Fwd: ICE arrests migrants after immigration hearings
Molly Molloy
Migrants arrested outside El Paso federal building after immigration hearings under new Trump expedited deportation strategy
Federal immigration officials detain Yasmir Marquez of Venezuela outside the Richard C. White Federal Building immediately following his immigration hearing in El Paso on May 29, 2025. Marquez had a pending asylum claim and had been granted authority to live and work in the United States while he awaited a hearing. (Corrie Boudreaux / El Paso Matters)
Two young men emerged from the Richard C. White Federal Building in Downtown El Paso on Thursday, laughing together as they turned left onto San Antonio Avenue. It was 1:50 p.m. and 99 degrees.
As they reached the corner of South Florence Street just a few steps away, a group of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents converged on them and grabbed Yasmir Marquez by the elbow. The two men were quickly surrounded by more federal law enforcement agents, one of whom showed Marquez a document. He turned to give his friend a hug before he was hustled into a waiting white van. Once inside, he was handcuffed.
Within three minutes, the other man stood alone on the sidewalk under the blazing sun watching in disbelief as the van drove away with his friend inside. “What the f— just happened?” asked the man, who was not arrested.
The courthouse arrests are a new tactic under the Trump administration’s efforts to scale up deportations, targeting migrants at immigration courts immediately after their court-ordered hearings. The migrants are ordered deported or have their cases dismissed and are then arrested by immigration agents as they leave the courtroom or the buildings, which allows for swift removal, the New York Times reported last week.
The Times obtained an internal ICE memo circulated on May 20 that the news organization reported instructed government prosecutors to help deportation officers with the operation to identify people whose pending immigration court case could be dismissed. Without their case pending in court, the migrants could be subject to expedited removal that doesn’t require a hearing before a judge.
Marquez’s arrest was the same day that a video from a San Antonio immigration court showing families arrested outside immigration court and their hands zip-tied went viral. Many more videos emerged showing similar ICE arrests at federal courthouses in Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Seattle, Miami and Las Vegas.
A man, woman and young girl are escorted into a Department of Homeland Security van outside the Richard C. White Federal Building in Downtown El Paso after their immigration court hearing, June 2, 2025, as a federal officer, at right, covers her face with a shawl. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
On Monday, a man, woman and young girl in a white dress and red sweater were escorted from the El Paso federal building’s loading zone into a Department of Homeland Security van by ICE agents whose faces were covered.
The family was not handcuffed as they boarded the van and remained stoic and quiet. The man, who was wearing a dress shirt and a blazer, nodded when human rights activists standing nearby asked if he understood their rights.
After that, agents moved the ICE vans into a dark gated garage behind the building, making it difficult for the media and human rights activists to see as more people were led from the building directly to the garage.
“This strategy is becoming more prevalent now, especially since this administration did away with the sensitive location protections,” said Fernando Garcia, executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights group in El Paso. “This is very troubling because now these people need to make a decision about whether to comply with a court order or not.”
Garcia referred to the Trump administration reversing a policy that, since 2011, put sensitive areas such as churches, schools and courthouses largely off limits to immigration enforcement actions. The protections were lifted when Trump took office Jan. 20.
On May 6, the DHS announced it was making “common sense courthouse arrests,” rescinding guidelines that “thwarted law enforcement from carrying out immigration enforcement arrests in courthouses and emboldened criminal illegal aliens.” The DHS said courthouse arrests are “safer for law enforcement” because those arrested had gone through security and were unarmed.
ICE officials in El Paso didn’t respond to requests for comment Monday.
BNHR’s Garcia condemned the practice, and said the tactic is leaving migrants with little choice – or hope.
“Our suggestion or recommendation had always been to comply with court orders,” Garcia said. “At this point, we don’t know what to advise. We don’t have faith to say things are going to be OK, and we no longer trust that they will be.”
The American Immigration Lawyers Association in a May 21 news release called the practice a “flagrant betrayal of basic fairness and due process.”
