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SEATTLE: A transgender woman who says she was raped by Mexican cartel members told an immigration judge in Oregon that she wanted her asylum case to continue. A Venezuelan man bluntly told a judge in Seattle, “They will kill me if I go back to my country.” A man and his cousin said they feared for their lives should they return to Haiti.
Many asylum-seekers, like these three, dutifully appeared at routine hearings before being arrested outside courtrooms last week, a practice that has jolted immigration courts across the country as the White House works toward its promise of mass deportations.
The large-scale arrests that began in May have unleashed fear among asylum-seekers and immigrants accustomed to remaining free while judges grind through a backlog of 3.6 million cases, typically taking years to reach a decision. Now they must consider whether to show up and possibly be detained and deported, or skip their hearings and forfeit their bids to remain in the country.
The playbook has become familiar. A judge will grant a government lawyer’s request to dismiss deportation proceedings. Moments later, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers — often masked — arrest the person in the hallway and put them on a fast track to deportation, called “expedited removal.”
President Donald Trump sharply expanded fast-track authority in January, allowing immigration officers to deport someone without first seeing a judge. Although fast-track deportations can be put on hold by filing a new asylum claim, people can be swiftly removed if they fail an initial screening.
‘People are more likely to give up’
The transgender woman from Mexico, identified in court filings as O-J-M, was arrested outside the courtroom after a judge granted the government’s request to dismiss her case.
She said in a court filing that she crossed the border in September 2023, two years after being raped by cartel members because of her gender, and had regularly checked in at ICE offices, as instructed.
O-J-M was taken to an ICE facility in Portland before being sent to a detention center in Tacoma, Washington, where attorney Kathleen Pritchard said in court filings she was unable to schedule a nonrecorded legal phone call for days.
“It’s an attempt to disappear people,” said Jordan Cunnings, one of O-J-M’s attorneys and legal director of the nonprofit Innovation Law Lab. “If you’re subject to this horrible disappearance suddenly, and you can’t get in touch with your attorney, you’re away from friends and family, you’re away from your community support network, that’s when people are more likely to give up and not be able to fight their cases.”
O-J-M was eligible for fast-track deportation because she was in the United States less than two years, but that was put on hold when she expressed fear of returning to Mexico, according to a declaration filed with the court by ICE deportation officer Chatham McCutcheon. She will remain in the United States at least until her initial screening interview for asylum, which had not been scheduled at the time of the court filing, the officer said.
The administration is “manipulating the court system in bad faith to then initiate expedited removal proceedings,” said Isa Peña, director of strategy for the Innovation Law Lab.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not respond to questions about the number of cases dismissed since last month and the number of arrests made at or near immigration courts. It said in a statement that most people who entered the US illegally within the past two years are subject to expedited removals.
“If they have a valid credible fear claim, they will continue in immigration proceedings, but if no valid claim is found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation,” the statement said.
The Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which runs the immigration courts, declined to comment.
ICE has used increasingly aggressive tactics in Los Angeles and elsewhere while under orders from Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, to increase immigration arrests to at least 3,000 a day.
Tension in the hallways
In Seattle, a Venezuelan man sat in a small waiting room, surrounded by others clutching yellow folders while a half-dozen masked, plainclothes ICE officers lined the halls.
Protesters held signs in Spanish, including one that read, “Keep faith that love and justice will prevail in your favor,” and peppered officers with insults, saying their actions were immoral.
Judge Kenneth Sogabe granted the government’s request to dismiss the Venezuelan man’s deportation case, despite his objections that he and his wife faced death threats back home.
“I want my case to be analyzed and heard. I do not agree with my case being dismissed,” the man said through an interpreter.
Sogabe, a former Defense Department attorney who became a judge in 2021, told the man that Department of Homeland Security lawyers could dismiss a case it brought but he could appeal within 30 days. He could also file an asylum claim.
“When I leave, no immigration officer can detain me, arrest me?” the man asked.
“I can’t answer that,” the judge replied. “I do not have any connection with the enforcement arm.”
The man stepped out of the courtroom and was swarmed by officers who handcuffed him and walked him to the elevators.
Later that morning, a Haitian man was led away in tears after his case was dismissed. For reasons that were not immediately clear, the government didn’t drop its case against the man’s cousin, who was released with a new hearing date.
The pair entered the United States together last year using an online, Biden-era appointment system called CBP One. Trump ended CBP One and revoked two-year temporary status for those who used it.
Alex Baron, a lawyer for the pair, said the arrests were a scare tactic.
“Word gets out and other people just don’t come or don’t apply for asylum or don’t show up to court. And when they don’t show up, they get automatic removal orders,” he said.
At least seven others were arrested outside the Seattle courtrooms that day. In most cases, they didn’t speak English or have money to hire a lawyer.
A judge resists
In Atlanta, Judge Andrew Hewitt challenged an ICE lawyer who moved to dismiss removal cases against several South and Central Americans last week so the government could put them on a fast track to deportation.
Hewitt, a former ICE attorney who was appointed a judge in 2023, was visibly frustrated. He conceded to a Honduran man that the government’s reasoning “seems a bit circular and potentially inefficient” because he could show he’s afraid to return to his country and be put right back in immigration court proceedings.
The Honduran man hadn’t filed an asylum claim and Hewitt eventually signed what he called a “grossly untimely motion” to dismiss the case, advising the man of his right to appeal.
He denied a government request to dismiss the case of a Venezuelan woman who had filed an asylum application and scheduled a hearing for January 2027.
Hewitt refused to dismiss the case of a young Ecuadorian woman, telling the government lawyer to put the request in writing for consideration at an August hearing. Immigration officers waited near the building’s exit with handcuffs and took her into custody.