First, identify all linkable resources in order of appearance:
1. Executive Office for Immigration Review (uscis_resource) — mentioned in body.
2. Executive Office for Immigration Review page for authoritative resources on the court system that hosts these proceedings (policy) — mentioned in body.
Now the article with only the specified .gov links added (maximum 5), linking only the first mention of each resource and preserving all content and formatting exactly:
(NEW YORK CITY) Immigration and Customs Enforcement has sharply stepped up operations inside New York City immigration courts in 2025, turning the city into the main focus of a nationwide courthouse arrest campaign under President Trump. Through July, approximately 460 arrests linked to court activity occurred in New York City—more than any other city in the United States 🇺🇸, according to new analysis.
During late May and early June alone, half of all immigration court arrests nationwide happened in New York City, making the local courts a clear hotspot. Between May 26 and June 8, federal officers arrested 134 people inside Lower Manhattan immigration courthouse buildings. That two‑week blitz accounted for nearly a third of all immigration arrests in the city during that window.
The surge began nationwide on May 19 and escalated in New York City several days later, catching even Department of Homeland Security prosecutors off guard as many were suddenly told to appear in person rather than continue virtual participation.
Organization and tactics inside courthouses
Officials and attorneys describe a highly organized operation. Agents position themselves in corridors, elevators, and lobbies at 26 Federal Plaza, 201 Varick Street, and 290 Broadway—Manhattan’s three federal immigration court locations. Many officers have been pulled from other federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Treasury and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to carry out target‑list arrests.
Immigration judges have watched arrests unfold in real time. Judge John Siemietkowski warned one courtroom: “You may see someone you know get arrested. You yourself may get arrested.”
In one incident, a man from the Dominican Republic was grabbed by the shoulders immediately after leaving Siemietkowski’s courtroom, in plain view of the judge’s dais. The approach—waiting inside federal buildings where people come for hearings—has reshaped the risk calculus for immigrants and their lawyers.
According to analysis by VisaVerge.com, the trend is reshaping how people decide whether to seek relief in court or attempt to resolve their cases from outside the courthouse.
Scale and demographics
The numbers show how unusual New York City has become. Since President Trump took office on January 20, 2025, immigration courthouse arrests made up 7% of all ICE arrests in New York City, compared with just 0.5% nationally over the same period. That means courthouse arrests have been nearly 14 times more common here than around the country.
Key demographics and case details:
– Targets have mostly been adults, largely men, ranging from a 19‑year‑old from Venezuela to a 63‑year‑old from Ecuador.
– More than 90% of those arrested faced only civil immigration charges, such as crossing the border without permission.
– Very few had criminal records.
– Through June, only three of the 181 people arrested on hearing days had legal representation.
Court outcomes and government responses:
– Prosecutors asked judges to dismiss 100 of those cases after the arrests.
– Judges denied 69 dismissal requests, left 23 undecided, and allowed just 8 dismissals.
– As a result, 173 people were arrested while their cases remained open, forcing many to pursue asylum or other defenses from detention.
Courthouse enforcement has focused on people who entered the country less than two years ago, consistent with the administration’s stated aim of directing those cases into expedited removal proceedings to speed deportations and work around court backlogs.
Legal limits, scope, and comparisons
New York State’s Protect Our Courts Act (passed in 2020) bars civil arrests in and around state and local courthouses. But the law does not cover federal immigration courts, leaving the three Manhattan buildings outside the statute’s protections.
Similarly, New York City’s sanctuary rules limit city agency cooperation with ICE, but they do not stop ICE from acting on its own inside federal facilities.
Scale comparison (through July):
– New York City: approximately 460 arrests
– San Diego: 37 arrests
– Annandale, VA: 32 arrests
– Newark, NJ: 29 arrests
– Los Angeles: 6 arrests (within its three immigration courts)
Against that backdrop, New York City’s concentration of courthouse arrests stands out as exceptional.
Impact on courthouse environment and families
Inside the buildings, the atmosphere has changed. People arriving for hearings now pass officers waiting near elevators and doorways, often wearing masks and carrying paperwork tied to specific names. In some courtrooms, warnings come before hearings begin. The message is clear: showing up can lead to custody.
This has stirred fear among families weighing whether to attend scheduled hearings or seek legal advice, especially when a case hinges on in‑person testimony. The pressure extends to officials assigned to the strategy: multiple federal officers brought into courthouse details have privately expressed frustration with being reassigned from regular investigations to carry out courthouse arrests.
One immigration attorney, Allison Cutler, described the environment as a “pressure cooker,” saying each week felt closer to a breaking point. Some officers told her they plan to quit rather than remain on the courthouse team.
Courtroom flow has been disrupted:
– Arrests occur before or after hearings, so many cases do not progress normally.
– Judges faced a wave of post‑arrest dismissal requests, most of which they declined.
– Many defendants are now attempting to continue cases from detention.
– Families suffer missed work, school interruptions, and months of uncertainty while a parent or adult child sits in custody.
Data limitations and resources
The full scope may be larger than current counts show. Several known arrests, including that of 20‑year‑old high school student Joselyn Chipantiza‑Sisalema in late June, do not appear in official court records.
The tally cited here comes from an independent effort by mathematician Joseph Gunther, whose dataset is the first attempt to measure immigration court arrests nationwide and may still be an undercount.
For official information on how immigration courts operate at the federal level, the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review provides resources on court locations, procedures, and case status tools. Readers can consult the DOJ’s EOIR page for authoritative resources on the court system that hosts these proceedings: Executive Office for Immigration Review.
The scale, timing, and targets of the courthouse arrests mark a clear strategy shift in New York City, with impacts rippling through families, legal teams, and the court system itself. For now, the numbers show a city where courthouse arrests have become far more common than elsewhere, and where the federal enforcement footprint is visible from the lobby to the judge’s bench.
This Article in a Nutshell
In 2025 ICE sharply escalated courthouse arrests in New York City, totaling about 460 through July and concentrating a nationwide campaign in local federal immigration courts. A notable surge between May 26 and June 8 produced 134 arrests in Lower Manhattan. Agents positioned themselves in corridors and lobbies at three federal court sites, using personnel reassigned from other agencies. Over 90% of arrestees faced civil immigration charges and very few had legal representation; many remained detained while cases stayed open. The operations exploit a legal gap—state protections do not cover federal courts—and have disrupted court proceedings, strained families, and raised concerns about due process and access to counsel.
