‘Rigged’? ICE agents are arresting people at Charlotte’s immigration court
Federal agents are arresting people at Charlotte’s immigration court, raising concerns about basic fairness in the legal system.
Several men waited in the hallway as people left courtrooms on Monday and Tuesday. The Charlotte Observer saw the plainclothes agents question one man and arrest another before loading him into a large, white, unmarked van on Monday.
They declined to answer a reporter’s questions. They wore T-shirts, jeans and baseball caps; one sported a Breaking Benjamin band T-shirt.
One man confirmed he worked for the Department of Homeland Security, which ICE falls under.
“It’s incredibly cruel to the people who are following the rules of the game,” local immigration attorney Andrés López said. “But the game is rigged.”
Charlotte’s immigration court hears cases from people in North Carolina and South Carolina. When the government accuses someone of being in the United States illegally, they usually receive due process in that court system.
An ICE spokesperson confirmed the agency is arresting people there.
“The ability of law enforcement to make arrests of criminal illegal aliens in courthouses is common sense,” spokesperson Lindsay Williams said in an email. “It conserves valuable law enforcement resources because they already know where a target will be. It is also safer for our officers and the community. These illegal aliens have gone through security and been screened to not have any weapons.”
A local immigrant advocacy group criticized the tactic. The Carolina Migrant Network described it as an attack on due process that was designed to intimidate people.
“Courthouses must be places where people can safely seek justice, defend their rights, and fulfill civic obligations — without fear of abduction,” the group said in a statement. “When ICE stations itself outside these institutions, it sends a chilling message to immigrant communities: that even the pursuit of justice puts them in danger.”
Agents wait outside Charlotte courtrooms
In Courtroom 1 on Monday, people facing deportation sat in for their master calendar hearing and listened as Judge Theresa Holmes-Simmons explained what would come next in their cases. She urged them to get attorneys and show up to their next court date in October. It was largely routine.
Every so often, though, those respondents sitting in the courtroom’s pews glanced out the door. In a nearby hallway, federal agents questioned people trying to leave the building.
For weeks, that has been the pattern, said López, the local attorney. Attorneys representing the government dismiss immigrants’ cases, he said, and ICE agents arrest those immigrants and place them into expedited removal proceedings.
To be placed on a list for expedited removal, someone must not have a pending case.
The Trump administration instructed immigration judges to allow the dismissals, according to a memorandum that NBC News reported on Wednesday. Immigration judges are not independent members of the judiciary like those in most courthouses. They work for the federal executive branch.
“You’re free to go,” Miami Immigration Judge Monica Neumann recently told a Colombian migrant after she dismissed his case, according to the Associated Press. Moments later, ICE arrested him.
‘They’re playing dirty’
López — whose law office shares a building with immigration court — described the dismissals and arrests as “unethical and dishonest.”
People accused of being in the country illegally should be able to argue their case, he said. Under expedited removal, that opportunity is largely gone.
He said he has been blunt with his clients recently.
“I tell them: There’s nothing that you cannot expect,” he said. “The point of this administration is chaos, cruelty and confusion. There is no certainty with regards to what is going to happen to your case because they don’t care about following the law or doing things that are fair. They’re playing dirty… They’re rigging the game in their favor.”
Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.
This story was originally published June 12, 2025 at 5:00 AM.