Protesters: No ICE in court
Activists say their presence keeps people away and leads to bench warrants
Jose Carlos Padilla-Arreola beat his drunken driving charge last week, but he was led out of the courthouse in handcuffs anyway.
The 27-year-old from Mexico was arrested by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and is currently jailed and fighting deportation proceedings.
“His home and his family is in the U.S. and his place is here with us,” said Genoveva Padilla, Padilla-Arreola’s mother, during a rally outside Metro Court Wednesday morning. Several dozen people stood outside the courthouse with signs saying things like “Justice for all” and calling on the agency to be banned from courthouses.
Activists, attorneys and others said ICE’s presence in New Mexico courthouses, especially Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court, is pressuring people to stay away from courts, leading to bench warrants. Nearly 250 attorneys and retired judges signed a petition last month asking the state Supreme Court to require ICE have a judicial warrant approved by a judge before arresting someone in or near a courthouse in the state.
Andrew Ortiz, Padilla-Arreola’s attorney, said he noticed ICE agents “lurking” in the hallway at the courthouse and they took his client into custody as he left the court after the case against him was dismissed.
“It’s having a chilling effect,” Ortiz said.
No action or decision has been made on the group’s petition and in the past month ICE has made at least four arrests at Metro Court, said Daniel Vega, an organizer for the New Mexico Faith Coalition for
Immigrant Justice.
Adriel Orozco, an attorney for the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, said there were two such cases just in the past week.
“It does seem like ICE is increasing their presence here,” he said.
Barry Massey, a spokesman for the Administrative Office of the Courts, said the Supreme Court hasn’t issued a formal order regarding federal enforcement inside state courthouses. He said the court has the petition under consideration.
A spokesperson for ICE couldn’t be reached for comment on Wednesday. Previously, an official from the agency sent the Journal a memo outlining its policies concerning courthouse arrests.
It says that federal, state and local law enforcement throughout the country engage in law enforcement activity inside courthouses and that doing so can reduce the threat to public safety because people are typically screened by security when entering courthouses.
The memo said ICE agents should try to avoid confronting suspected illegal immigrants in places such as family court and small claims court, and that they should not target people like family members who may be with a suspected illegal immigrant during a court appearance.