Advocates of immigration rights say the new approach is causing confusion to see cases that were dismissed before ice agents enter.
Protesters stand up against federal agents outside Phoenix Immigration Court
Protesters confront federal agents outside the Phoenix Immigration Court chanting “Shame!” and “There’s no ice anymore!” May 21, 2025.
Federal agents, who are enforcing President Donald Trump’s plan to dramatically expand deportation, have adopted a new tactic to detain undocumented immigrants and have left mandatory court appearances.
In many cases, immigration rights advocates say people in detention only expected daily court check-in after being allowed into the United States during the Biden administration. Trump has ended many programs that Biden allowed undocumented people to enter and live in the country, and ice agents are now targeting those people for removal.
“This tactical escalation breaks trust,” the New York Immigration Coalition said in a statement. “People should be free to attend important courts without fear of being arrested, detained and deported outside the court.”
Under Biden, many people who crossed the border without permission were flipped over themselves, released domestic parole and later allowed to sue the case before immigration court. Some were released on orders to wear GPS trackers, while many others were told to return to court at the appointed time.
In addition to stopping people more aggressively at the borders now, the White House has given ice agents a new power to detain and expel people when they appear at those court hearings, as long as they have arrived in the United States within the last two years.
The change in tactics has prompted conflict between advocacy groups and ICE agents, injecting even more uncertainty into the lives of undocumented people who believed they had followed the rules properly. Some advocacy groups are suing to stop the process.
In Phoenix, ice agents detained more than 12 people outside the court over a two-day period on May 20th and 21st. Undocumented people who are normally going through the immigration court process cannot be deported until the judge issues a final removal order. However, federal lawyers have dropped these cases, allowing ice agents to dive into detention under the new Trump “quick removal” process.
Phoenix immigration attorney Nella Schaefer said some of her clients were ready to celebrate when federal lawyers stopped litigating against them. Instead, they handcuffed the court.
“It was a celebration of rejecting your case before,” she said. “No more. The government will have the opportunity to reprocess you under the new rules. That means.”
Immigration rights groups also report seeing federal immigration lawyers and ICE agents employing new tactics in New York, Seattle and Miami.
Trump repeatedly attacked Biden’s decision to allow millions of people to enter the United States. And Trump has also repeatedly complained that it would take too long to hold court hearings for all those people.
The administration adopted a series of new tactics to accelerate deportation, from calling the alien enemy law to expelling the accused criminal before appearing in court.
“We’ll take 200 years without exaggerating to everyone. “We’ll need hundreds of thousands of trials for the hundreds of thousands of offences we’re sending out of the country. That’s impossible. What a ridiculous situation we are.”
Immigration advocates and lawyers argue that running such a trial is a violation of the constitution and a violation of the constitution that ensures a legitimate process not only for citizens and other legal residents but for anyone in the United States.
Trump has pledged to deport one million people a year. This is a dramatic escalation from previous administrations, including his own first term. Congress is considering a proposal to add 10,000 new ice agents and double the number of detention beds.
During the 2024 presidential election, Trump repeatedly vowed that his administration would primarily target violent criminals. Advocates of immigration rights say the administration’s gathering approach targets people with criminal charges and even immigration violations.
Contributed by: Edwardo Cuevas, USA Today, Raphael Romero Ruiz, David Ulloa Jr, Richard Ruelas, USA Today Network
