ICE arrested Portland asylum seeker after judge said she was safe

On June 2, 2025, O-J-M arrived at Portland Immigration CourtImmigration CourtThe federal tribunal where removal proceedings are conducted and deportation cases are decided.Key ConceptImmigration CourtThe federal tribunal where removal proceedings are conducted and deportation cases are decided.Open conceptBookmark with no attorney for her first asylumAsylumA form of international protection for people fleeing persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a social group.Key ConceptAsylumA form of international protection for people fleeing persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a social group.Open conceptBookmark hearing. A DHS lawyer moved to dismiss her case. The immigration judge told her in open court: 'They won't be seeking to deport you if you agree to this dismissal.' She agreed. ICE agents arrested her in the lobby 60 seconds later.

The mechanism behind O-J-M's arrest was created by Congress in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. IIRIRA created expedited removalExpedited RemovalA fast-track deportation process with fewer legal protections than standard removal proceedings.Key ConceptExpedited RemovalA fast-track deportation process with fewer legal protections than standard removal proceedings.Open conceptBookmark — a fast-track deportation process with almost no procedural protections — and built the modern immigration court system under the Executive Office for Immigration Review, a DOJ component. Immigration courts are not independent Article III courts; they're executive branch adjudicatory offices where DHS is one of the parties.

ICE has arrested people near courthouses under multiple administrations. The Morton Memo of 2011, issued by ICE Director John Morton under President Obama, established prosecutorial discretionProsecutorial discretionThe authority of prosecutors to decide whether to bring charges and pursue casesKey ConceptProsecutorial discretionThe authority of prosecutors to decide whether to bring charges and pursue casesOpen conceptBookmark guidelines that listed courts, schools, and hospitals as sensitive locations where enforcement should generally be avoided. The first Trump administration rescinded the Morton Memo in 2017 under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and courthouse arrests increased. The American Immigration Council documented a 633% increase in courthouse arrests between 2017 and 2019.

Biden's DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued new guidance on September 30, 2021, restoring courthouse protections and listing immigration courts as sensitive locations. The Trump administration revoked those protections on January 20, 2025 — its first day in office. The May 2025 courthouse arrest strategy didn't just restore pre-Biden practice; it added a new layer: DHS attorneys in the courtroom actively triggering arrests by moving to dismiss cases immediately before ICE made contact.

The dismissal-then-arrest sequence worked as a legal trap because it shifted the respondent from standard removal proceedings to expedited removal the instant the judge granted the motion. Standard removal carries rights to a hearing, an appeal, and time to find counsel. Expedited removal, by contrast, has almost no automatic procedural protections and can be completed in days. A former DHS assistant chief counsel told NPR the change inverted what 'dismissal' means for people without lawyers.

O-J-M spent 42 days in detention, most of them in solitary confinement at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington. ICE placed her in the men's section of the facility because of her gender assigned at birth. She requested solitary confinement for her own safety. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture has classified prolonged solitary confinement as cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment when it exceeds 15 consecutive days.

The American Immigration Council analyzed FOIA data covering May 20 to July 28, 2025. ICE oral motions to dismiss increased by 633% after May 20. Of those motions, 86.5% were adjudicated the same day — eliminating the 10-day response period the court's own rules require. In Atlanta's W. Peachtree immigration court, judges granted every single oral motion ICE filed without exception.

Habeas corpusHabeas CorpusThe right to challenge unlawful imprisonment in court, allowing detainees to ask a judge whether their detention is legal.Key ConceptHabeas CorpusThe right to challenge unlawful imprisonment in court, allowing detainees to ask a judge whether their detention is legal.Open conceptBookmark is one of the oldest procedural rights in English and American law. The English Parliament codified it in the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 after decades of arbitrary royal imprisonment. Article I, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution guarantees it explicitly, calling it suspendable only 'in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion.' More than 3,000 habeas corpus petitions were filed in U.S. district courts by July 2025 as attorneys challenged courthouse arrests. It works — but only if the detainee survives detention long enough to file.

U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio ordered O-J-M's immediate release on July 14, 2025, after finding O-J-M had been 'deprived of her liberty without procedural due processDue ProcessThe fundamental constitutional requirement that government follow fair procedures and apply laws reasonably to protect life, liberty, and property.Key ConceptDue ProcessThe fundamental constitutional requirement that government follow fair procedures and apply laws reasonably to protect life, liberty, and property.Open conceptBookmark through the series of government actions.' Baggio said the government's legal justifications were 'shifting sands' and that it had 'failed to follow its own rules.' Oregon's federal bench was among the first in the country to push back on the courthouse arrest strategy at scale — a second Portland judge also ordered the immediate release of Y-Z-L-H, a man arrested the same way.

By March 2026, DOJ attorneys told a federal judge that the May 2025 ICE guidance used to justify courthouse arrests 'does not and has never applied' to immigration courts specifically. DOJ called it 'agency attorney error.' The admission means hundreds of arrests were defended in court on a legal basis that was wrong. DHS announced it would not change its policy despite the concession. Courthouse arrests had continued even as courts in New York, Washington, California, and Oregon issued injunctions against them.

The courthouse arrest pattern fell hardest on people with no lawyers. In immigration court, there is no right to appointed counsel — each person must find and pay for their own attorney or appear pro se. Of the roughly 2,000 people arrested nationally under the courthouse strategy, many had no attorney present when they agreed to dismissals they didn't understand. O-J-M had no lawyer when the judge asked if she agreed to dismiss; a pro bono attorney from Innovation Law Lab was in the building but ICE agents refused to let him speak to her.