ICE's strategy allows for more arrests from immigration courts

on June 15, 2025

The strategy seems to be paying off: Last week, the administration touted two days of national arrest numbers topping 2,000, their highest since President Trump took office, according to DHS.

"This is all part of a strategy by the current administration to essentially bypass the legal system, to bypass courts, deny people the opportunity of getting a fair day in court in order to rapidly deport as many people as possible without respect for the rule of law," said Greg Chen, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

In response to questions about the new strategy in immigration courts, ICE said most people who entered the U.S. illegally within the past two years can be quickly deported.

"ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been," a spokesperson for the agency said in an email to NPR.

Not everyone caught up in this tactic entered the country illegally; those who entered using the CBP One app during the Biden administration were granted temporary permissions to reside in the U.S., which Trump has since revoked.

In order to reduce backlog, judges are encouraged to immediately make a decision on whether to dismiss a case from the bench, and without giving migrants the typical 10 days to dispute it.

A motion to "dismiss" a case in immigration courts used to be a good thing. In the past, that motion would remove the case from the court calendar and the migrant could seek relief from deportation through other ways such as by applying for asylum.

Under the new approach, after their case is dismissed, immigrants are arrested again, at times before even leaving the building. Then they're put in a process called expedited removal: a fast-track for deportation that does not guarantee the right to a day in court and comes with a five-year restriction on attempting to return to the U.S.

ICE arrested hundreds of people within the first few days of deploying this strategy in late May in immigration courts, according to a count from the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Immigration attorneys first noticed the new strategy in about 14 cities, and over the past few weeks has seen it expanded to other states and courts, including Boston, New York City and Northern Virginia.

The new strategy puts immigrants in a situation where they may face arrest or an order of removal even if they're following the steps to try to stay in the U.S. And if immigrants fail to show up for their scheduled court dates, that results in a final order of removal, too. The new policy penalizes those who thought they were doing things "the right way."