DOJ says it erroneously relied on ICE memo to justify immigration courthouse arrests

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News

March 25, 2026, 11:00 PM EDT


The Trump administration admitted in a court filing that it had erroneously relied on an ICE memo to justify arrests at immigration courthouses as part of an ongoing federal case brought by groups seeking to block the tactic.

Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that they had used the memo, titled “2025 ICE Guidance,” to defend the Trump administration’s deployment of ICE agents at courthouses, which led to numerous arrests of immigrants attending hearings.

The memo indicated that "ICE officers or agents may conduct civil immigration enforcement actions in or near courthouses when they have credible information" that a targeted person would be "present at a specific location.”

But, the Justice Department said in the court filing, the memo “does not and has never applied to civil immigration enforcement actions in or near” immigration courts.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/doj-says-erroneously-relied-ice-memo-justify-immigration-courthouse-ar-rcna265206

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A WHOLE FUCKING YEAR of a NIGHTMARE imposed on desperate people who were were FOLLOWING THE RULES by showing up to their immigration court appearances. But instead, like this country has done for CENTURIES against POC, THE RULES CHANGE, and people were body-slammed against walls and to the ground, kneed and handcuffed, dragged out of those courthouses, thrown into $100K each tricked-out vehicles, hauled off to concentration camps with inadequate food, bedding, toilet facilities or even medical care, then shoved onto planes, and drop-kicked in countries they had never been to.

[Scrivener7]

1. Why the fuck doesn't the DOJ know the law on its own?

[intheflow]

2. Bondi is a boot licking ass.

That’s the entire reason.

[Volaris]

4. Because all the competent lawyers are gone.

[Volaris]

5. And as a related aside, the normal process is that DOJ tells the rest of the govt

what the Law is and means, and not the other way round. I GUARANTEE YOU, this inversion is Stephen Miller deciding he can tell PammyJo what her job is, and she will damwell OBEY.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Exactly!

DOJ is supposed to be the "law firm" for the regulatory agencies of the federal government. I.e., if the agency was not one that was an individual LEO type, DOJ handled ALL of our agency cases.

So the agency program staff would compile their investigative evidence. would write up their reports, and then would provide recommendations (with citations back to the applicable law/statutes that the agency covered), hand it over to our own agency's legal group (who would clean up the citations and format it), and then DOJ took it from there.

They even gave us templates to use to fill out to make it easier for them to get started on our criminal or civil actions. We would have occasional interactions back and forth with whoever was assigned the case, and particularly if the case ended up going to trial and the agency staff would have to testify (rare as most settle and/or comply before getting that far).

They have now gutted DOJ so who knows what is going on there.

[CaptainTruth]

9. Law? Under the Trump Regime?

It's whatever they want it to be at the moment, & subject to change without notice.

[intheflow]

3. These fuckers cannot be locked up fast enough. n/t

[sinkingfeeling]

6. The highly esteemed DOJ is now the Keystone Cops.

[Attilatheblond]

8. So, DOJ now in a battle against DHS? 'It's their fault we keep breaking laws'! My my, so much blaming going on.

And War Lord Wanna-bee Trump is tossing Hegseth and his DOD under the bus. Judges are slapping the administration silly, and even GOP congressional members are noticing the excrement hitting the ventilating device is splashing nasty stink all over them as we approach November.

There's more than one war going on at present. One is going on in D.C. and it's coming as the war in Middle East is going Russia's way.

When does Congress realize the seriousness of letting Trump's team stay in power?

[BumRushDaShow]

11. ...

(sorry... had to )

[Attilatheblond]

12. That one is a KEEPER!

Where can a girl find that one to use in the future? Seems it will be relevant several times a day now.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. I found that years ago

and have a text file of graphics links like that to use here.

You can right-click and copy the graphic's URL to paste in a text file to copy/paste later for a post or save the actual image by right-clicking and saving it somewhere and then uploading it to one of the image file websites like imgur!

