DOJ Sues New York State Attempting to Block the Protect Our Courts Act

New York State has a law called the Protect Our Courts Act that was initially enacted in 2020 which prevents individuals who are participating in a court proceedings from civil arrest while they are attending a court hearing or on their way to or from a hearing (it prevents officers from sitting in the parking lot of the courthouse or outside the courtroom waiting for a person to show up to a scheduled hearing then arresting them when they arrive or as they leave). The purpose of this law, as stated in the bill itself¹, “is to facilitate continued access to the justice system and courts by all members of the community without fear of immigration-related consequences.”

What is the Protect Our Courts Act?

The restricts federal enforcement operations at NYS Courts so that all New Yorkers have access to justice. The law does not prevent a person from being arrested. It simply restricts when someone can be arrested while attending a court hearing. Only judicially-signed warrants or orders may be executed in court buildings, and those must be reviewed by the court where a federal officer is seeking to execute the warrant or order. The court will determine the time, place, and method by which the warrant or order may be executed. If someone is civilly arrested in violation of this act, they may file an action in NYS Supreme Court to challenge the arrest. Further, it applies to civil arrests, not criminal arrests. A person with an outstanding felony warrant or a person who commits a crime can still be arrested without any restrictions.

This law was put in place because immigration officials were using NYS Courts as a tool for arresting individuals they believed to have violated civil immigration laws. By arresting New York as they arrived to their scheduled court hearings, immigration officials were essentially excluding immigrants from being able to participate in State Court proceedings or to avail themselves of the State Courts. Immigrants were unable to bring a lawsuit, respond to a lawsuit, challenge a parking ticket, etc. because if they attempted to appear for a hearing as instructed by the Court, immigration officials would be waiting for them and they would be arrested. This affected the entire immigrant population because most of the people who were arrested this way were not even aware that ICE was looking for them. Often times these stemmed from old immigration cases initiated back when they first entered the country many years prior (many from when they were children). The result was that all immigrants in NY had to fear arrest when attempting a State Court hearing, even if they had no reason to believe they had any warrants or were wanted by immigration officials.

This has become an issue now due to President Trump’s aggressive enforcement of immigration laws since taking office. On his first day in office he announced Executive Order 10866, Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border, which directs the Department of Homeland of Security to issue guidelines for the safe and effective enforcement of immigration laws around the country, specifically at or near courthouses.

DOJ Lawsuit

On Thursday, June 12, 2025, the United States filed a complaint against the State of New York, challenging the law for it blocking immigration officials from arresting individuals at a New York courthouse. Specifically, the complaint challenges the Protect Our Courts Act because they are alleging that it “purposefully shields dangerous aliens from being lawfully detained at or on their way to or from a courthouse and imposes criminal liability for violations of the shield. This law and accompanying polices violate the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution because they obstruct the execution of federal immigration authorities.” That is according to the official Press Release from the DOJ regarding their filing of this suit.

The DOJ’s press release references “Executive Order 10866, Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border, which directs the Department of Homeland of Security to issue guidelines for the safe and effective enforcement of immigration laws around the country, specifically at or near courthouses.” Executive Order 10866 was made by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1960 and it was titled “Designating the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization as a Public International Organization Entitled To Enjoy Certain Privileges, Exemptions, and Immunities².” New York’s law does technically “follow” this executive order since it was passed more than a half a century after it, but it seems strange to imply that NYS passed this law in response to Eisenhower’s executive order. Not sure what this is about.

This is the latest in a number of lawsuits the DOJ has filed challenging what they believe to be state interference with immigration enforcement. In May, the DOJ sued several New Jersey cities who had enacted similar policies. Trump’s administration has sued Colorado, Illinois, New York and several cities, including Chicago and Rochester, New York, asserting their policies violate the US constitution or federal law. Illinois, Minnesota and New York also were among 14 states and hundreds of cities and counties recently listed by the Department of Homeland Security as “sanctuary jurisdictions defying federal immigration law” according to the Guardian.

Read the full complaint HERE.

Why This Matters

The Trump administration’s use of Federal Immigration Officers to arrest immigrants at Courthouses is a big problem because it removes immigrants from the legal system in this country. Immigrants are left with no access to justice. Whether its child custody cases, traffic summonses, contract disputes, or minor criminal infractions people have to appear in Court at times to handle important aspects of their lives. If immigrants are not able to attend court hearings for these important matters they are forced to lose by default and they suffer the harms connected to the that.

It can also be used as a weapon to arrest immigrants who are trying to do the right thing by complying with court orders telling them to show up at court. Three US immigration officials told the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity that government attorneys were given the order to start dismissing cases when the immigrants would show up for the now-dismissed-cases on Monday, federal agents would be there waiting to arrest them as they left the courtroom.

This is a problem not only in State Courts but in Federal Courts and most commonly, in Immigration Courts. Immigrants right now are facing a really difficult decision every time they have an immigration check-in or immigration court hearing. Since ICE has been arresting immigrants at they show up for regularly scheduled check-ins and when they arrive for asylum hearing, those immigrants who are following the rules and doing everything they were supposed to do are being punished for doing so. That leads many to think, should I not show-up to my next hearing? Should I skip my next check-in appointment? Why go if you are going to be arrested? Some ask whether it would be better to stop attending court and to wait until Trump is out of office.

Stay tuned for any updates on the case. Read the full complaint HERE.