MIAMI (AP) — Juan Serrano, a 28-year-old Colombian immigrant with no criminal history, attended a hearing in Miami’s immigration court on Wednesday as he appears to be a quick check-in.
Mustard, glass-shaped courts watch hundreds of such hearings every day. Most of the time, it’s the last one in less than five minutes, and the judge orders him to come back in two years and sue the lawsuit against deportation.
So, rather than setting a date for future courts, it was a surprise when government lawyers asked to withdraw the case. “You’re free to go,” Judge Monica Neumann told Serrano.
Except that he wasn’t really that way.
What awaited him as he left the small courtroom were five federal agents who cuffed him to the wall, escorted him to the garage, and whipped him in the van along with dozens of other immigrants who were taken into custody the same day.
They weren’t the only ones. This week across the United States, New York-to-Seattle immigration courts, Homeland Security officials are stepping up enforcement measures that look like dramatic dragnets that have adjusted the new legal levers deployed to make mass arrests by President Donald Trump.
While Trump campaigned on a massive removal pledge of what he calls “illicitors,” he struggled to carry out his plans amid a string of lawsuits, refusal to reclaim citizens of some foreign governments, and a lack of detention facilities to house immigrants.
Arrests are extremely rare in immigration courts run by the Department of Justice. When they occurred, it was usually because an individual was charged with a criminal offence or their asylum claims were denied.
“This is all about accelerating detention and promoting removal,” said Wilfred Allen, an immigration lawyer who has represented immigrants at Miami courthouses for decades.
An order was issued this week, officials say
Three U.S. immigration officials were given an order to begin dismissing the case when government lawyers attended work Monday, saying they know well enough that federal agents have free hands to arrest the same individual as soon as they left court. They were afraid of losing their jobs, so they spoke everything on the condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday, Associated Press reported witnessed detention and arrests and spoke with lawyers whose clients were greeted in immigration courts in Los Angeles, Phoenix, New York, Seattle, Chicago and Texas.
The latest efforts include people with no criminal history, immigrants without legal representatives, and those seeking asylum. Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres, an AILA practice and policy lawyer, said that despite custody over the past few months, the number of reports surged on Tuesday.
In the case of Serrano in Miami, the request for dismissal was filed by a government lawyer who spoke without identifying himself in the records. When the AP asked for the woman’s name, she refused and hurried out of court and passed one of the groups of Plain Cross federal agents stationed throughout the building.
The Department of Justice’s Immigration Examination Office, which oversees immigration courts, introduced the Department of Homeland Security to questions. The US immigration and customs enforcement agency, part of Homeland Security, said in a statement it is detaining people subject to expedited deportation authorities.
Outside Miami courthouse on Wednesday, the Cuban was waiting for his last glimpse of his 22-year-old son. Initially, when his son’s case was dismissed, his father assumed it was the first, positive step towards legal residency. However, the hopeful resignation quickly turned into a nightmare.
“My whole world has crashed,” my father said in tears. The man who asked not to be identified for fear of arrest described his son as a good child who rarely leaves his Miami home except for going to work.
“I thought it would be a good thing to come here,” he said of his son’s court appearance.
Antonio Ramos, an immigration lawyer whose office is next to the Miami courthouse, said the government’s new tactics are likely to have a calm effect in Miami’s large immigrant communities, and would discourage law-abiding individuals from appearing in court for fear of arrest.
“People will be more surprised than ever,” he said.
“He didn’t even have a speeding ticket.”
Serrano entered the United States in September 2022 after fleeing his hometown due to threats related to his job as an advisor to the Colombian capital, Bogota, according to his girlfriend, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being arrested and deported. She said he submitted a request for asylum last year.
She said the couple was working in a cleanup crew to remove debris near Tampa following Hurricane Ian in September 2022.
“He was shy and I was an extrovert,” said the Venezuelan woman.
The couple slept on the street when they moved to Miami, but eventually raised enough money.
The apartment stands in front of the Statue of Liberty in New York, visiting theme parks, relaxing on the beach, decorated with photos of the two. She said the two were hard work, socialized and lived a law-abiding life.
“He didn’t even have a speeding ticket. We both drive like grandparents,” she said.
The woman was waiting outside the court when she received a call from her boyfriend. “He told me to go, he had been arrested, but there was nothing more to do,” she said.
She was still processing the news and deciding how to break it with his older parents. Meanwhile, she called the lawyer recommended by a friend to see if there was anything to reverse the arrest.
“I’m grateful for any help,” she said, shuffling her boyfriend’s passport, migration paper and IRS tax receipts. “Unfortunately, many Americans don’t want to help us.”
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Associated Press Reporter Martha Belisle of Seattle, Sophia Tarene of Chicago, Valerie Gonzalez of McAllen, Texas, and Amy Taxi of Santa Ana, California contributed to the report.
