Full Breakdown
Federal Judge Blocks Nationwide Immigration Arrest Policy
6/24/2026, 7:28:34 AM
Nationwide Injunction Halts Court Arrests
On June 23 2026, U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts (Northern District of California) issued a nationwide injunction barring ICE and the Executive Office for Immigration Review from making civil arrests inside immigration courts and from detaining individuals in short-term facilities beyond 12 hours. The order also vacated a June 2025 waiver that had allowed detention up to 72 hours. Previously, ICE could arrest only in national-security, imminent-danger, or hot-pursuit cases and was limited to a 12-hour detention cap. After President Trump’s Jan 2025 inauguration, the administration removed those limits, permitting arrests of noncitizens at hearings and extending detention to 72 hours. The court found the changes “arbitrary and capricious,” lacking the reasoned explanations required by the 1946 Administrative Procedure Act. The case was brought by Guatemalan asylum-seeker Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen, arrested after a San Francisco hearing.
Key Participants
Judge P. Casey Pitts, ICE, EOIR, DHS General Counsel James Percival, attorney Jordan Wells, and plaintiff Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen.
Impact on Enforcement
The injunction restores the 12-hour detention cap, limits courthouse arrests to narrow cases, and addresses the court’s identified “chilling effect,” reducing hallway confrontations and prolonged detentions.
Government Response
DHS General Counsel James Percival condemned the injunction as judicial activism, arguing that defendants sentenced by a judge are taken into custody and should be treated similarly in immigration proceedings. No administration comment was offered.
Opposition and Civil-Rights View
Democratic lawmakers and immigrant-rights groups oppose courthouse arrests, citing community trauma and deterrence of court attendance. Jordan Wells, senior staff attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, argued that courthouses should be safe spaces for justice, not sites of ICE enforcement.
Conflicting Reports & Gaps
Sources differ on timing: some say the policy began “last year” after Trump’s inauguration, others cite the June 2025 waiver. No public data detail the number of arrests or extended detentions under the rescinded policy.
Verbatim Quotes
- “For 80 years, Congress has commanded federal agencies to think before they act,” — Judge P. Casey Pitts
- “arbitrary and capricious.” — Judge P. Casey Pitts
- “ICE is not arresting individuals who appear for criminal or civil violations 'unrelated' to the arrest but instead arresting noncitizens based on the very immigration offenses for which the noncitizens are appearing in immigration court.” — Judge P. Casey Pitts
- “When a judge sentences a defendant, the defendant is taken into custody. If an alien is ordered removed by an immigration judge, the same should happen. A district judge ordering otherwise is naked judicial activism in service of an anti-American, open borders agenda.” — James Percival, DHS General Counsel
What’s Next
The administration has not commented on the ruling, and the decision may prompt additional legal challenges to ICE’s enforcement policies.
