Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is facing growing scrutiny for illegally detaining immigrants and even deporting people in direct defiance of judges’ orders under Donald Trump’s hardline immigration agenda. Recent cases and reports show a disturbing pattern where court protections are ignored, turning immigration law enforcement into a constitutional crisis rather than a public safety tool.
In December 2025, a federal judge in Maryland ordered the immediate release of Kilmar Ábrego García, finding there was no lawful basis for his continued detention after he had already been wrongfully deported once despite a 2019 ruling barring his removal.Reuters+2The Guardian+2 The court blasted ICE and Justice Department lawyers for misleading the court about where he could be deported and for trying to send him to third countries that had no connection to his case.
This is not an isolated incident. In New Hampshire, ICE unlawfully deported asylum seeker Guerra-Castañeda to El Salvador despite two federal court orders barring his removal while his case was pending; he spent nearly a year in a Salvadoran prison suffering torture and inhumane conditions.ACLU of New Hampshire In October 2025, advocates reported that ICE deported Chanthila Souvannarath to Laos in open violation of a federal court order that recognized his substantial claim to U.S. citizenship and prohibited his removal.National Immigration Project
Civil rights groups and the media have also documented hundreds of immigrants removed from the United States despite a judge’s temporary order halting deportations, prompting demands that Trump officials testify under oath about whether they violated the court’s directive.PBS Members of Congress have likewise called for investigations after reports that ICE has detained and even deported U.S. citizens, sometimes after holding them for days or weeks in immigration jails.Congressman Daniel Goldman
These abuses are reinforced by policies that strip immigrants of bond hearings and prolong ICE detention even after people win protections in court, making those victories “virtually meaningless,” according to immigration lawyers.Los Angeles Times+2The Washington Post+2 Watchdog agencies have repeatedly found that ICE detention practices violate federal standards and due-process norms.Office of Inspector General+2Office of Inspector General+2
The result is a system where ICE illegal detention, unlawful deportation, and disregard for immigration judges’ rulings are not rare mistakes but symptoms of a Trump-era immigration crackdown that prioritizes removals over the rule of law. For immigrant families and communities, this means living in fear that even a court victory may not be enough to protect them from being taken, jailed, or deported anyway. If law enforcement is able to to not abide by the law in these circumstances in what other situations will this be the case? Will it eventually affect American Citizens?
Photo Credited to: LA TIMES
