ICE begins detentions at immigration courts in Boston and Chelmsford

At least three individuals were detained at immigration courts in Massachusetts on Tuesday — the first local immigrants to be detained in and around courts overseen by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office of Immigration Review. Similar arrests are being seen elsewhere around country, signaling a tactic change to a long-standing practice when it comes to immigration enforcement.

Two men were detained in a parking lot leaving the immigration court in Chelmsford after their hearings, according to several attorneys and immigration advocates. In Boston, a woman from Colombia was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement inside of the immigration court, outside of the room where she had just had a hearing. The woman, whose attorneys asked that she not be identified by name due to fear of repercussions in court, is married to a legal permanent resident.

GBH News was unable to independently confirm specific details of the three individual’s immigration cases and ICE did not respond to a request for comment.

“This is a very concerning trend,” said Adriana Lafaille, managing attorney at the ACLU of Massachusetts. “All people in the United States have a right to due process of law. And it’s really concerning to hear of ICE coming into immigration courts and then acting to deprive people of their day in court, trying to ship people away who have a procedure in that court that they’re entitled to receive by statute and under the Constitution.”

Individuals are required to go to immigration court for a number of reasons: for applications of immigration benefits or relief like asylum, adjustment of status, bond hearings, appeals, and alleged violations of immigration law. Missing a hearing can result in a judge issuing an order of removal, or deportation.

Attorneys say the tactic of courthouse arrests presents a difficult choice for immigrants who wish to follow the law, and not something previously seen under prior administrations.

“This is a flagrant violation of fundamental fairness in court and it has not been done under any other previous administration, not even during the first Trump administration,” said Heather Arroyo, senior immigration attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute.

The woman detained in Boston was in a hearing related to her immigration status when immigration judge Mark Donovan ordered that she not be subject to expedited removal, and that her status be adjudicated through the normal course of immigration court. Expedited removal means that federal authorities can detain someone and deport them without appearing before an immigration judge.

ICE’s Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, which represents the federal agency in court, had asked the judge to terminate her case.

Her immigration attorney, Christy Rodriguez of the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, asked for a continuance, which was granted by Donovan. Attorneys said this meant she couldn’t be detained since her case was still active in immigration court. Still, Rodriguez said her client was approached by about ten plainclothes officers outside of the courtroom and placed in handcuffs.

“I pushed back and said, ‘On what basis?’” said Rodriguez. “They said, ‘We’re going to put her into expedited removal proceedings.”’

She said that even after showing proof of the woman’s future hearing date, the agents said their orders were to take her into custody.

Attorney Benjamin Tymann, who is also working on behalf of the woman through a Massachusetts Law Reform Institute program, filed a habeas petition in Boston federal court arguing that her arrest violated her due process rights. District court Judge Leo Sorokin issued an order blocking her deportation or transfer to another state.

“She was wrongfully detained by ICE, in direct violation of immigration Judge Donovan’s order,” Tymann told GBH News. “ICE detained her immediately following that hearing and said they were seeking to put her into expedited removable regardless of what had occurred in the courtroom moments before.”

Tymann said he was still trying to figure out the whereabouts of his client. He called her detention “troubling” because it shows an “increasingly lawless approach by ICE in these matters.”