The State should act to restrict immigration enforcement operations inside New York courthouses.

One of the ways in which ICE agents have become more aggressive under the Trump Administration is by arresting (or seeking to arrest) immigrants who appear in State court for local matters. According to the Immigrant Defense Project, ICE arrests or attempts to arrest inside New York courthouses increased by 1,200 percent in one year, growing from 11 occurrences in 2016 to 144 in 2017, including 97 in New York City alone.

ICE’s predatory targeting of people who appear in State court for any reason is harmful to New York’s justice system. Indeed, this practice has been criticized by a wide range of stakeholders, including the New York City Bar Association, which wrote that ICE’s activities in and near State courthouses “pose[s] a threat to the New York State court system’s ability to ensure access to justice and the state’s overall community-based public safety goals.” Similarly, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has argued that “the presence of [ICE] officers and increased immigration arrests have created deep insecurity and fear among immigrant communities, stopping many from coming to court or even calling police in the first place.” The ACLU goes on to say that “[t]he impact of immigration enforcement at courthouses greatly undermines the security of vulnerable communities and the fundamental right to equal protection under the law, shared by noncitizens and citizens.”

Legislation known as the Protect Our Courts Act has been introduced in both the New York State Senate (Senate bill 425) and Assembly (Assembly bill A2176), which, if enacted, would restrict ICE agents from arresting people in New York State courts unless that ICE officer had a judicial warrant. Currently, ICE agents use administrative warrants that are signed by an ICE official, not a judge, when arresting a person at a courthouse. Under this legislation, however, ICE officers would be required to obtain a warrant that is issued by a federal judge in order to arrest a person, be them a victim, a witness, a defendant, or a visitor in support of a family or community member, in or in the vicinity of a courthouse. This reform would add additional protections for immigrants and ensure that they could appear in court and obtain justice without being arrested for an unrelated civil immigration matter.