrest was part of an aggressive new initiative by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain migrants at immigration courts, the latest escalation by the Trump administration in its all-out effort to ramp up deportations.

Agents have begun arresting migrants immediately after their hearings if they have been ordered deported or their cases have been dismissed, a move that enables their swift removal, according to immigration lawyers and internal documents obtained by The New York Times.

The operations, which have taken place across the country in the past two weeks, have required a high level of coordination between the government lawyers in the courtrooms and the ICE officers waiting to make the arrests, according to the documents.

The tactic is a significant break from past practice, when immigration officials largely steered clear of courthouse arrests out of concern that they would deter people from complying with orders. Critics, including some former Homeland Security officials, say the practice is deceptive and could backfire.

“Arresting people there subverts the legal process and will make others too scared to show up in the future, ultimately pushing people further into the shadows and out of legal status,” said Deborah Fleischaker, a senior ICE official during the Biden administration.

“We don’t actually have an immigration process if we make it impossible for people to comply and move through the system as ours was designed,” she said. “People showing up for their immigration court hearings are by definition complying.”

Federal officials say the initiative saves valuable resources, allowing ICE to more quickly identify migrants who are subject to deportation rather than deploying officers to try to track down people after they leave court and often slip out of view.

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