Illegal Alien Supporters Are Aghast At ICE Arresting Illegals At Courthouses

Illegal Alien Supporters Are Aghast At ICE Arresting Illegals At Courthouses

illegal immigration

There’s apparently some sort of impropriety over detaining people who are unlawfully present in the country in courthouses

ICE agents make arrests at courthouses, sparking backlash from prosecutors and attorneys

Octavio Chaidez was walking out of a Pasadena courtroom with a client last month when four men jumped up from a hallway bench and rushed toward them.

The men asked his client’s name. Then they pulled out badges.

“They say, ‘You’re Mr. So and So?’ and he says, ‘Yes,’ ” Chaidez said. “They show him a badge, and they say, ‘We’re from Immigration and Customs,’ and they took him in.”

Chaidez, who has worked as a defense attorney in Los Angeles County for nearly 15 years, said he had never seen federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents make an arrest inside the confines of a courthouse.

But in the past few weeks, attorneys and prosecutors in California, Arizona, Texas and Colorado have all reported teams of ICE agents — some in uniform, some not — sweeping into courtrooms or lurking outside court complexes, waiting to arrest immigrants who are in the country illegally.

ICE officials have defended the tactic, saying they make arrests in courthouses only when all other options have been exhausted. But activists, attorneys and prosecutors fear ICE’s increased presence in courthouses could deter other immigrants without legal status from appearing in court to testify as witnesses or answer warrants, which ultimately could endanger prosecutions.

Blah blah blah. It says it in the article: they’re in the country illegally, and this is a last resort. Wouldn’t be an issue if they weren’t here unlawfully.

What’s barely mentioned in this article, and barely or not mentioned in so many that mimic the LA Times one above, is that Mr. Chaidez’s client was a “previously deported Mexican national with a prior felony conviction for drug trafficking”. Coming back into the U.S. after being deported is also a federal felony. Why are we concerned about a criminal like this being made scared?

San Francisco Dist. Atty. George Gascon called ICE’s forays into courthouses “very shortsighted” because some immigrants here illegally will simply avoid court for fear of being arrested.

“The chilling impact that has on an entire community is devastating,” he said.

Well, perhaps they’ll be so afraid that they will leave the country they shouldn’t be unlawfully present in in the first place.

ICE’s recent action in courthouses has been, in part, driven by an increase in the number of local law enforcement agencies that refuse to comply with ICE requests to detain suspects in county jails, she said.

“In years past, most of these individuals would have been turned over to ICE by local authorities upon their release from jail based on ICE detainers,” Kice said “Now that many law enforcement agencies no longer honor ICE detainers, these individuals, who often have significant criminal histories, are released onto the street, presenting a potential public safety threat.”

Cooperate with federal law enforcement, and this won’t be an issue. Furthermore, getting them in courthouses means that the illegal alien in question will have to have gone through metal detectors and screenings, so they are less likely to have weapons on them.

Suspects have to pass through metal detectors before entering courthouses, meaning they are unlikely to be armed. In recent months, ICE has arrested several suspects in courthouses in Portland, Ore., and Southern California who had prior convictions for sex crimes, drug trafficking and drunken driving, she said. The suspect who was arrested in the Pasadena courthouse last month was a Mexican national with a prior drug conviction, according to Kice.

See? Barely mentioned. Makes it seem like he was busted for something low level, instead of trafficking. And, again, why are we worried about the feelings of people convicted of sex crimes and such? Get them out of the country.

As an LA Times op-ed by Henry Olsen notes, are these really the type of people the Democrats want to defend? Because they’ll have a hard time winning elections if they want to defend criminals.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.

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