[Attilatheblond]

16. Got it saved and link bookmarked!

Many thanks, and I figure our lil off topic detour probably means others will have it too!

[BumRushDaShow]

18. No problem!

It's definitely represents how things are going now!

[LeftInTX]

17. It should be in DU's classic emojis!

[BumRushDaShow]

19. ...

[Martin68]

10. So the DOJ is accusing ICE of fraud.

[travelingthrulife]

14. Oopsie! We're just the DOJ. How could we have known.

Remove Bondi and Tawd today.

[republianmushroom]

15. Lying, corrupt, DOJ trying to cover their ass now.

[LeftInTX]

20. So, this differs from ICE detainers...

Last edited Thu Mar 26, 2026, 01:05 PM - Edit history (2)

Because they're doing this at immigration courts, asylum interviews, citizenship swearing in ceremonies, divorce courts, small claims court, witnesses, family members and I assume ICE check ins?

As opposed to a ICE detainer in criminal court.

ICE Detainer: Triggered when fingerprints from a local arrest are shared with ICE.

And unfortunately "targeted person" could be just about anyone who is not a US citizen. (The US has a "right to refuse anyone" policy. Similar to "no shirts, no service". That doesn't mean they have to refuse, but it does mean it is subject to the whims of whoever is running the country)

(Immigration is a complicated area of the law!) OTOH, apprehending someone when they are performing a mandated civic duty under the jurisdiction of the US govt, is unconscionable.

Likewise, apprending them while they're in the hospital.... I believe ICE has also done this...

OTOH: Will anything improve??? Or will DOJ just allow this to continue??

More in-depth here; https://courthousenews.com/feds-admit-to-misleading-judge-about-ice-arrests-at-immigration-courts/
And here from 2025: https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-greenlights-ices-courthouse-arrests-in-new-york-city/ (It looks like the same case, but this is sure going slow)

The prosecutor wrote that the government would withdraw several briefs that had relied on the memo, as well as certain statements made in oral arguments in federal court in September. Oestreicher wrote that a previous order from U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel would likely need to be “reconsidered and re-briefed.” In September, Castel ruled that ICE could make arrests in courthouses and also made it harder for judges to dismiss cases. https://newrepublic.com/post/208190/doj-ice-lies-immigration-court-arrests-nyc-new-york

Example from Reddit

I have an aunt that had an order of deportation 25 years ago for illegal entry into the country, when she entered she was caught and then released, there was later a court meeting she did not attend (she was unaware) and the judge ruled to give her a deportation order. This person stayed in the country, they are married to a resident who became a US citizen (she was been married to him since before she illegally). Now about 8 years ago the person started fixing up their status, they have 1 us citizen kid and are still married to the US citizen father of that kid.

With their lawyer they requested to stop their order of deportation (there was an argument that she never received the summons, I believe the case was reopened) which was granted and they also filed for the provisional waiver, the waiver would pardon her original illegal entry into the country. The process would then continue which would allow them to leave the country and reapply for a visa under a need to support her disabled child and father. They've been doing check ins for all those years, she was granted a work permit that is renewed yearly and everything was fine, the waiver was granted late last year. Problem is now the lawyer says they don't have an active stop for the order of deportation (apparently it's supposed to be renewed he had 2 requests which were both granted but then he stopped arguing under prior administrations once it was first granted there was no real risk of deportation specially during COVID so paying more to renew wasn't worth it).

This held true and after all those check ins she was never detained, there was never any issues. But without the stop, the next check in could be a risk, the lawyer tried filing for another stop of the order of deportation in july but he says it may not be granted in time for the next check in, next check in is next week.

Again the waiver was approved, everything was going well, there's no criminal record (other than the original illegal entry). Now they're waiting for the date of when they're supposed to fly out to request the visa, problem is this check in has them worried because the lawyer says under the new administration they don't follow traditional processes so something like being detained could be possible despite everything being fine for the last 8 years. Is she at serious risk?