For months, people with immigration court cases have faced an impossible choice: Show up and risk arrest, or skip the hearing and risk a deportation order.

A New York judge says federal agents can no longer make arrests without exceptional circumstances in and around three Manhattan buildings where immigration proceedings occur.

The decision halts a Trump administration practice that enabled agents to take into custody individuals who follow requirements to appear before immigration judges.

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The practice was seen last year when ICE briefly arrested New York City Comptroller Brad Lander while he escorted a defendant out of immigration court.

For months, people with immigration court cases have faced an impossible choice: Show up and risk arrest, or skip the hearing and risk a deportation order.

Con esta orden, un juez federal busca que los inmigrantes no tengan que elegir entre defender su caso en la corte o arriesgarse a un arresto al entrar o salir de sus audiencias.

The judge said ICE agents are only allowed to make arrests at immigration courts when there are ‘serious threats of physical harm to public safety.’

The arrest showed ICE’s “utter contempt for the rule of law,” the man’s attorneys said.