'Escalation:' Federal agents now detaining people with active immigration cases

Source: USA Today

'Escalation:' Federal agents now detaining people with active immigration cases

Advocates describe courthouse arrests as a "Catch-22." Migrants have to come to court but are arrested when they do.

Eduardo Cuevas
USA TODAY
Updated: July 18, 2025, 11:26 a.m. ET

NEW YORK − They were free to leave the windowless courtroom. But the only way out was through a hallway lined with masked immigration agents.

Before heading out, several men cried. Women made the sign of the cross.

Federal officials arrested a handful of them before they could reach the far end of the hall. The detainees were forced into a fire exit, away from press and a small group of New York lawmakers.

This was the scene earlier this month outside a 12th-floor courtroom at a Manhattan federal building. But immigration attorneys say similar events are playing out across the country, as federal agents detain immigrants who thought they followed all the rules.

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Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/07/18/migrants-immigration-court-trump-crackdown/84614161007/