A federal court has granted a stay that largely bars ICE officers from carrying out civil immigration enforcement actions in and near three New York City immigration court buildings, a sharp setback for the agency’s courthouse-arrest tactics. The order covers 26 Federal Plaza, 201 Varick Street and 290 Broadway while African Communities Together and The Door’s lawsuit against Todd Lyons moves forward.
The ruling lands after months of litigation over whether ICE can arrest people who show up for court and then stop them from pursuing their immigration cases. The case was filed on August 1, 2025, and the court partly denied expedited relief in September 2025 before revisiting the issue after the government admitted in March 2026 that a 2025 memorandum does not and has never authorized any immigration courthouse arrests.
Under the stay, ICE officers are largely prohibited from conducting civil immigration enforcement actions at or near those locations and must follow the agency’s 2021 guidance, which allows courthouse arrests only in very limited circumstances. The lawsuit, brought on behalf of immigrants in New York City, targets policies that have made a trip to court itself a source of fear for people who are trying to keep their cases alive.
Amy Belsher called the ruling an enormous win for noncitizen New Yorkers seeking to safely attend their immigration court proceedings. She also said that for nearly a year, masked ICE officers had ambushed noncitizens in courthouse hallways, thrown immigrant New Yorkers to the ground and torn children from their parents, adding that ICE has now admitted it does not and has never had an explanation or justification for mass arrests at immigration courts.
The New York Civil Liberties Union said the government’s own admission undercut the courthouse-arrest policy at the center of the case. Hannah Steinberg said the court was correct to block what she described as the Trump administration’s inhumane and unlawful tactic of ambushing people who were complying with legal obligations at their court appointments, while Katie Rosenfeld said the ruling recognized what clients and immigrant communities had been saying all along: letting ICE arrest people at immigration court without limits undermines access to justice and erodes trust in the legal system.
The case was filed by the NYCLU, the ACLU, Make the Road NY and Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward Maazel LLP on behalf of African Communities Together and The Door. Beth Baltimore said staff at The Door continue to support members who were terrified to go to required court appearances, and that in the face of the administration’s ongoing targeting of young members, the decision brings hope.
The practical effect is immediate: ICE’s room to operate around some of New York City’s busiest immigration courts has been narrowed while the lawsuit continues, and the government’s own March admission has already stripped away the main explanation for the arrests the plaintiffs say were chilling attendance at court. What remains now is whether the agencies defending courthouse enforcement can justify any version of it under the 2021 rules the court has ordered them to follow.
