The US Department of Justice has admitted to a federal judge in Manhattan that it presented false statements about ICE's authority to arrest immigrants at their own immigration court hearings, a misrepresentation the government now concedes was woven through multiple court briefs and at least one oral argument over the course of nearly seven months.
In a letter filed on 24 March 2026 with US District Judge P. Kevin Castel of the Southern District of New York, Assistant US Attorneys Jeffrey S. Oestericher and Tomoko Onozawa, writing on behalf of US Attorney Jay Clayton, described a 'material mistaken statement of fact' at the core of the government's legal defence.
