Court Strikes Down ICE Immigration-Courthouse Arrest Policy Nationwide

Status: Decided — Pablo Sequen v. Albarran (N.D. Cal. No. 5:25-cv-06487 (Pitts, J.))

On June 23, 2026, U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts granted the plaintiffs partial summary judgment and ordered a nationwide vacatur under Section 706 of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The court found that ICE and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) had abandoned long-standing limits on civil arrests at immigration courthouses, along with ICE's 12-hour cap on short-term holding, without the reasoned explanation the APA requires — making the policies arbitrary and capricious. Because the policies were nationwide agency actions, the court set them aside across the entire country rather than only in California. This is a final ruling on the merits, not a preliminary injunction.

Next step: Watch for a government appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and any request to pause (stay) the vacatur while an appeal proceeds; none was confirmed as of June 30, 2026.

Verified against the primary source as of 2026-07-25 — status can change with a single court ruling. Official source.

What’s happening

On June 23, 2026, U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts granted the plaintiffs partial summary judgment and ordered a nationwide vacatur under Section 706 of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The court found that ICE and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) had abandoned long-standing limits on civil arrests at immigration courthouses, along with ICE’s 12-hour cap on short-term holding, without the reasoned explanation the APA requires — making the policies arbitrary and capricious. Because the policies were nationwide agency actions, the court set them aside across the entire country rather than only in California. This is a final ruling on the merits, not a preliminary injunction.

Who it affects

People who attend hearings at immigration courthouses, and people held in ICE short-term holding rooms. The ruling restores the prior rules nationwide: civil immigration arrests in and around immigration courthouses are again barred except in limited circumstances, and ICE’s 12-hour cap on short-term detention is reinstated. It is a court ruling about agency procedure, not a change in immigration eligibility, and it can still be appealed.

How it got here

  1. Jul 31, 2025 ICE arrested lead plaintiff Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen, a Guatemalan asylum seeker, as she left a hearing at the San Francisco immigration court.
  2. Nov 25, 2025 The court issued a preliminary injunction ordering ICE to fix unsafe conditions in its San Francisco short-term holding cells and provisionally certified the affected classes.
  3. Dec 24, 2025 The court granted a stay pausing the courthouse-arrest policy within ICE's San Francisco region, temporarily stopping arrests at Northern California immigration courthouses.
  4. Jan 29, 2026 Plaintiffs moved for summary judgment, asking the court to make the relief permanent and extend it nationwide.
  5. Jun 23, 2026 Judge Pitts granted partial summary judgment and vacated the courthouse-arrest policy and the hold-room detention-waiver policy nationwide as arbitrary and capricious under the APA.

What to watch next

Watch for a government appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and any request to pause (stay) the vacatur while an appeal proceeds; none was confirmed as of June 30, 2026.

Official sources

This page is general information about ongoing litigation, not legal advice. A case’s status can change with a single ruling, and outcomes can turn on facts specific to each person. For advice on a specific situation, consult a licensed immigration attorney or a DOJ-accredited representative.