Overview
- The order blocks ICE and the Justice Department’s immigration courts office from sweeping civil arrests at immigration courthouses within ICE’s San Francisco Area of Responsibility, including San Francisco, Sacramento and Concord.
- Judge P. Casey Pitts cited a documented chilling effect that forces noncitizens to choose between appearing and risking arrest or skipping hearings and losing their cases in absentia.
- Relief is geographically limited in light of the Supreme Court’s constraints on nationwide injunctions, with the scope of any further relief to be decided as the case proceeds.
- The Trump administration told the court it will appeal to the Ninth Circuit, and a Manhattan federal judge previously upheld similar courthouse arrests, creating conflicting rulings.
- Justice Department data show monthly in‑absentia removal orders more than doubled this year to 4,177, with over 50,000 asylum seekers ordered removed after failing to appear, while advocates report over 100 arrests in Northern California and several thousand nationwide under a July policy permitting arrests based on credible information of courthouse presence.