Justice Department lawyers admitted this week they used erroneous information when defending arrests made by Immigration and Custom Enforcement at immigration courthouses.
In a letter Tuesday to U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel of New York City, the DOJ conceded a 2025 ICE memo cited in court to defend the agency's arrests in courthouses does not apply to immigration courts.
The DOJ filed the letter as part of a lawsuit brought by the New York City-based immigrant advocacy organizations African Communities Together and The Door.
The memo, issued in May 2025, says ICE agents can conduct "civil immigration enforcement actions in or near courthouses when they have credible information that leads them to believe the targeted alien(s) is or will be present at a specific location."
But the DOJ said in its letter the memo "does not and has never applied to civil immigration enforcement actions in or near" immigration courts.
Hundreds of migrants have been arrested at immigration courts as part of President Trump's aggressive crackdown on illegal and legal migration.
"We deeply regret this error," the DOJ letter reads, which also blames ICE for the mistake. According to the DOJ lawyers, they were specifically "informed by ICE that the 2025 ICE Guidance applied to immigration courthouse arrests. In addition, we discussed with and obtained the approval of assigned ICE counsel before filing every brief in this case and making any oral representations to the Court and Plaintiffs."
The ACLU of New York, which represents the plaintiffs, said in a letter filed with the court "the implications of this development are far reaching." The letter says that for months the government used the guidance spelled out in the memo to arrest both legal and undocumented immigrants, often leading to detention "in facilities hundreds of miles away."
The admission by the DOJ is "another example of ICE's brazen disregard for the lives of immigrants in this country," Amy Belsher, the New York ACLU's director of immigrants' rights litigation wrote in a statement to NPR.
The DOJ attorneys told Judge Castel they have sent a letter to ICE agents reminding them of the correct information and policy.
However, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said there is no change in policy. "We will continue to arrest illegal aliens at immigration courts following their proceedings," the DHS wrote in a statement to NPR. "Nothing prohibits arresting a lawbreaker where you find them," the statement said.
Judge Castel has not replied to the latest development and it's unclear how the admission will impact on the immigrants detained under the policy, many of whom have likely already been deported.
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