The Memo That Said What ICE Already Did
The legal memo ICE used for more than a year to justify courthouse arrests does not, on its face, grant that authority — a fact ICE's own counsel has now confirmed in writing to the Southern District of New York.
#rule of law #deportation machinery
Since May 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been arresting undocumented people as they showed up for routine immigration court hearings at federal buildings such as 26 Federal Plaza in New York. The agency justified the practice by invoking an internal memo dated May 27, 2025, titled “Civil Immigration Enforcement Actions in or Near Courthouses” — the so-called 2025 ICE Guidance.
A March 2026 letter from Jay Clayton, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, recorded ICE legal counsel’s admission that the memo “does not and has never applied” to immigration court hearings. The arrests had been ongoing for more than a year by the time that admission was put in writing.
The legal authority pointed to had been a misreading of the agency’s own document. The displaced consequence — the people arrested, processed, removed, or released after the missed hearings — is not retroactive.