Lawyers for ICE provided false information to federal prosecutors to justify seizing thousands of people seeking asylum and lawful immigration status in the U.S. at immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, the U.S. attorney’s office said in new court filings.
It was not immediately clear how the startling admission would affect pending deportation cases amid the Trump administration’s sweeping deportation efforts.
“The implications of this development are far-reaching,” NYCLU attorney Amy Belsher wrote Wednesday.
“In the months since the Court relied on the government’s representation to deny Plaintiffs preliminary relief, Defendants have continued arresting noncitizens at their immigration court hearings, resulting in their detention—often in facilities hundreds of miles away.”
The extraordinary revelation by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton’s office came in a lawsuit brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union and various civil rights groups and community organizations, which challenges federal immigration authorities’ practice of targeting people for deportation at the lower Manhattan facility when migrants leave immigration court hearings.
Federal law enforcement officers take a migrant into a stairwell after he was taken into custody inside the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News)
Thousands have been ambushed by masked ICE agents at 26 Federal Plaza while walking out of immigration court hearings and held in custody at the complex over the past year, according to ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Oestericher in a late Tuesday filing said an attorney for ICE had informed the office that a May 2025 ICE memo the government had heavily relied on to defend the government in the lawsuit “does not and has never authorized” civil immigration enforcement actions in or near immigration courts.
Telling Manhattan Federal Judge Kevin Castel the Justice Department would withdraw previous briefs that relied on the memo, Oestericher said there were opinions issued by the judge that would need to be reconsidered and re-briefed.
“We deeply regret that this error has come to light at this late stage, after the parties have expended significant resources and time to litigate this case and this Court has carefully considered Plaintiffs’ challenge to the 2025 ICE Guidance. This error, however, was not caused by a lack of diligence and care by the undersigned attorneys,” Oestericher wrote. “The undersigned were specifically informed by ICE that the 2025 ICE Guidance applied to immigration courthouse arrests.”
Federal law enforcement officers are pictured outside an immigration courtrooms at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
Writing the judge Wednesday, lawyers for the plaintiffs asked for two weeks to respond to the government filing and described the admission as hugely consequential.
This developing story will be updated.