At Least a Dozen Migrants Arrested After Attending Immigration Hearings in Arizona

Multiple people who attended civil immigration hearings were arrested in Phoenix outside the courtroom this week.

At least a dozen people who attended a morning session of hearings in Phoenix were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and taken away in vans after prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss their cases, AZ Mirror reported.

Isaac Ortega, a Phoenix-based immigration attorney, said one of his clients was among those arrested Tuesday morning. He recalled that the officials who took the people refused to identify themselves and wore masks. It remained unclear whether his client was taken to an immigration detention facility in Eloy or Florence, or sent to another state.

"My client has no criminal history; he entered the U.S. through the CBP program," Ortega said. He added his client was preparing for a credible fear interview, the first hurdle as part of the asylum process when federal agents grabbed him from the court.

Most of the individuals who appeared in court were representing themselves and needed Spanish language interpreters. The cases were presided over by Judge Elizabeth Cottor and involved single adults and families with minors, according to AZ Central.

When asked by Cottor why the government was seeking to dismiss the cases, the attorney responded simply that "circumstances have changed" and that "it is no longer in the best interest of the government" to litigate them.

The arrests drew in a crowd of protesters and immigration rights advocates outside the courtroom, shouting down agents and providing advice to people heading into their hearings.

This isn't the first time ICE agents have moved to detain migrants who show up for their immigration hearings.

In Los Angeles, Lindsay Toczylowski, the president and co-founder of Immigration Defenders, said ICE agents inside immigration courtrooms began detaining people after government attorneys moved to dismiss their cases.

"There were two ICE officers inside the courtrooms who would notify the officers sitting in the hallway when a case was dismissed," she wrote on social media. "It appears the (government attorneys) were moving to dismiss cases where people have been in the U.S. less than 2 years. By arresting them post-dismissal they will now try to put them in expedited removal proceedings and move towards deportations at lightning speed."

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs denounced the arrests on a social media statement, saying, "we need to prioritize efforts to deport criminals and secure the border. Indiscriminately rounding up people following the rules won't make us safer."

A spokesperson for the governor reiterated the statement, saying Hobbs "supports securing the border and a focus on deporting criminals, but is firmly opposed to indiscriminate roundups and inhumane immigration enforcement practices. Gov. Hobbs is committed to protecting everybody's constitutional rights."