The Trump administration's efforts to expand courthouse arrests and prolong detention in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holding facilities have been dealt a significant blow thanks to a federal judge.
In a 71-page decision, U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts struck down the policies after finding that ICE and the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) did not provide the required reasoned explanation under the Administrative Procedure Act.
This ruling continues a pattern of intervention by Judge Pitts against Trump administration immigration policies. Earlier this year, he blocked an ICE initiative that would have allowed the agency to rearrest migrants it had previously released.
The judge's order applies nationwide and differs from the broad nationwide injunctions deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in its 2025 decision. Instead of issuing an injunction, Judge Pitts vacated the policies under the Administrative Procedure Act, effectively removing them.
The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of asylum seekers challenging ICE's 2025 policies that removed restrictions on civil immigration arrests at courthouses, including immigration courts, and a separate ICE policy allowing detainees to remain in short-term holding facilities for up to 72 hours.
Judge Pitts found that ICE failed to adequately explain why it abandoned prior guidance that limited courthouse arrests due to concerns they could discourage immigrants from appearing for hearings and interfere with the administration of justice.
The judge was particularly critical of the government's handling of arrests at immigration courthouses. He noted that the administration spent months defending the policy as applicable to immigration courts, only to later disclose that ICE internally viewed the policy as not applying there at all.
Judge Pitts concluded that the agency offered virtually no explanation for the change, stating that the policies were "devoid of rational explanation for (or even acknowledgement of) the agency's choices."
The judge also vacated a related EOIR policy rescinding restrictions on immigration enforcement activity at immigration courthouses and struck down ICE's nationwide waiver of its 12-hour detention limit.
Judge Pitts emphasized that the administration remained free to pursue tougher immigration enforcement policies if it followed the procedural requirements imposed by federal law.
The ruling follows a similar decision last month by a U.S. District Judge in New York, who largely barred ICE from conducting civil immigration arrests at or near three Manhattan immigration courthouses.
The Department of Homeland Security sharply criticized the ruling, calling it "naked judicial activism in service of an anti-American, open borders agenda."
