A federal judge appointed by former President Joe Biden has struck down key Trump-era Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policies that expanded courthouse arrests and allowed for longer detentions of migrants. U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts ruled Tuesday that the policies were "devoid of rational explanation" and lacked the necessary justification under the Administrative Procedure Act.
The ruling, detailed in a 71-page decision, vacates ICE policies that removed prior restrictions on civil immigration arrests at courthouses, including immigration courts, and a separate policy allowing detainees to remain in short-term holding facilities for up to 72 hours instead of the agency's standard 12-hour limit. The judge found that ICE and the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) failed to adequately explain why they abandoned previous guidance that limited courthouse arrests due to concerns about discouraging migrant appearances for hearings and interfering with justice.
Pitts noted that the administration had not provided a rational basis for the change, stating, "ICE's 2025 courthouse-arrest policies are devoid of rational explanation for (or even acknowledgement of) the agency's choices." He also criticized the government's handling of arrests at immigration courthouses, pointing out that the administration initially defended the policy as applicable to immigration courts before later disclosing that ICE internally viewed it as not applying there.
Regarding the extended detention policy, the judge found that ICE failed to consider alternatives, reconcile the policy with its own detention standards, or adequately address whether prolonged confinement in holding facilities could lead to unconstitutional conditions. "Nothing in the memorandum announcing the 12-hour-detention waiver or in the administrative record suggests that ICE engaged in reasoned consideration of its obligation to avoid creating punitive conditions of confinement," Pitts wrote.
This decision continues a pattern of Judge Pitts intervening against Trump administration immigration policies. Earlier in the year, he blocked an ICE initiative that would have allowed the agency to re-arrest migrants it had previously released and ordered changes at a San Francisco ICE detention facility due to overcrowding and conditions deemed to violate constitutional standards.
The ruling applies nationwide and vacates the policies themselves, rather than merely limiting their enforcement, distinguishing it from broader nationwide injunctions previously deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The Department of Homeland Security criticized the ruling, with General Counsel James Percival calling it "naked judicial activism in service of an anti-American, open borders agenda."
Pitts emphasized that the administration remains free to pursue stricter immigration enforcement policies if they adhere to the procedural requirements mandated by federal law. The ruling follows a similar decision last month by U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel in New York, who largely barred ICE from conducting civil immigration arrests at or near three Manhattan immigration courthouses.