Judge strikes down ICE courthouse arrest policy nationwide

U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel on October 1 struck down the federal government’s 2025 policy allowing broad Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests at immigration courthouses, restoring restrictions on such enforcement and extending the ruling nationwide, according to accounts of his order. The decision followed a lawsuit brought by immigrant advocacy groups and found the policy arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. Castel granted summary judgment to the plaintiffs and vacated the policy as it applied to immigration courthouses. The prior rules, which allowed arrests only in limited circumstances, remain in place. The order does not eliminate every possible courthouse arrest: reports describe exceptions under the restored policy, though the full order’s precise geographic reach and legal effect are not available in the supplied material. The ruling extends a temporary stay Castel issued in May that had restricted arrests at immigration courthouses in New York City. Reports describe the October decision as applying nationwide, but vary in characterizing it as a nationwide ban, an indefinite block or a vacatur of the federal policy.