A George W. Bush-appointed federal judge has for now blocked Border Patrol agents from stalking a federal courthouse in southern California in order to detain immigrants who are appearing for their hearings, writing a “strongly worded opinion” that “[t]he court is not an ‘arrest pad’ nor will it ever be,” The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Courthouse sweeps by federal immigration agents have skyrocketed since impeached president Donald Trump’s inauguration, a move criticized by both advocates and judges alike for creating fear for those seeking justice and disrupting the court process. That now includes federal judge Dana Sabraw, who in 2018 also ordered an end to the Trump administration’s family separation policy at the southern border.
“The government has long had policies that allow for civil immigration arrests to take place within courthouses to some degree, although they have usually been reserved for special cases,” The Union-Tribune said. “That stance changed a few years ago with the Trump administration’s laser focus on ramping up immigration enforcement.”
In 2017, immigrant right advocates said that detainment and attempted detainment of people by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in New York courthouses had surged 900%, while courthouses elsewhere in the country even saw domestic violence victims despicably swept up by immigration agents as they were going to court to seek protective orders against abusers.
“We understand that ICE favors courthouse arrests because it considers courts to be safe environments where officers are confident they can operate without danger,” nearly 70 former judges who wanted courthouses off-limits to immigration arrests said in 2018. “But it is exactly that sense of safety that we as judges tried to foster for anyone seeking access to justice, and that we believe ICE’s courthouse activities put at risk.”
The Union-Tribune reports Sabraw agreed with similar arguments made by the group of immigrants who sued over the sweeps and said in their lawsuit “that the practice was unconstitutional and that the threat of civil arrest in the traditional court setting discourages certain defendants, witnesses and spectators from appearing in court.” In states like New York, judges have also blocked ICE from such sweeps, calling them “illegal.”
The court, The Union Tribune reports Sabraw said in his ruling, “is a sanctuary—a place where parties and witnesses must be free from interference and intimidation to present their claims and defenses.” But under Border Patrol’s sweeps of immigrants appearing at the San Diego federal courthouse, he wrote “parties and witnesses are deterred from and fear coming to court.”
The report said that Sabraw’s restraining order is in effect for two weeks so that both parties can try to reach a resolution. ”If the parties can’t agree, the case can continue to be litigated.” The resolution should be that both ICE and Border Patrol get out of courthouses everywhere, period. That’s unlikely to happen under this current administration. But it’s something we can fight for in the next one.