NEW YORK – The New York State Office of Court Administration has halted the ability of United States federal immigration officials to arrest Caribbean and other immigrants in state courthouses without warrants.
Court officials last month issued the directive after receiving numerous reports about agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arresting immigrants after court appearances.
The non-profit organization Legal Services NYC said a coalition of more than 100 organizations across New York State issued a new report on April 10 measuring the harmful impact of ICE’s increased courthouse arrests on vulnerable immigrants’ ability to access justice, including survivors of domestic and sexual violence, victims of human trafficking, single mothers and immigrant youth.
The report, which surveyed judges, district attorneys, public defenders, elected officials and legal advocates from across the state, documents “irrefutable evidence of ICE’s devastating impact on New York State courts, including a 90 percent drop in calls made to immigrant hotlines reporting crimes in certain locations.”
The report also pointed to a 100 percent decline in U Visa certification requests from immigrant victims of crime in Manhattan Family Court and significant drops in other boroughs.
RISE
In addition, the report stated there’s a rise in ICE-related threats from abusive partners; a rise in victims afraid to testify or seek help from courts; and major ICE-related disruptions to court programs and practices.
“Stakeholders agree that New York State must take action,” Legal Services NYC stated.
The report recommended the Office of Court Administration adopt new rules to protect equal access to justice in New York.
“The data and experiences of court practitioners in this report underscore what advocates have been trumpeting over the last two years — ICE enforcement in our courts is instilling fear in immigrant communities, preventing victims and survivors of abuse from getting the legal help they need to keep themselves and their families safe,” said Terry Lawson, director of the Family and Immigration Unit at Bronx Legal Services, the Bronx office of Legal Services NYC.
“When people cannot access the judiciary, when they cannot pursue or defend their rights, when they must choose to stay home rather than seek access to justice, then a crucial branch of our functioning society is in peril, and it is up to all of us to protect it,” he added. “We must safeguard our courts.”
HAVOC
Mizue Aizeki, acting executive director of the Immigrant Defense Project, another New York-based non-profit organization, said the different perspectives offered in the report “highlight the havoc that ICE’s practices are wreaking on the court system in New York State.
“Judges, public defenders, district attorneys, anti-violence advocates, elected officials and others have all repeatedly called on ICE to stop courthouse arrests,” he said. “Yet ICE continues to refuse, instead escalating courthouse arrests and spreading its disruptive and harmful tactics throughout New York State.”
New York State Attorney General Letitia James, a former New York City public advocate, also weighed in on the crisis.
“Safe and universal access to the court of law are key to a fair, democratic society and a basic requirement in the vindication of individual rights,” she noted in a statement. “ICE’s indiscriminate campaign of courthouse arrests puts all New Yorkers at risk and goes against everything we stand for.”
The Immigrant Defense Project said last month that it has documented a 1,700 percent increase in ICE arrests and attempted arrests across New York State under the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The Immigrant Defense Project said the new court rule came after a two-year community campaign by “The ICE Out of Courts Coalition” pushing for court rules and legislation to keep ICE from “laying in wait” for immigrant survivors of violence, witnesses, defendants and family members in and around courthouses across New York.
