Key facts
- A federal judge vacated nationwide Trump-era policies allowing arrests at immigration courts.
- The ruling found the policies to be "arbitrary and capricious" and lacking reasoned explanations.
- The decision reinstates previous limitations on arrests and caps short-term detentions at 12 hours.
- The Department of Homeland Security criticized the ruling as "naked judicial activism."
A federal judge has vacated nationwide policies enacted under the Trump administration that expanded arrests at immigration courthouses and allowed for longer detentions in short-term facilities. U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts ruled that the actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review were "arbitrary and capricious."
The ruling, issued in a case brought by an asylum seeker arrested after a hearing, effectively reinstates previous policies that limited courthouse arrests to specific circumstances and capped detentions in short-term facilities to 12 hours, compared to the 72 hours allowed under the vacated Trump-era rules.
James Percival, General Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, criticized the ruling on X, calling it "naked judicial activism in service of an anti-American, open borders agenda." The judge found that the Trump administration failed to provide "reasoned explanations" for rescinding prior policies, as required by the Administrative Procedure Act.