Reports of an aggressive new Trump administration initiative that is ramping up deportations by arresting noncitizens at courthouses are sparking fear in Kansas City’s migrant communities and confusion at the federal immigration court.
Some migrants are showing up for court appearances only to learn that their cases are being dismissed — which was a good sign in the past because it meant they were free to go. But now, their status then triggers an arrest for “expedited removal,” part of a new tactic by Immigration and Customs Enforcement being used across the country that, for the first time, means arrests at federal immigration courts.
Immigration attorneys say some noncitizens with court appointments are skipping their hearings out of fear — a rock-and-a-hard-place choice that brings the same risk: deportation.
“You've got people who are basically thinking, ‘Damned if you do, damned if you don't,’” said Genevra Alberti, an attorney with Martinez Immigration Law in Kansas City.
Immigration attorneys have been monitoring the courts, located in a Crown Center high-rise at 23rd Street and Grand Avenue, for two weeks. That’s created another tension: agents and building security officers who are unhappy that the attorneys are handing out flyers titled “Know Your Rights,” printed in both English and Spanish.
“I think the chaos is the point. It’s meant to confuse and wear us all down,” Alberti said. “The chaos is the point and the cruelty is the point.”
New York, Miami, Phoenix and San Francisco, among other cities, have been subject to the new initiative, according to reports. ICE didn’t return an email seeking comment.
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin has said the Trump administration is reinstating the rule of law to protect the border.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently confirmed that arrest quotas for immigration agents have doubled, NPR reported, from 1,800 to 3,000 a day. More than 48,000 people are currently being held in immigration detention, about a 20% increase since January, according to ICE.
Angela Ferguson, an immigration attorney, was kicked out of the Kansas City court’s building last week, only to be retrieved by Judge Jayme Salinardi, who intervened when the building’s security guards tried to take Ferguson and some immigration advocates away.
In Kansas City, under this new ICE tactic, three immigrants’ cases were terminated by DHS attorneys on May 22, Ferguson said, meaning the judge lost jurisdiction over the case. The three “think they’re free and they walk straight into the arms of the ICE agents who are waiting outside,” she said.
On Tuesday of this week, Ferguson said 30 people were on the docket and only 11 people showed up, so 17 “absentia” or deportation orders were issued.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’ve seen fewer people in the waiting rooms,” Ferguson said. “Other courts in other states have had a much worse situation than we have. The chief judge (in Kansas City) is trying to work with us.”
The next ICE tactic advocates are starting to see is new requirements for immigrants to check in with federal officials more often than the usual annual report, Ferguson said, which she sees as a way to locate people for more arrests.
