Overview
- A federal judge in the Northern District of California issued a 71‑page opinion that vacated the Trump administration’s policies allowing arrests at immigration courthouses and a waiver that let ICE hold people up to 72 hours, a decision handed down Tuesday.
- Judge P. Casey Pitts found the agencies violated the Administrative Procedure Act by offering no reasoned explanation for removing prior restrictions and by ignoring the policies’ chilling effect on noncitizens’ willingness to attend hearings.
- The decision effectively reinstates earlier limits that confined courthouse arrests to narrow circumstances and capped short‑term holds at 12 hours, while striking down the 72‑hour detention waiver as unlawful.
- The ruling grew out of a class-action brought by asylum seekers arrested after routine hearings in San Francisco, including plaintiff Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen, and it highlights real harms such as overnight holds in facilities meant for brief processing.
- The Department of Homeland Security criticized the order and is expected to seek emergency appellate review or to rewrite enforcement rules that meet APA standards, a process that could take months and will determine how ICE operates at courts nationwide.