Attorney General filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California challenging ICE’s policy and practice of civil immigration enforcement in and around state courthouses, the attorney general’s office said.
The office said courthouse arrests spiked after ICE changed its policy in late May 2025: in the following year, the average monthly number of ICE arrests in and around California courthouses rose by more than 550% compared with prior months, with enforcement from Los Angeles and San Diego to rural courthouses in Shasta, Butte and Glenn counties.
The office said ICE's directive was vacated in late June 2026 in Pablo Sequen v. Albarran, but enforcement continued. It reported 34 enforcement incidents at superior courts statewide in June, resulting in 30 civil arrests, and 28 incidents in July, after the directive was vacated, resulting in 28 civil arrests.
The office described the enforcement as unannounced and often carried out by unidentified, plain-clothed officers who have apprehended court attendees in hallways, lobbies and parking lots; the office added the directive does not limit who may be arrested.
“The Trump Administration has systematically made our communities less safe with its insidious and unlawful enforcement actions in and around California courthouses,” Attorney General Bonta said in the release.
The complaint argues that ICE's courthouse arrests and the directive authorizing them are arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, exceed the agency's enforcement authority and violate the Tenth Amendment, the attorney general's office said.
The office said the enforcement actions have chilled witnesses, victims and survivors from coming to court, have jeopardized prosecutions and have disrupted court operations.
The attorney general’s office framed the filing as the state’s 100th lawsuit against the Trump administration in less than two years and said Bonta has pursued related legal actions and amicus briefs on immigration enforcement and detention conditions.
State
Rob Bonta
Attorney General · Democrat
Named 2 times in this story.
Portrait: Official portrait
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