Data offers glimpse into ICE agents’ presence in Boston district courts

The presence of federal immigration agents in local courthouses is not new. But data shows just how often immigration arrests have occurred in Boston during the second Trump administration.

At least 54 arrests happened at Boston municipal courthouses in 2025, according to data acquired from the trial courts by GBH News. There has been at least one additional courthouse arrests — also in East Boston — in 2026 so far.

“We’re seeing ICE in the courthouses on an incredibly regular basis,” said Jennifer Klein, director of the Immigration Impact Unit at the state’s public defense agency, Committee for Public Counsel Services.

People go to district courts for criminal and civil matters. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not disclosed the names and the circumstances of the immigrants it has detained at those courthouses.

“It’s really a question of what position are these people in? Is this following a conviction? Is it pre-conviction? If it’s pre-conviction, are they going to actually be given the opportunity to defend themselves in court?” said Sarang Sekhavat, chief of staff at Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

“We hear so much from this administration just claiming, 'Everyone we’re arresting is criminals. We’re going after the worst of the worst.’ But when you look at the actual statistics, that’s just not true,” he said.

Klein says some immigrants are charged with or arrested for minor crimes. State and local police fingerprint them, and that is immediately shared with the FBI through a database, and then on to ICE. ICE then immediately knows if someone is arrested.

Some immigrants are released on personal recognizance at their district court hearings. Then ICE agents are there to pick them. But that isn’t the only way the detentions are occurring. In fact, some people aren’t even detained, and are in court for minor crime allegations, small claims, or civil matters like housing disputes.

“We also are seeing ICE make arrests of people to coming to court on their own so they will wait and hear the name of the person when their case is called and then they will make that arrest as soon as that hearing is completed,” Klein said.

Advocates with LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of MA and other watch groups routinely get tips about agents seen in and around courthouses. ICE’s presence has been reported in courthouses statewide, with agents photographed in plain clothes, masks or Department of Homeland Security attire.

Data acquired by GBH News shows that at the eight district courthouses run by the trial court system in Boston, at least six had ICE present to detain someone last year.

At least 20 arrests occurred in the East Boston district courthouse in 2025, a neighborhood with a large immigrant community. The next highest number is at the Edward W. Brooke courthouse, with at least 15 arrests. Brighton, South Boston, Roxbury and Dorchester also had multiple arrests. At least one arrest occurred at Charlestown district court. The data shared with GBH News does not note the number of people detained at each instance.

No arrests occurred at the West Roxbury or Charlestown courthouses, according to trial court data.

Officers have also detained people at other types of courts. ICE agents were at Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston 147 times from January to mid-October, detaining 110 immigrants, according to federal data acquired by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California Berkeley and University of California, Los Angeles and analyzed by GBH News. Agents deported some of these individuals even though they had not been convicted of criminal charges.

“Courts are meant to uphold due process, not serve as pipelines to detention,” said Juan Soler, rapid response coordinator for LUCE. “When ICE uses courthouses as staging grounds for arrests, it turns justice into a trap and violates the fundamental promise of equal protection under the law. Massachusetts must act to ensure that those most impacted can seek justice without fear — because a legal system built on intimidation is neither fair nor constitutional.”

The rules

A policy statement from the Executive Office of the Trial Court last May outlines how court staff can interact with ICE. Court officials can’t initiate communication with ICE agents, but must provide publicly available information to agents when asked.

Under a 2017 state court decision, court personnel can’t detain an individual who isn’t in custody solely for the purpose of giving ICE officers time to take custody of that person under a detainer request. But if the person is released from custody and ICE is present, they’re allowed to enter the court’s lockup to take custody of the immigrant.

An ICE directive from the second day of the Trump administration outlines rules around courthouse arrests.

ICE can carry out civil immigration enforcements when they have “credible information that leads them to believe the targeted alien(s) is or will be present at a specific location,” and if the area has no laws imposed that bar it. There is no current state law barring ICE from arresting immigrants in and around courthouses.

The enforcement actions “should, to the extent practicable” be in a non-public area and “be conducted in collaboration with court security staff, and use the court building’s non-public entrances and exits.” According to the federal directive, agents should avoid enforcement actions in courthouses that are for non-criminal proceedings like family court and small claims. East Boston’s court has small claims hearings, but also criminal as well.

Recent situations have raised questions

In November, ICE detained Alejandro Orrego Agudelo in an alley behind the East Boston courthouse. He’d been arrested that morning over an alleged altercation with a neighbor, with charges that included resisting arrest and disturbing the peace. The incident represented a violation of the court’s policy of neither assisting or impeding ICE, according to the trial court.

ICE said it had a detainer for Agudelo. A trial court spokesperson said “since the incident in East Boston, the Security Department has held additional meetings with Chief Court Officers and Court Officers across the state to reinforce the policy, [related to courthouse interactions with the Department of Homeland Security].”

On Jan. 8 at the same court, another incident raised questions about protocol. Margaret, a local neighborhood ICE watch member, was sitting in the lobby observing ICE agents sitting on a bench near her.

GBH isn’t publishing her last name due to fear of retribution from her employer. She alleges she overheard two agents’ phone conversations, in which one said he worked with ICE and another mentioned he was in Minneapolis for three weeks “chasing Somalians.”

After a man walked in, the ICE agents approached him and pinned him to the ground during an arrest, as Margaret filmed. But then, a court official seized her phone out of her hand and deleted the video.

“He then went to my recently deleted file and asked me forcefully to provide face ID in order to delete the video from my recently deleted,” she described. “I said I was not willing to provide my face ID to delete it.”

A second court officer and Boston Police Department officer showed up.

“He told me that it was common sense that I was not able to record,” she said.

The officer kept her phone as she asked for the written court policies on recording and spoke with court staff.

Policy states that recording isn’t allowed in courtrooms due to privacy concerns, and that photos and videos can’t be taken anywhere inside the courthouse without permission of the court. Violation can result in confiscation of the device or a person’s removal from the courthouse, but the policy does not mention deleting the recorded material. A judge later determined Margaret could keep her phone and the footage.

The trial court office declined to comment on the incident beyond sharing its recording policy.