On Thursday, indigent defense and civil rights groups asked the highest court in Massachusetts to prevent immigrants targeted for deportation from being arrested at courthouses by federal agents. They claim that witnesses, victims, and others are becoming too frightened to attend the institutions because of the practice.
The petition, filed in the Supreme Judicial Court, is believed to be the first legal challenge of its kind in the US. It follows objections by attorneys, judges, and advocates about the courtroom arrests, which, while also taking place during the Obama administration, have picked up pace since the Trump administration, according to attorneys. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice’s executive director, Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, says that communities are weakened and the fabric of society undermined when people are afraid of their judicial system.
In January, federal officials formalized a policy allowing agents to enter local, state, and federal courthouses to arrest immigrants despite advocates putting on the pressure to try and make courthouses into ‘sensitive locations’ that would ensure they were free from immigration enforcement in most circumstances. Other sensitive locations include schools, places of worship, and hospitals.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement insists that only threats to public safety, gang members, and convicted immigrant criminals are targeted at courthouses, along with immigrants ordered to be, or who have already been, deported from the US on at least one occasion. But, officials believe courthouse arrests are also safer for all concerned, due to the existing high-security precautions.