In possible first, groups petition to have ICE walled off from Massachusetts courthouses
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Civil rights groups are calling for a stop to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests at Massachusetts courthouses, a practice that has escalated since Donald Trump’s inauguration despite opposition from civil rights advocates and judges alike.In possible first, groups petition to have ICE walled off from Massachusetts courthouses
Civil rights groups are calling for a stop to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests at Massachusetts courthouses, a practice that has escalated since Donald Trump’s inauguration despite opposition from civil rights advocates and judges alike. “We encourage the vulnerable to come to our courthouses for help,” California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye wrote last year. “But immigration arrests, or the fear of arrests at or near courthouses, disrupt court activities and the lives of those seeking justice.” This week’s petition filed in the Supreme Judicial Court is believed to be the first of its kind: “When people fear our judicial system, that undermines the very fabric of our society and weakens communities,” said Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice, one of the groups that filed the petition on the immigrants’ behalf. Despite pressure from advocates to declare courthouses “sensitive locations” generally free from immigration enforcement, federal officials in January formalized a policy to send agents to federal, state and local courthouses to make arrests. Sensitive locations where enforcement is generally avoided include schools, hospitals and places of worship. But ICE has been testing the limits of its “sensitive location” policy for years, arresting a group of men who were reportedly leaving a church-run hypothermia shelter in Virginia just weeks after Trump’s inauguration. One expert said it’s possible “the federal government is obstructing justice by scaring witnesses and others away from court,” but earlier this year ICE formalized courthouse arrests on paper anyway, “dismissing complaints from judges and advocacy groups that it instills fear among crime victims, witnesses and family members”: The petition asks the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to issue a “writ of protection” that would block ICE from arresting people in courthouses for civil immigration violations. The attorneys point to a common law doctrine that protects people who have business before a court from arrest on civil matters. “It is based on a simple longstanding principle: If people fear arrest on unrelated civil matters, they will be hesitant to go to court, and that will severely undermine the functioning of our judicial system,” Wendy Wayne of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, Massachusetts’ public defender agency, said in a statement. Espinoza-Madrigal said the challenge to the courthouse arrests is the first of its kind and will likely spur similar legal actions in other states. “The immigrants cited in the petition include a man from Honduras who was violently attacked and is afraid to appear in court as a witness because he believes his attacker may tell ICE he’s living in the U.S. illegally. Another woman from Guatemala wants to go to court to try to force her son’s father to pay child support. A woman from Brazil cited in the suit wants to renew a restraining order against her ex-husband who she said threatened to kill her, but said she is terrified about what would happen to her son if she is deported.” Read more