by Vanguard Staff
In a case that highlights growing concerns over the weaponization of immigration enforcement under the Trump administration, civil rights groups are challenging the detention of Oliver Eloy Mata Velazquez, a 19-year-old asylum seeker who was arrested by ICE while attending a routine immigration court hearing in Buffalo, New York.
According to a federal lawsuit filed June 12, 2025, by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York (PLS), and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, ICE agents illegally arrested Mata Velazquez on May 21 after he complied with every directive issued by the U.S. government. The young man lawfully entered the U.S. in 2024 through the Customs and Border Patrol process, or CBP One, was granted humanitarian parole, received a work permit, and had no criminal history.
He had appeared in court that day as scheduled to continue pursuing his asylum claim. Instead, he was met by ICE officers in the courthouse lobby, arrested without warning, and taken to the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility, where he remains detained.
The lawsuit accuses ICE of turning immigration courts into “traps” by detaining people like Oliver who are following the law. “The Trump administration is attempting to strip people of due process by arresting them when they show up to court,” said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the NYCLU. “Oliver’s case shows how dangerous and lawless this policy has become.”
The complaint alleges violations of Oliver’s constitutional rights under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act. It seeks his immediate release and a halt to ICE’s policy of courthouse arrests, which was reversed earlier this year under a directive by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The new policy allows ICE officers to arrest individuals in or near courthouses—even in jurisdictions where such actions may violate local law.
Advocates say the move is part of a broader campaign to expand the use of expedited removal—a fast-track deportation process that denies people the right to a full immigration hearing. The administration has pushed for 3,000 daily ICE arrests and is using courthouse raids to meet that quota.
“Oliver is not a flight risk or a danger to the community,” said Sarah Gillman of RFK Human Rights, one of Oliver’s attorneys. “He was arrested for doing exactly what the law required of him—attending a court hearing. This conduct by ICE is both unlawful and deeply unjust.”
The petition details the harm Oliver has experienced in detention, including harassment by other detainees, threats of solitary confinement, and separation from his only family in the U.S. His removal proceedings are now in limbo, as ICE has tried to terminate his original asylum hearing and place him into expedited removal, despite a pending appeal.
The legal team is urging the court to order Oliver’s release and block ICE’s courthouse arrest policy. In the words of the NYCLU, “We are all less safe when people are afraid to follow the law.”
