Reporting from THE CITY‘s Gwynne Hogan and Haidee Chu reveals that half of all immigration courthouse arrests across the U.S. earlier this summer were in Manhattan, making New York City the nation’s capital for such arrests. They found that the surge in ICE courthouse arrests beginning in late May has made courthouse arrests 14 times more common in New York City than in the country as a whole.
Allison Cutler, Supervising Attorney in NYLAG’s Immigrant Protection Unit, spoke with THE CITY on what she’s seen unfold in recent months:
“We very quickly saw on the ground that the procedural posture didn’t actually matter,” said Allison Cutler, supervising attorney at the New York Legal Assistance Group. She is one of a handful of attorneys keeping watch on the courthouse arrests, and attempts to advise people without lawyers of their rights as they’re rushed away.
[…]
Meanwhile, immigration judges and court staff in New York are grappling with a grim new normal, with each of them struggling to work out the rules for their courtrooms.
A former New York immigration judge, who called fairness “the guiding star” of the system, called the shift in tactics deeply troubling and unprecedented.
Read the full story in THE CITY, originally published on August 11, 2025.
Chart: Haidee Chu / THE CITY
Source: Court data via Executive Office of Immigration Review; ICE arrest data via Deportation Data Project
