Moments after an immigration judge extended his asylum deadline, a Bay Area man was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents outside a San Francisco courtroom, his wife said — leaving her stunned and scrambling for answers. The newlyweds, just weeks away from their six-month anniversary, had believed they were nearing the end of a long legal process, according to a GoFundMe page. Shaylyn Ordaz said she and her husband, Anyelo, had just left the courtroom on May 23 when immigration officers arrested him. “As I was taken away from him around the corner, I heard the handcuffs,” she wrote on the GoFundMe page. Anyelo came to the United States seeking asylum. After meeting in the Bay Area, Ordaz said, they got married and filed an 1-130 Petition for Alien Relative — the first step in helping a non-U.S. citizen spouse apply for a green card. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the I-130 is used to prove that not only is the couple legally married, but the relationship between the U.S. citizen and the person they’re sponsoring is a real one — not just for immigration purposes. Although Ordaz said her husband attended every required check-in and court hearing, a government attorney moved to dismiss his asylum case at the May 23 hearing. The judge presiding over the case initially gave him 10 days to respond, but extended the deadline to June 9 due to the holiday weekend, she said. Despite that ruling, ICE agents detained him immediately outside the courtroom, she said. He was briefly released by authorities with an ankle monitor, but then detained once more later that day for unclear reasons. “All they told me was ‘circumstances changed’ and that he could be released on bond,” Ordaz wrote. “They didn’t tell me how much, or how to pay it.” An officer handed her “a Google search printout of the detention center he was taken to, more than 5 hours away … My husband is being treated like a criminal, and ICE has given me no information,” she wrote. That marked the beginning of a disorienting and costly ordeal. Despite San Francisco’s sanctuary city status, federal agents are still permitted to conduct immigration arrests within city limits. Sanctuary policies restrict local law enforcement from assisting with immigration enforcement, but they do not prevent federal agents from carrying out arrests in public spaces, including courtrooms. Nationally, immigration enforcement is ramping up under new federal directives. As the Department of Homeland Security told SFGATE on May 28, individuals who entered the U.S. without authorization in the past two years are now being placed into expedited removal. This fast-track process allows deportation without a full hearing before an immigration judge — violating a legal process outlined by Congress that allows people to pursue asylum before a judge. Additionally, under federal law, people who qualify for asylum are allowed to remain in the U.S. while their claims are reviewed in immigration court. Experts say detaining asylum-seekers who are already in the legal process short-circuits that protection. “The law is very clear that when someone has an asylum application campaign, it is the role of the judge to decide whether or not that person is eligible to remain in the United States,” immigration attorney Milli Atkinson previously told SFGATE. “They’re trying to use a process that has normally only been used at the border for people who have just arrived to try to force people in expedited proceedings.” After several days of searching, Ordaz said she had finally secured an affordable attorney willing to take on the case. “That said, it’s hugely positive news just to know that we’ve made it through a week and are now gaining solid traction simply by finding someone to help us with the case,” she wrote in a May 30 update. SFGATE reached out to Ordaz, but did not receive a response.