Immigrant ARC v. Department of Justice: Challenging ICE arrests at Immigration Courthouses

D.D.C. Case 1:25-cv-02279

This class action lawsuit seeks to end collusion between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice (DOJ) that has resulted in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immigration courthouse arrests that intentionally strip people of basic due process rights, afforded under U.S. immigration law and the Fifth Amendment, in order to place them in expedited removal proceedings and deport them without hearings

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), Democracy Forward, Refugee and Immigrant Center for Legal Education and Services (RAICES), and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCRSF).

The Plaintiffs

The lawsuit represents 12 people who have been arrested at court hearings, along with organizational plaintiffs Immigrant Advocates Response Collaborative (Immigrant ARC) and American Gateways, which provide legal services to people who now face potential arrest and deportation when they attend a court hearing to comply with their immigration proceedings.

All of the individual plaintiffs appeared at their hearings intending to request protection or other legal status in the United States, only to have a government attorney unexpectedly ask the immigration judge to dismiss their cases. When a judge agreed to the dismissal, often over plaintiffs’ objections, the plaintiffs were arrested and detained by DHS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers who were waiting at the courthouse.