Sworn testimony from a recently fired immigration judge in Massachusetts is shedding new light on how the Trump administration’s deportation tactics are playing out on the ground, alleging “collusion” between immigration courts aggressively dismissing cases and ICE agents waiting to arrest migrants outside courtrooms.
George Pappas, a former immigration judge who was fired in July, provided the American Civil Liberties Union with a sworn statement for a case filed by a Brazilian immigrant with a legal status who was jailed anyway for a month and recently released. The testimony detailed how the assistant chief immigration judge in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, issued a directive to dismiss any case when requested by the Department of Homeland Security’s lawyers, paving the way for agents to arrest migrants outside of courtrooms.
The directive stemmed from a Department of Justice memo issued in late May, directing immigration judges to summarily dismiss all kinds of pending cases, resulting in the arrest of migrants who properly showed up for court appointments. It’s led to chaotic scenes in courthouse hallways, like the one in June in which federal agents forcefully detained New York City Comptroller Brad Lander as he tried to shield a migrant from law enforcement.