GEOFF BENNETT: After promising the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history, the Trump administration has made sweeping changes to the country's immigration system.

Some of those have been challenged in court.

And, on Friday, a federal judge barred the rapid deportation of hundreds of thousands of migrants who entered the U.S. legally through humanitarian programs.

The Trump administration is expected to appeal.

And many migrants still face an uncertain future.

William Brangham joins us now with more -- William.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That's right, Geoff.

In recent months, ICE agents have been arresting migrants outside courtrooms and courthouses.

Many of them are being seized immediately after immigration judges had terminated their cases, often at the request of the federal government.

Father Brian Strassburger is a Jesuit priest who serves migrants on both sides of the southern border.

He recently attended one of these immigration court hearings in Harlingen, Texas, and wrote an article for "American" magazine about what he saw.

And Father Brian Strassburger joins us now.

Father, could you just tell us a little bit about that case that you witnessed in Texas?

Who was before the judge and what happened that day?

REV.

BRIAN STRASSBURGER, Director, Del Camino Jesuit Border Ministries: Yes, thank you for the invitation to be here and to share the story.

In early July, I went to the immigration court in Harlingen because I had heard that, just like in courtrooms across the country, migrants at immigration court were being targeted for detention and deportation.

And I wanted to witness it with my own eyes.

And so while I was there that morning, a migrant walked in, Carlos.

He's been in the country for five years.

He's fleeing persecution in Nicaragua, where he was politically active against the government.

And he went to his court date and followed along with the judge who was giving him instructions around the next steps of his legal process.

This is someone, for the five years he's been in the country, has followed the law and done everything as instructed to him.

At the end of his conversation with the judge, she turned to a representative of DHS, who was also sitting in the courtroom, who leaned into his microphone and said: "The government moves to dismiss the case."

And so despite, Carlos' protestations, saying, "I'd like to continue my case, I have a case for asylum, I'd like to present it in a court of law," the immigration judge accepted the motion from the Department of Homeland Security and said, "Your case has now been closed."

So now Carlos is walking out of the courtroom.

I'm accompanying him, and he no longer has an active court case in immigration.

Outside the courtroom, there were two ICE agents waiting for him for exactly this reason.

They had their faces covered with masks.

They called him aside, took his possessions and handcuffed him in place of an unmarked vehicle to put him in a form of fast-track deportation called expedited removal, simply because of the fact that the judge had allowed his immigration court case to be closed just moments before.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You wrote in that article documenting this experience of yours that this was a breakdown of justice in America.

How so?

Because it sounds like Carlos had his moment before the judge, the judge heard him, the judge turned to the government and the government asked to dismiss it.

How is this a breakdown of what you argue is supposed to happen?

REV.

BRIAN STRASSBURGER: Well, what should happen is that Carlos should be entitled to present his asylum case in a court of law.

This was not the meeting for him to do that.

He had another one scheduled.

And the government said, we don't want to hear that claim or that case.

And they're doing that because they want to take advantage of a way to deport and detain people in higher volumes with more speed, without allowing them and entitling them to due process.

And so the fact that Carlos is there saying, I want to continue with my case, I want to present my case for asylum, it seemed like all of a sham, that he's having this conversation with an immigration judge.

She's explaining the next steps in the process.

And at the end, the government says, we don't want to put you through that process.

We found another way to get rid of you, to detain you and deport you faster.

Now, where is Carlos right now?

Carlos finds himself detained in a center in Louisiana, where he most likely is awaiting a credible fear interview, which is kind of a stopgap measure where perhaps he could be able to continue with an asylum claim.

But he's doing that while being detained right now, as opposed to being able to contact a lawyer to talk about his case, to present his evidence.

So it's -- again, it's tactics that are being used by the government to increase detention and deportation, and especially fast-track deportation, without allowing someone to go through the regular procedures of the law that have been part of us immigration policy for decades.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: As news of these kinds of tactics get out, I mean, you have been -- you're in touch with migrants on both sides of the border quite frequently.

Is it your sense that this is going to stop people from doing, as you say, their due diligence and trying to show up at court?

REV.

BRIAN STRASSBURGER: I get messages all the time now from migrants who have upcoming court dates who are terrified to go to court.

I know a young single mom with two kids who had an upcoming court date late July in North Carolina, and she was messaging me daily: "Father Brian, I'm so afraid to go to court.

I'm so afraid to go to court.

I have heard what's happening.

Can you get the read?

Is this happening in the court I'm going to?

Should I not go to court?"

And, of course, I encourage her, you have to follow the law, you have to show up in court that day.

And I was trying to help her and find things out.

And ultimately her court date got postponed.

And some courts are allowing people, migrants to present online, which is a way to kind of skirt this tactic by the government and still continue with your legal immigration proceedings.

And so we are trying to advise people that, if their court is allowing it -- them to do so to take advantage of these venues to avoid where this could happen.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: More broadly, the Trump administration argues that all of these different deportation techniques are removing what they argue are violent, dangerous criminals from American communities.

What is your overall response to that argument?

REV.

BRIAN STRASSBURGER: My overall response would be, meet the migrants that are being detained and deported.

I do so every day.

I mean, that's our ministry here on the border is to accompany migrants.

And what I see are people who are marked by faith, by values, contributing to our community, the kind of people that we want to be members of our community, to be our neighbors, to be our co-workers, to be the parents whose kids go to our schools.

And so I think people are waking up to that fact, to that reality that the Trump administration is promising mass deportations and to only target criminals, and it's coming up short because there's not a lot of criminals in the migrant population, unfortunately.

And so it's way to fill that gap, is to criminalize the migrant population among us.

But I would say anybody -- and I think many of the viewers probably have migrants in their community that they know and are familiar with.

And that's the best way to know and to realize that promise of the Trump administration just isn't true.

There are a lot of great members of our community who are being targeted for detention and deportation under this administration.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Father Brian Strassburger, thank you so much for joining us.

REV.

BRIAN STRASSBURGER: My pleasure.

Thanks again for the invitation.