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On the campaign trail, President Trump promised to carry out the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, focused on deporting people with criminal records. But now immigration officials are also going after people seeking asylum. That's a legal process intended to protect those fleeing persecution. KJZZ's Wayne Schutsky reports on how the process has changed at immigration courts in Phoenix and around the country.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY, BYLINE: Nearly 900,000 people filed for asylum in the U.S. in 2024 and began navigating a complicated legal process to seek refuge in the United States. Lynn Marcus is the director of the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Arizona.
LYNN MARCUS: So these include many people who have done things, quote, "the right way." Like, they came in lawfully, they were processed in.
SCHUTSKY: But she says the Trump administration is now using a new tactic to circumvent asylum seekers' due process rights.
MARCUS: And then, when they showed up at their courts, all of a sudden, there was this trickery.
SCHUTSKY: Marcus says prosecutors with the Department of Homeland Security are asking immigration judges to dismiss asylum seekers' cases, claiming the federal government had no interest in pursuing them.
MARCUS: As they were leaving the courthouse, they were arrested, taken into custody and then oftentimes just immediately deported.
SCHUTSKY: Witnesses say they've seen this multiple times outside the Phoenix Immigration Court and other courts around the country. Protesters like Samantha Cooley gathered outside that court last month after immigration agents began detaining asylum seekers there.
SAMANTHA COOLEY: I'm out here because how the Trump administration is doing anything they can to circumvent the law to deport immigrants without giving them their due process.
SCHUTSKY: In an email, an ICE spokesperson says the agency is detaining people using what's called expedited removal, which allows fast-track deportations for people who have been in the country without legal status for less than two years. The spokesperson says anyone with a valid claim will continue in immigration proceedings. But Jessica Cadavid, a Phoenix immigration attorney, says reports of detentions are making some asylum seekers afraid to show up for their court dates. But if they skip their court date, that can be used to justify deportation.
JESSICA CADAVID: All avenues are leading to deportation, when you do have a real legal claim.
SCHUTSKY: Federal law allows people who fear for their safety to seek asylum in the U.S. if they could show a credible fear of persecution in their home country. ICE officials did not respond to requests for an in-person interview. At a press conference in Los Angeles, Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem declined to directly address allegations that ICE is violating due process rights.
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KRISTI NOEM: Here's the deal, guys. My job is not to pick and choose which laws we enforce and which ones we don't. We have laws in this country, and they matter.
SCHUTSKY: President Trump won Arizona by more than five percentage points in 2024, in part by promising to ramp up deportations. And voters like Mario Fischbach say this new immigration policy is what they voted for.
MARIO FISCHBACH: He's doing a good job. It's not easy. He had to be flexible, and I think he's being flexible in a good way.
SCHUTSKY: But critics, including Democratic Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, say Trump is going well beyond what he promised on the campaign trail.
KATIE HOBBS: I want ICE to go after the criminals. I want them to focus on those deportations. That's what President Trump ran on. And now they're targeting people who are just trying to comply with the law.
SCHUTSKY: Lynn Marcus, the law professor, says she fears the administration is using these tactics to meet its goal of deporting 1 million people this year.
MARCUS: So the idea is, if you can skirt due process and interpret the laws in ways that are as restrictive as possible, then you can get your numbers.
SCHUTSKY: The Trump administration said it had deported around 200,000 people by the end of May. That pace suggests it's behind the president's goal to deport 1 million people without legal status this year.
For NPR News, I'm Wayne Schutsky in Phoenix.
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