A federal judge in San Francisco ruled on Wednesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its Justice Department counterpart cannot engage in “sweeping” civil arrests at immigration courthouses in Northern California. 

“This circumstance presents noncitizens in removal proceedings with a Hobson’s choice between two irreparable harms,” Judge P. Casey Pitts wrote in his Christmas Eve decision.

“First, they may appear in immigration court and face likely arrest and detention,” the judge wrote. “Alternatively, noncitizens may choose not to appear and instead to forego their opportunity to pursue their claims for asylum or other relief from removal.”

The decision keeps ICE and the DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review from “lying in wait for asylum seekers and other noncitizens at routine hearings throughout the region — a move that would effectively restore pre-Trump prohibition on such arrests,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

A Manhattan district judge ruled the opposite way on a similar case this fall. That could lead to a Supreme Court challenge to courthouse arrests in 2026.

The Trump administration said it plans to appeal Wednesday’s decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.