WASHINGTON, D.C. — Immigrants and legal advocacy organizations filed a sweeping class-action lawsuit Tuesday in federal court, alleging that the Trump administration is orchestrating unlawful arrests and deportations of noncitizens who appear in immigration court as required.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claims the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice are working together to dismiss immigration court cases without notice, detain individuals immediately after hearings, and place them into expedited removal proceedings — a process that bypasses normal due process protections.
The suit was brought by 12 individual plaintiffs and two nonprofit legal service providers — Immigrant Advocates Response Collaborative (Immigrant ARC) and American Gateways. The plaintiffs are represented by the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), Democracy Forward, RAICES (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services), and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCRSF).
According to the lawsuit, all individual plaintiffs were detained after DHS attorneys abruptly moved to dismiss their cases in court, often without advance notice and sometimes over their objections. Immigration judges, citing new internal guidance, granted those motions immediately. ICE officers, alerted in advance, then arrested the individuals at the courthouse.
Some plaintiffs had lived in the United States for years and were separated from U.S. citizen family members with no warning. Others were recent arrivals who had fled persecution and appeared in court to apply for asylum or other legal relief. The complaint alleges that DHS is now ordering ICE to arrest individuals even when their cases are pending appeal or a judge has not yet granted dismissal.
One plaintiff, who fled Ecuador after receiving death threats for LGBTQ advocacy, was deported just weeks after appearing in court with an asylum application. He is now in hiding. Others face removal to countries including Cuba, Venezuela, the Republic of Guinea, and the Chechen Republic — all places where they fear violence, persecution, or death.
“We are witnessing an authoritarian takeover of the U.S. immigration court system by the Trump administration,” said Keren Zwick, director of litigation at NIJC. “People who attend their hearings to seek permission to remain in this country and comply with U.S. immigration law are being rounded up and abruptly ripped from their families, homes, and livelihoods. Meanwhile, the administration is issuing directives telling immigration judges to violate those same immigration laws and strip people of fundamental due process rights. We must continue fighting to overcome the administration’s escalating attacks on the U.S. Constitution and rule of law.”
The lawsuit challenges a series of policy shifts that reversed long-standing guidelines discouraging ICE arrests in or near courthouses. Those prior policies aimed to protect the fairness and integrity of legal proceedings by ensuring individuals could safely appear in court without fear of arrest.
Advocates argue the Trump administration’s new approach not only targets people trying to follow the law but also sends a chilling message to immigrant communities nationwide.
“The Trump administration has cast an unconscionably wide net to ensnare people and families who attend immigration court hearings in compliance with their legal obligations, only to face life-threatening imprisonment, swift removal, and the prospect of indefinite family separation,” said Faisal Al-Juburi, chief external affairs officer at RAICES. “The egregious and unprecedented coordination amongst government agencies that we are witnessing not only inflicts irreparable harm upon infants and adults alike for seeking refuge in the U.S., but also establishes a chilling precedent in which law and order are abandoned in favor of stoking widespread panic and fear — leaving the entire American public at risk, regardless of immigration status.”
According to the complaint, the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) issued new internal guidance directing immigration judges to grant DHS motions to dismiss without requiring the usual notice or response period. In effect, the guidance allows judges to terminate cases on the spot — even when the immigrant has already filed an asylum application or wishes to contest removal.
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said the policy shift undermines fundamental principles of fairness.
“The Trump-Vance administration is weaponizing immigration courts by threatening people who follow the law and appear for their hearings as directed by the court,” Perryman said. “This unlawful scheme will chill participation in the legal process and violates the fundamental principles of due process and fairness that underpin our legal system. People seeking refuge, safety, or relief should not be arrested, detained, and deported without a chance to be heard and given due process. We are in court to defend the rule of law, stop this abuse of power, and ensure that justice and not political agendas guide the immigration system.”
Legal service providers say the impact on their clients — and on their ability to operate — has been profound. The lawsuit states that organizations like Immigrant ARC and American Gateways have had to drastically alter their operations, divert resources to emergency appeals, and deal with rising fear among immigrant communities.
“These directives forsake any notion of immigration courts as a neutral forum, weaponizing them into a trap for immigrants who show up in reliance on the American promise of a fair process before a judge, only to be met instead with handcuffs and shunted into a fast-track deportation process controlled by ICE agents,” said Jordan Wells, senior staff attorney at LCCRSF.
Priyanka Gandhi, interim CEO of Immigrant ARC, said the policy punishes people for doing exactly what the government asks of them.
“Our friends, neighbors, and families are told to ‘do it the right way’ — to follow the legal process. They’re doing just that — showing up to court, complying with the law. Despite this, they’re being arrested and detained,” Gandhi said. “This isn’t justice. It’s a deliberate attempt to intimidate and disappear people before they can be heard. We’re defending the integrity of the legal system, protecting every person’s right to due process, and holding the Trump administration accountable for their deeply harmful practices aimed at the most vulnerable communities.”
Edna Yang, co-executive director of American Gateways, said the legal response is necessary to protect the courts themselves.
“Our immigration courts should be places where people can seek justice and protection — not be ambushed and arrested simply for showing up,” Yang said. “The Trump administration has created a dangerous climate of fear that undermines both due process and the integrity of the legal system. We are forced to challenge these unconstitutional practices and defend the right to be heard, fairly and safely, in a court of law.”
The lawsuit — Immigrant ARC et al. v. U.S. Department of Justice et al. — asks the court to halt further implementation of the policies, restore dismissed cases, and prohibit ICE from conducting arrests in or near immigration courts. Plaintiffs argue that the administration’s actions violate the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
