In the order, District Judge P. Casey Pitts determined that both of these policies were “arbitrary and capricious” and should be nullified under the Administrative Procedure Act. The decision, which applies nationally, curbs ICE’s ability to make arrests at immigration courts, where it has targeted immigrants attending routine check-ins over the past year. These arrests have been widely criticized for the way they’ve effectively ambushed people going in for mandatory court appearances and instilled fear among immigrants seeking due process. ″The policies entirely fail to address the chilling effect of courthouse arrests on noncitizens’ attendance at court proceedings, which is both a critical factor underlying ICE’s 2021 guidance and an ‘important aspect of the problem’ in its own right,” Pitts wrote in the order. Previously, the agency was able to apprehend people at these venues, but only in a very narrow set of specific circumstances. The judge’s decision effectively reverts to the prior policy. Federal agents detain a man after exiting immigration court at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building on July 23, 2025, in New York City.Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images“It is far from obvious that vacating the courthouse-arrest policies will significantly hinder ICE’s operation,” Pitts wrote. “Vacatur does not preclude ICE from conducting civil enforcement actions at courthouses; it merely reinstates ICE’s 2021 guidance and EOIR’s 2023 guidance, which authorized courthouse arrests in defined circumstances.”DHS General Counsel James Percival took issue with the decision in a statement posted to social media.“When a judge sentences a defendant, the defendant is taken into custody. If an alien is ordered removed by an immigration judge, the same should happen,” Percival said. “A district judge ordering otherwise is naked judicial activism in service of an anti-American, open borders agenda.”Tuesday’s order marks the latest court decision to restrict the Trump administration’s enforcement actions at immigration courts. As HuffPost’s Matt Shuham reported, a federal judge also temporarily barred federal agents from arresting people at immigration court in New York City this past May.