Two young men emerged from the Richard C. White Federal Building in Downtown El Paso on Thursday, laughing together as they turned left onto San Antonio Avenue. It was 1:50 p.m. and 99 degrees.

As they reached the corner of South Florence Street just a few steps away, a group of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents converged on them and grabbed Yasmir Marquez by the elbow. The two men were quickly surrounded by more federal law enforcement agents, one of whom showed Marquez a document. He turned to give his friend a hug before he was hustled into a waiting white van. Once inside, he was handcuffed.

Within three minutes, the other man stood alone on the sidewalk under the blazing sun watching in disbelief as the van drove away with his friend inside. “What the f— just happened?” asked the man, who was not arrested.

The courthouse arrests are a new tactic under the Trump administration’s efforts to scale up deportations, targeting migrants at immigration courts immediately after their court-ordered hearings. The migrants are ordered deported or have their cases dismissed and are then arrested by immigration agents as they leave the courtroom or the buildings, which allows for swift removal, the New York Times reported last week. 

The Times obtained an internal ICE memo circulated on May 20 that the news organization reported instructed government prosecutors to help deportation officers with the operation to identify people whose pending immigration court case could be dismissed. Without their case pending in court, the migrants could be subject to expedited removal that doesn’t require a hearing before a judge. 

Migrants arrested outside El Paso federal building after immigration hearings under new Trump expedited deportation strategy

DHS announced last month it was making “common sense courthouse arrests” months after President Trump lifted restrictions that had previously put courthouses, schools and churches largely off limits for immigration enforcement.