As Vadzim Baluty watched his son Aliaksandr Baluty get arrested by six plainclothes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers directly after an immigration court hearing, he had the sinking feeling he\u2019d made a costly mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vadzim Baluty, accompanying his son for his first court appearance in his asylum bid, agreed last month when an ICE prosecutor offered to drop the case against the recent Belarusian migrant, not realizing his son would be swiftly detained as soon as the pair exited the courtroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI felt like we had fallen into a judicial trap,\u201d he said in Russian through an interpreter in an interview with The Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe left the courtroom and an ICE officer told us our son was going to be deported in three days. Nobody told us the decision that we made \u2014 what it was going to cause.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ICE prosecutors across the country are increasingly moving to dismiss cases against migrants in a bid to fast track their deportations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While a dismissal might seem like the end of a battle to remain in the county, some leaving courthouses have instead been met by ICE agents who are then free to arrest them and place them in expedited removal proceedings, speeding their deportation without a court hearing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rekha Sharma-Crawford, an immigration lawyer and board member with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) called it a \u201cbait and switch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe troubling thing here is that people are doing the right thing and going to court. They hear what they think is great news, that their case is dismissed. But instead, they are subject to a bait and switch and a plainclothes ICE agent will then arrest them. They are detained and then they are pressured to sign documents that basically sign away all of their rights, and they are subject to expedited removal and don\u2019t have a chance for a full and fair hearing,\u201d she said in a call with reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vadzim Baluty, a 47-year-old Belarusian political activist who was granted asylum in 2022 after fleeing the Lukashenko dictatorship, thought ICE was aware of his petition to bring his children to the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also didn\u2019t think Aliaksandr Baluty, now 21, would be deported after entering the country legally. His son was permitted to enter the U.S. through Mexico after waiting in the country seven months for an appointment made through the Biden-era CBP One app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such a dynamic has only become possible with the shift from the Trump administration, which has expanded the scope of expedited removals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the process previously was used only for migrants within two weeks of their entering the country and within 100 miles of the border, the Trump administration now allows the tool to be used up to two years after a person enters the U.S. regardless of where they are in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Critics call the move an end run around due process and fault the administration for using ICE officers who are often not in uniform and may be wearing masks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rep. Dan Goldman\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-N.Y.) went to an immigration courthouse in his district last week, sitting in on court proceedings and witnessing ICE prosecutors dismiss cases followed by migrants being arrested by plainclothes agents as they exited \u2014 something he called \u201cGestapo-like behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Department of Homeland Security has implemented, over the last week, a coordinated effort to do an end run around our legal system in order to remove nonviolent, noncriminal immigrants trying to come into this country through a lawful pathway of immigration proceedings, and in many cases, asylum proceedings,\u201d he said at a press conference afterward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBy recommending dismissal of their cases, the Department of Homeland Security is essentially taking jurisdiction away from the court, removing the asylum application from going forward, and then allowing the immigration agents to arrest these people and put them in a deportation proceeding under a different authority than the one that they just dismissed, which has fewer rights and applies in very few circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sharma-Crawford said it\u2019s especially confusing for pro se litigants \u2014 those representing themselves in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only are they being approached by plainclothes officers, but they may not know what to do next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those placed in expedited removal are not entitled to a hearing, but they can request an interview with an asylum officer if they fear they will be persecuted if returned to their home country. If they pass that screening, their case could be returned to immigration court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vadzim Baluty has since hired attorney Malinda Schmiechen to represent his son, who asked for the credible fear interview that would route his case back into the immigration court system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aliaksandr Baluty told them how during a visit to register for the mandatory draft, military officials in the country made a veiled comment about his father and said they were going to teach him to \u201clove the motherland.\u201d Another officer in the room said, \u201cYou will be in the army for your father.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe draft officer said that I \u2014 in the army \u2014 I would be punished for my father,\u201d Aliaksandr Baluty told an asylum officer, according to a transcript of the interview his attorney shared with The Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At his father\u2019s advice, Aliaksandr Baluty fled that night to nearby Georgia. Military officials later showed up at his mother\u2019s house with a forged conscription document, saying they would prosecute him as a draft dodger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Schmiechen was informed Thursday night, however, that an asylum officer rejected the claim, calling it \u201ca betrayal all around.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI feel like this is a betrayal against our law, against the America that is a sanctuary for so many, and against young Aliaksandr, who fled for his life and seeks to live peacefully with his family,\u201d Schmiechen told The Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s a betrayal because the government attorneys betrayed the law with their motion to dismiss, knowing that it would lead to Aliaksandr\u2019s detention. It\u2019s a betrayal because the American government is using taxpayer money unnecessarily to detain Aliaksandr, and it\u2019s a betrayal to Aliaksandr, whose detention is treating him like a criminal, though he\u2019s not one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The arrests come as the GOP at large has vented frustration at the immigration court system, where cases can languish in a years-long backlog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Department of Homeland Security defended the courthouse arrests as well as their use of expedited removal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n