Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested at least five people at Manhattan immigration despite federal court orders halting such arrests.
The arrests took place amidst federal immigration agents silently ramping up enforcement, and after two separate federal judges ordered a halt to immigration courthouse detentions, with limited exceptions. The two most recent arrests took place last Thursday, according to court documents.
Plaintiffs penned the arrest accusations in a letter submitted to court. The letter was part of an ongoing lawsuit brought last summer by civil rights groups challenging violent arrests at Manhattan courthouses that questioned whether the recent courthouse arrests were legal. The letter was first reported by The Intercept.
ICE has asserted that the arrests and detentions comply with the narrow exceptions to the rule imposed by federal judges, according to the letter. For example: if the person poses a threat to national security, there is an imminent risk of death or violence, or the person poses a threat to public safety and cannot be safely arrested elsewhere, amongst others.
“The government cannot reasonably contend that an individual whose sole criminal history stems from a charge arising from his entry into the United States poses a threat to public safety, particularly when he has been fully compliant with immigration authorities since that time,” the letter said.
The Department of Homeland Security strongly denied any wrongful arrests in a statement to Documented.
“ICE did NOT violate any court orders,” wrote the unnamed spokesperson when Documented sought comment. “These were lawful arrests.”
The individuals arrested hail from countries such as the Dominican Republic and Ecuador, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
At least one individual still in detention had no criminal history, apart from a trespassing charge related to his border crossing, according to court documents. And while ICE has claimed the detentions were valid, “ICE’s ‘say so’ about these incidents is no longer sufficient,” wrote two attorneys, Katherine Rosenfeld and Sam Shapiro, in the letter submitted to the court.
The government has yet to file an official response to the accusations in the court case, brought by nonprofit immigrant organizations African Communities Together and The Door, but one is expected by Monday, according to court filings.
Two of the men who are still detained, are awaiting the outcome of habeas petitions in federal court.
Brad Lander, Democratic nominee for New York’s 10th Congressional District and former city comptroller, was also incredulous about the arrests, saying that ICE has “shredded any reason for the American people to believe” the agency. He also called the arrests “egregious.”
Lander is running on an anti-ICE platform, was arrested by ICE last year at 26 Federal Plaza, and often observes immigration proceedings.
“When you look at the data, the majority of people have no criminal records,” said Lander, noting that ICE had even called him a threat before a jury found him not guilty in the case accusing him of obstruction at the courthouse.
“If they’ll do that about an elected official, while there’s video from every angle, and they still feel comfortable lying, there’s zero reason to believe them about vulnerable individuals when they have all the information that the public doesn’t.”
After President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, which marked the beginning of his mass deportation campaign, the 26 Federal Plaza immigration courthouse became an epicenter of brutal, public arrests a direct result from the mass deportation policies in New York City.
Multiple immigration nonprofits and civil rights groups filed suit in August of 2025 hoping to halt the tsunami of arrests, but suffered a demoralizing defeat when U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel ruled against a stay as both sides argued the case.
In March, however, the Department of Justice admitted in a shocking letter to the court that a memo which they had leaned on to justify the arrests had been largely misinterpreted — leading to public outrage. As a result, Castel ordered a stay, putting a halt to such arrests starting in May.
Within days of the order, at least one arrest was made in the courthouse, but the detained 21-year-old was quickly released. In the weeks since, ICE has arrested at least four other New Yorkers, the letter said. Two men still remain in immigration detention.
“I mean, from the very beginning, from Stephen Miller and Donald Trump on down, they presented the lie that what they’re doing has anything to do with public safety without ever providing any evidence,” Lander said. “I’ve been in … north of 300 individual cases over the past year. In one of those 300 cases, a criminal act was mentioned. It was a misdemeanor.”
