This is a heated House oversight exchange between Rep. Dan Goldman and ICE/Department of Homeland Security official Secretary Mullen about whether the administration follows court orders and whether ICE arrests people at immigration courthouses. Goldman argues the agency is ignoring or circumventing court limits and targeting lawful asylum seekers; Mullen repeatedly says DHS enforces the law and disputes Goldman's framing.
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This transcript is a combative oversight back-and-forth, not a broad policy presentation. Rep. Goldman presses Secretary Mullen on whether DHS/ICE follows court orders while cases are on appeal, and whether the department distinguishes between court orders it views as political and those it will obey. Mullen’s answer is consistently that DHS “enforce[s] the law every single day” and does not “pick and choose” which laws to enforce. Goldman pushes back that the issue is not abstract law enforcement but compliance with court orders, and he frames Mullen’s responses as evasive. A second major thread is Goldman’s focus on ICE courthouse arrests in New York. He cites a March letter from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York accusing an ICE lawyer of concealing a memo that allegedly undermined ICE’s courthouse-arrest policy. …
The near-term setup is legal and reputational, not tradable: the controversy can intensify if the New York judge’s order or the alleged concealed memo gets more attention. The immediate risk is further escalation in oversight rather than any clear operational clarification.
Over the next few weeks, watch whether DHS changes courthouse-arrest behavior or doubles down on its current interpretation of enforcement authority. The base case is continued litigation and congressional pressure until a clearer court ruling or agency directive emerges.
The structural issue is the recurring tension between immigration enforcement discretion and judicial limits on executive action. If these disputes spread, they point to a durable regime of tighter legal constraint and more frequent court-versus-agency conflict.
DHS enforces the law every day and does not pick and choose which laws it enforces.
Mullen uses this as his main defense when challenged on court orders and immigration enforcement.
Goldman says the administration should be following court orders, not just claiming it enforces the law.
He presses for an explicit commitment to obey court orders during appeals.
Goldman alleges ICE concealed a memo from a court and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in a New York courthouse-arrest case.
He describes an extraordinary letter accusing an ICE lawyer of concealing a memo that undermined policy.
How do you determine whether a court order is political or not, and do you follow it while it is on appeal?
The witness says they enforce the law every day and do not pick and choose which laws to enforce. When pressed on whether that means following a court order during appeal, he repeats that they enforce the nation's laws and do not choose selectively.
Did the agency discipline the ICE lawyer involved in the New York courthouse arrest memo issue?
The witness says he is not familiar with the case and would need to see it before responding. He does not provide any information about disciplinary action.
Will the agency stop arresting people at immigration courthouses without a final order of removal, including outside New York City?
The witness argues that if someone has a final order of removal, ICE can pick them up and deport them, and says the court has no authority to bar those arrests. He does not clearly answer whether the practice will stop outside New York City, and the exchange is cut off by the chair.
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