Judge vacates Trump courthouse arrest policy in nationwide immigration ruling

U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts of the Northern District of California vacated three courthouse-arrest policies and a detention-waiver policy on June 23, 2026, in Pablo Sequen v. Albarran.

The ruling goes beyond Pitts’ earlier temporary order, which applied only within ICE’s San Francisco Field Office area, including northern California, Hawaii, Guam and Saipan. Pitts vacated three courthouse-arrest policies and a detention-waiver policy under the Administrative Procedure Act, finding the government acted arbitrarily and capriciously.

At the center of the case is Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen, a Guatemalan asylum seeker whom ICE arrested as she was leaving a routine hearing at the San Francisco immigration court. Pitts found the government failed to give a reasoned explanation for the policies, ignored concerns about whether arrests would chill attendance at mandatory hearings, and brushed aside safety risks and the broader integrity of the immigration system.

Pitts also found the government failed to consider alternatives before loosening the courthouse-arrest rules.

The policy shift dated to January 2025, when Trump reversed long-standing limits on arrests at courthouses and immigration courthouses. The change ended decades of bipartisan practice treating those locations as sensitive spaces and drew criticism after masked federal agents were seen in courthouse hallways and confrontations outside courtrooms.

Pitts also rejected the government’s argument that the Supreme Court’s recent Trump v. CASA decision blocked nationwide relief. The judge found that CASA dealt with injunctions, not Administrative Procedure Act vacatur, leaving room for a ruling that reaches all immigration courts.

The decision also limits how long noncitizens can be held in temporary detention facilities after Pitts found the detention-waiver policy unlawful. Plaintiffs were represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, CARECEN SF and Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass LLP.

The case followed an earlier order on November 25, 2025, requiring ICE to fix unconstitutional conditions in short-term holding cells at 630 Sansome Street in San Francisco, where detainees had been held in unsafe and ill-equipped conditions. DHS general counsel James Percival criticized the ruling and said the administration may appeal, while the White House did not immediately respond.