Cases · ICE civil arrests at immigration courts and state courthouses

Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen v. Sergio Albarran

Northern District of California · No. 5:25-cv-06487 · Class action

Latest development

Court vacated ICE and EOIR courthouse-arrest policies nationwide; government appeal pending

As of October 22, 2026, the June 30 judgment vacating the policies is on appeal in Ninth Circuit No. 26-4310, and the district court's July 10 order denied a stay pending appeal. No Ninth Circuit order on a stay was found in the public record reviewed. The remaining detention-conditions claims are in discovery under the July 22 case management order.

Status as of
October 22, 2026
Docket reviewed through
October 22, 2026

About the case

Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen, an asylum seeker, began this case with a habeas petition after ICE arrested her as she left a hearing at the San Francisco immigration court. An amended complaint added class claims, and the court later severed the individual habeas claims. On June 23, 2026, the court certified a courthouse-arrest class ("[a]ll persons who have an immigration court hearing in a proceeding on EOIR's non-detained docket in an immigration courthouse in ICE's San Francisco Area of Responsibility") and a detention class, granted partial summary judgment on the APA claims, and vacated ICE Policy Nos. 11072.3 and 11072.4, EOIR OPPM 25-06 and ICE's June 24, 2025 Nationwide Hold Room Waiver as arbitrary and capricious. It declined the government's request to limit relief to the classes because the policies apply nationwide by their own terms. The court entered a Rule 54(b) judgment on June 30, the government appealed on July 2, and the court denied a stay pending appeal on July 10. The government later voluntarily dismissed three earlier appeals in the case. Claims about conditions at ICE's San Francisco holding facility at 630 Sansome Street remain in the district court.

Relief

The vacatur sets aside the policies themselves and is not limited to the parties or the certified classes. It doesn't reach criminal immigration enforcement actions or civil arrests authorized by ICE's pre-2025 policy (ECF 222). The November 25, 2025 preliminary injunction on conditions at 630 Sansome Street is a separate order.

What's next

Ninth Circuit action in No. 26-4310: the July 7 time schedule order set the opening brief for August 17 and the answering brief for September 15, 2026; later changes weren't verified. The motion to enforce is noticed for hearing on November 5, 2026.

New on the docket, not yet reviewed

Nothing new since the last review.

Reviewed events

  1. Plaintiffs moved to enforce the detention-conditions preliminary injunction

    Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen v. Sergio Albarran · N.D. Cal. · Source

  2. Ninth Circuit dismissed another earlier government appeal

    Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen v. Sergio Albarran · N.D. Cal. · Source

  3. Ninth Circuit dismissed two earlier government appeals

    Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen v. Sergio Albarran · N.D. Cal. · Source

  4. Court set the schedule for the remaining claims

    Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen v. Sergio Albarran · N.D. Cal. · Source

  5. Court denied a stay pending appeal

    Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen v. Sergio Albarran · N.D. Cal. · Source

  6. Ninth Circuit docketed the appeal as No. 26-4310

    Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen v. Sergio Albarran · N.D. Cal. · Source

  7. Government appealed the judgment to the Ninth Circuit

    Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen v. Sergio Albarran · N.D. Cal. · Source

  8. Court entered Rule 54(b) judgment on the APA claims

    Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen v. Sergio Albarran · N.D. Cal. · Source

  9. Court vacated ICE and EOIR courthouse-arrest policies and the hold-room waiver

    Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen v. Sergio Albarran · N.D. Cal. · Source