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A federal judge who has repeatedly blocked the Trump administration’s immigration policies dealt with another case on Tuesday, striking down laws that increase pretrial detention and longer detentions in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities.
In a 71-page decision, US District Judge P. Casey Pitts, appointed by former President Joe Biden, overturned the policies after finding that ICE and the Department of Justice’s Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) did not provide the reasonable explanation required under the Administrative Procedure Act.
The decision continues a pattern of Pitts intervening against the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Earlier this year, he blocked an ICE plan that would have allowed the agency to re-detain immigrants it had previously released. In another case, he ordered major changes at the San Francisco ICE detention center, citing overcrowding and conditions he found may violate constitutional standards.
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ICE agents review a list of names and hearing times inside the Federal Plaza courthouse before an arrest in New York on June 27, 2025. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP)
While Pitts’ order applies nationwide, it differs from the broader statewide laws that the Supreme Court found unconstitutional in its 2025 decision in Trump v. CASA. Rather than issue an executive order preventing the government from implementing the policies, Pitts left them under the Administrative Procedure Act. When a court vacates a policy, it removes the policy itself rather than limiting how it can be enforced.
Pitts’ decision comes after a lawsuit filed by an asylum-seeker group challenging ICE’s 2025 policies that removed restrictions on immigration detention in courts, including immigration courts, and a separate ICE policy that allows detainees to stay in detention centers for short periods of up to 72 hours instead of long federal ones.
The judge found that ICE failed to adequately explain why it abandoned earlier guidance that limited court-ordered detention based on concerns that it would prevent immigrants from appearing for trial and interfere with the administration of justice.
“As the Court has previously explained, the policies completely fail to address the negative impact of pretrial detention on non-citizen court attendance, which is a key element of ICE’s 2021 mandate and a ‘significant element of the problem’ itself,” Pitts wrote.
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Dozens of immigrants were arrested by ICE agents inside the Federal Plaza courthouse in New York City following their June 26 hearing. (Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu)
Pitts has been highly critical of the government’s handling of immigration detention. According to the decision, the administration spent months defending the policy as it applied to immigration courts before later revealing that ICE internally viewed the policy as ineffective there.
“There is nothing on the face of ICE’s 2025 court detention policies or in the administrative record to suggest that ICE contemplated removing all previous restrictions on enforcement actions in immigration courts without direction,” Pitts wrote.
Ultimately he concluded that the agency did not provide any explanation for the change.
“ICE’s 2025 detention policies do not reasonably explain (or even acknowledge) the agency’s discretion,” the judge wrote.
Pitts also abandoned a related EOIR policy that repealed the immigration enforcement mandate of the immigration courts. The judge found that the agency relied on flawed reasoning and failed to address evidence that detention in court could discourage immigrants from attending court hearings.
A separate judge struck down ICE’s nationwide waiver of its 12-hour detention limit. The waivers were approved after ICE reported that increased enforcement activity has reduced the capacity for detention and complex transfers to long-term facilities.
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Pitts found that the agency failed to consider alternatives, align its incarceration policy with standards or adequately address the fact that holding inmates in long-term detention facilities could create unconstitutional conditions.
“There is nothing in the memorandum announcing the waiver of the 12-hour detention or in the administrative record to suggest that ICE engaged in rational consideration of its responsibility to avoid creating punitive conditions of detention,” he wrote.
President Donald Trump speaks during the Medal of Honor Ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, June 18, 2026. The ceremony honors Capers, an 88-year-old Vietnam veteran, along with Colonel John W. Ripley, US Marine Corps (posthumous), and Major Nicholas Dockery, US Army (retired). (Al Drago/Getty Images)
Throughout the review, Pitts emphasized that the administration remains free to pursue stricter immigration enforcement policies if they follow the procedural requirements set forth by federal law.
“The agency cannot…
The ruling follows a similar ruling last month by US District Judge P. Kevin Castel in New York, who effectively prevented ICE from detaining immigrants at or near three Manhattan immigration courts while a separate challenge was pending.
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The Department of Defense strongly criticized Pitts’ decision.
“When a judge sentences a defendant, the defendant is incarcerated. If an alien is ordered to be removed by an immigration judge, the same thing should happen. A district judge issuing an injunction is a blatant judicial activism in the service of an anti-American, open borders agenda,” said DHS General Counsel James Percival in a statement.
