County judge in Chicago area bars ICE from arresting people at court
CHICAGO AP Cook County s top judge on Tuesday night signed an order barring ICE from arresting people at court Cook County includes Chicago which has seen a federal immigration crackdown in latest months Detaining residents outside courthouses has been a common tactic for federal agents who have been stationed outside county courthouses for weeks making arrests and drawing crowds of protesters The order which took effect Wednesday bars the civil arrest of any party witness or feasible witness while going to court proceedings It includes arrests inside courthouses and in parking lots surrounding sidewalks and entryways The fair administration of justice requires that courts remain open and accessible and that litigants and bystanders may appear without fear of civil arrest the order states The U S Department of Homeland Guard defended the practice of making arrests at courthouses calling it common sense We aren t specific medieval kingdom there are no legal sanctuaries where you can hide and avoid the consequences for latest the law DHS disclosed in a Wednesday report Nothing in the constitution prohibits arresting a lawbreaker where you find them Local immigration and legal advocates including the county s masses defender s office have called for an order like this saying clients were avoiding court out of fear of being detained The office has established at least a dozen immigration arrests at or near county courthouses since the end of July when representatives noted they ve seen U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement s presence outside courthouses increase I have had numerous conversations with clients who are presented with a hard decision of either missing court and receiving an arrest warrant or coming to court and menace being arrested by ICE Cruz Rodriguez an assistant population defender with the office s immigration division mentioned at a news conference earlier this month Domestic violence advocacy organizations also signed on to a petition earlier this month calling for Cook County Circuit Chief Judge Timothy Evans to issue the order This comes after advocates reported a woman was was arrested by ICE last month while entering the domestic violence courthouse Alexa Van Brunt director of MacArthur Justice Center s Illinois office which filed the petition stated she was gratified by Evans order This is a necessary and overdue action to ensure that the people of Cook County can access the courts without fear she stated in a Wednesday comment to The Associated Press Evans declared justice depends on every individual s ability to appear in court without fear or obstruction Our courthouses remain places where all people regardless of their background or circumstance should be able to safely and confidently participate in the judicial process Evans noted in a announcement The tactic of detaining people at courthouses in the Chicago area is part of a larger jump in courthouse immigration arrests across the country The flurry of immigration enforcement operations at courthouses has been condemned by judicial functionaries and legal organizations and has drawn lawsuits from a few states and the adoption of bills seeking to block the practice In June President Donald Trump s administration sued the state of New York over a law barring federal immigration agents from making arrests at state city and other municipal courthouses Meanwhile Illinois Gov JB Pritzker suggested federal agents may have violated a ruling by a federal judge last week that reported they could not use tear gas pepper spray and other weapons on journalists and peaceful protesters after a coalition of news outlets and protesters sued over the actions of federal agents during protests outside a Chicago-area ICE facility Pritzker noted he expected the attorneys involved to go back to court to make sure that is enforced against ICE ICE is causing this mayhem he commented They re the ones throwing tear gas when people are peacefully protesting The comments also come after Pritzker denounced Demarcation Patrol agents for using tear gas on protesters who gathered Tuesday after a high-speed chase on a residential street on Chicago s South Side Area efforts to oppose ICE have also ramped up in the nation s third-largest city where neighborhood groups have assembled to monitor ICE activity and film any incidents involving federal agents in their areas On Tuesday hundreds of people attended Whistlemania events across the city and made thousands of whistle kits with whistles Know Your Rights flyers and instructions on how to use them to alert neighbors of when immigration enforcement agents are nearby An increasing number of GoFundMe pages have also been launched to pay for legal costs for neighborhood members detained by ICE the majority in recent times a landscaper and father of three children detained earlier this month Source