“Let’s be clear: people are following the rules by appearing in immigration court as they promised when released from custody, doing exactly what the system demands of them, only to be targeted, arrested, and detained because the government has changed its mind on detention,” the association said in a statement.
“Immigration courts are being weaponized, judges are coordinating with ICE to dismiss cases and immediately funnel individuals into the fast-track deportation pipeline known as expedited removal,” it continued.
Marquez, who was arrested last week, is being held at the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, New Mexico, records show.
Originally from Venezuela, Marquez had authorization to be in the United States to await his asylum hearing, and had received work authorization. He was living and working in Odessa and drove with his friend to El Paso for his scheduled immigration hearing. He was “optimistic” about the hearing, according to his friend, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation.
“They called him by the wrong name just now,” the friend said. “(Marquez) told them that isn’t his name and they took him anyway.”
“Circumstances of the case have changed after the notice to appear was issued to such an extent that continuation is no longer in the best interest of the government,” reads the document ICE agents showed Marquez. “The notice to appear was improvidently issued.”
His friend showed El Paso Matters a photo on his phone of the document issued by the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which shows removal proceedings were initiated by DHS that same day – May 29.
After Marquez’s detention, activists showed up outside the El Paso federal building with flyers to hand out to people going into their hearings, informing them of their right to ask the judge to not dismiss their cases and of their right to appeal such a dismissal.
Father Rafael Garcia, pastor of Sacred Heart Church, and Douglas Winter, a community member, accompanied a woman from Ecuador into her hearing “as far as they would let us go,” Winter said Monday.
They were stopped from entering the room where the hearing was held. When the woman emerged, she told them that the judge had dismissed her case even though she fears for her life in Ecuador after her brother’s recent murder.
The judge gave her 30 days to file an appeal, but she was detained by ICE agents in the building.
“She was told she would have 30 days to appeal, but was not told what would happen in the meantime,” Garcia said.
Garcia highlighted the lack of information and sense of confusion that surrounds the detainments, saying “it’s all very mysterious.”
“ICE says, ‘Come with us,’ but no sense of orientation,’ he said, adding migrants are taken away not knowing where they’re going or if they’ll be able to call family once they’re there.
“It was a very scary moment,” Garcia said. “She was with us thinking she would be able to leave and suddenly, no, you can’t leave.”
On the sidewalk across from the federal building Monday, Jackie was similarly stunned. She had accompanied her brother from Midland to El Paso for his hearing. He had entered the United States almost 11 months ago through a CBP One appointment, fleeing violence in their home state in Mexico.
He was also detained with no explanation of why or of what steps he could take to appeal.
“It’s very sad from a human point of view, to see this. There are so many people, people with families, in this kind of work. It must be, I don’t know what they’re feeling, but hopefully it’s affecting their heart in some way too, because they’re human beings,” Garcia said about the law enforcement agents. “The whole scenario is like we’re living in a police state. That’s where we’re at now in history.”
Activists and concerned community members gather outside of the Richard C. White Federal Building in Downtown El Paso to provide information about immigrants’ rights in their court hearings and to observe Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials’ detention actions, June 2, 2025. (Corrie Boudreaux/EL Paso Matters)For Juan, a community organizer who asked to be identified only by his first name, said the ICE actions at the immigration court belie the frequent claim of those who say they support immigration if done “the right way.”
“The right way doesn’t exist,” Juan said. “Even if you do it the right way, as I was able to see, that doesn’t matter. (These hearings are) the only thing we have left, the only legal way, and now that’s being challenged.”
Juan and his companions want more people to be present and witness the scenes of individuals and families, many dressed up in suits and dresses for their hearings, being hustled into vans and driven away.
“Now that we are aware, this is definitely our next point of focus,” he said. “People’s due process is being ignored, and we need to come to the federal buildings in our cities to keep an eye out for people and discuss what we are willing to do for those people.”
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From: El Paso Matters <ne...@elpasomatters.org>
Date: Thu, Jun 5, 2025 at 6:33 AM
Subject: ICE arrests migrants after immigration hearings
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