The moment a 38-year-old man from Venezuela walked out of the San Diego immigration courtroom Thursday, immigration agents were waiting in the hallway to take him into custody in handcuffs.
The man, an asylum seeker, still had an open case before the court. But that didn’t seem to matter.
He was among at least 11 people arrested on Thursday following their immigration hearings at the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building in downtown San Diego, part of a nationwide rollout of the Trump istration’s latest tactic to increase deportations.
“I was in complete shock,” his immigration attorney Leslie Santos said of the sudden arrest.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has begun detaining people in federal courthouses around the country, according to multiple news reports. The arrests continued Friday, with nine taken into custody, immigrant advocates said.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January that expands expedited removal. The American Civil Liberties Union has challenged the plan in court, and the government has filed a motion to dismiss the case.
Under the policy, undocumented immigrants unable to prove that they have lived in the United States for at least two years are subject to expedited removal proceedings. Because of this process, in certain cases, people could be removed from the country without a hearing before an immigration judge.
“Most aliens who illegally entered the United States within the past two years are subject to expedited removals,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Friday when asked about the courthouse arrests. “(President Joe) Biden ignored this legal fact and chose to release millions of illegal aliens, including violent criminals, into the country with a notice to appear before an immigration judge. ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been.”
DHS said “credible” asylum cases would continue to go forward.
“If they have a valid credible fear claim, they will continue in immigration proceedings but if no valid claim is found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation,” the agency said.
While many of the people arrested outside the courtroom in San Diego had their immigration cases dismissed by a judge in the moments leading to their detentions, according to the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium, Santos’ client did not.
The Venezuelan, whom Santos did not fully identify because she had not been able to ask his permission, fled his country to escape persecution as part of the LGBTQ community, the attorney said. Since entering the United States, he has lived in San Diego without any criminal issues, she said.
He arrived in the U.S. in June 2024 using the CBP One mobile application, which was required under the Biden istration for asylum seekers to legally present themselves at a port of entry for screening.
As the ICE agents handcuffed Santos’ client in the hallway, she asked them why he was being detained if his case had not yet been terminated. Even though government attorneys had requested a dismissal of the case, Santos opposed it, so the judge granted a 10-day extension to respond to the motion, she said.
“These actions are a deliberate attempt to crush the human spirit and undermine the very principle that our asylum laws are meant to uphold,” Crystal Felix, legal representative for the Immigrant Rights Consortium and an American Immigration Lawyers Association San Diego Chapter member, said in a statement. “It’s also a staggering waste of court resources — cases are scheduled, prepared, and then gutted at the last minute, showing blatant disregard for due process and efficiency.”
Word of arrests started coming in Wednesday, when a 22-year-old man from Venezuela was arrested as he exited the courtroom where his case had been dismissed by a judge, said his attorney, Michael Hirman. The man was only identified as José due to safety concerns.
He said José was a former military officer in Venezuela who was ordered to go against those who opposed the government. He refused, and he was tortured, Hirman said. He arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border in January and asked for asylum.
Hirman said he was surprised that the government moved to dismiss the case. He thought it was good news, as it would allow them to file a petition for him to remain in the country with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, since there was no longer a case in immigration court.
But as José hugged his extended family after the hearing, immigration officers approached him in the hallway. “It went from that to seeing them putting him into handcuffs and taking him away,” Hirman said.
He said that his client had a credible fear interview after his arrest, and he is hopeful that he will get another hearing.
With that arrest, immigrant advocates and attorneys were on notice.
On Thursday morning, Ruth, a volunteer who asked not to be fully identified for fear of retaliation, accompanied an asylum seeker from Colombia to his court hearing — something volunteers have been doing for a long time to migrants without legal representation. Eventually, she and other volunteers noticed immigration officers arriving in the hallway to detain people.
The Colombian man, who arrived in the U.S. about a year ago and did not have an attorney, was among at least three people whom immigration advocates said were arrested during Thursday morning. Like Santos, his case had not yet been terminated by a judge before being detained, Ruth said.
“He did his part and came here in good faith,” she said of the migrant.
The advocates then suspected that ICE was targeting individuals without legal representation, so they ed immigration attorneys.
“This level, this show of force is very unusual,” Ginger Jacobs, an immigration attorney who showed up to provide assistance and pro bono representation to immigrants, said of the ICE presence. She said that in her 23 years as an immigration attorney, she had never seen anything like the scene that was unfolding outside the courtrooms.
By afternoon, attorneys and advocates had pointed out that it didn’t seem to matter if the immigrant had legal representation or not to the dozen ICE agents in the hallway. What the migrants did appear to have in common was that they arrived in the country less than two years ago.
“My biggest concern is due process,” Jacobs said. “Are these people going to get a fair hearing? If they were already in immigration court proceedings, are these proceedings going to continue?”
Dozens of people watched and some recorded on their cellphones as immigration agents, with what appeared to be some kind of list in hand, handcuffed about a dozen immigrants as they exited different courtrooms inside the building throughout the day. Agents warned that they would be arrested if they interfered with an arrest.
One man began to hyperventilate while handcuffed on the ground after being detained. His attorney repeatedly asked the officers to show him a warrant. While the man was on the ground surrounded by officers, it became clear that he was not the person they were looking for, and they released him.
“Today was messy, it was ugly,” Michelle Celleri, legal rights director with the nonprofit Alliance San Diego, said Thursday.
Celleri praised the quick intervention of lawyers and volunteers who monitored the situation. But now, she believes the threat of detention in court could change migrants’ habits, forcing them further into the shadows.
“There will most certainly be fear in the community to show up,” she said. “However, people do need to show up to their hearings. If they do not show up, there will be an order of removal in their absence.”
