A girl clings to her asylum-seeking father as he is swarmed by agents outside an immigration court in lower Manhattan. Another man, the fear clear on his face, turns back to his wife and daughters as an agent leads him away. Outside courtroom after courtroom, masked immigration agents wait for their next target, leaning against the walls until it’s time for the arrest.

Children play in the hallways, oblivious to what their families are facing.

The families came to these New York City courts because they were following the rules, summoned for hearings in asylum cases that had sometimes stretched out for years. The hearings were, very often, to deal with straightforward administrative issues in complex cases.

But when AP reporters, photographers and visual journalists fanned out to immigr

See Full Page