A federal judge in California dealt a new setback to the immigration policies of the Donald Trump administration by blocking at the national level several measures that allowed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) to make arrests within immigration courts and extend the detention times of immigrants in custody.

The decision was issued by federal judge P. Casey Pitts, of the Northern District of California, who concluded that the policies implemented by the federal government were adopted arbitrarily and violate the United States Administrative Procedure Act.

In a 71-page opinion, the judge noted that lawyers for ICE and the Executive Office for Immigration Review did not offer sufficient justification to support the changes implemented by the Republican administration.

Ruling questions detentions in immigration courts

The practice of detaining immigrants inside courthouses began during the Trump administration and allowed federal agents to arrest people attending their own immigration hearings.

Organizations defending immigrant rights and Democratic legislators denounced for years that these actions generated fear among migrant communities and discouraged attendance at mandatory judicial processes.

According to Pitts, ICE was arresting people for the same alleged immigration violations that were analyzed by the judges in those hearings, a situation that, in his opinion, lacked a solid legal basis.

“ICE is not arresting people for unrelated crimes, but for the same immigration matters that are being reviewed in court,” the judge wrote in his ruling.

Prolonged detentions are void

The ruling also overturned a policy that allowed ICE to hold immigrants for more than 12 hours, and even for several days, while logistical issues related to space and capacity in detention centers were resolved.

Pitts determined that this practice could violate the rights protected by the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution, by subjecting detainees to conditions of confinement considered punitive.

The Trump administration's response was swift. James Percival, general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), called the decision an act of “judicial activism” and defended the government's power to execute immigration orders.