Tug of war between ICE & fed courts

AN ACCUSED money launderer who made $100,000 bond but remains in jail is the latest person caught in a new skirmish between the feds and the courts.

Three times in the past six months, New York federal judges have told authorities they can’t have someone in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody when that same person has already made bail.

That was Brooklyn Federal Judge Dora Irizarry’s message on Salomon Benzadon Boutin, whose ICE custody actually made his criminal case go away.

Irizarry said the feds could release Boutin, 36, from immigration custody so he could fight the criminal case while out on bond. Or, she said, they could keep Boutin in his New Jersey jail and watch her dismiss the indictment.

Irizarry tossed the case Wednesday, once Assistant U.S. Attorney Srinivasan said wouldn’t be let go.

In the three cases, Irizarry and a Manhattan federal judge have noted judicial bail decisions are supposed to concern who is detained, not immigration authorities.

To fix the issue, the three rulings said prosecutors can go with the criminal case while the person’s out on bond, or have immigration authorities go with a removal case while the person’s detained.

“We’ve certainly seen a shift toward immigration detaining people that a federal magistrate judge has already determined are not a flight risk or a danger,” said Isaac Wheeler of the Federal Defenders of New York, the organization that has represented Boutin and the men in the other rulings.

He expects to continue fighting the issue in the months to come.

Before the case against Boutin — a PanamanianSpanish dual citizen who overstayed his visa — Irizarry made the same ultimatum in November on an illegal reentry case. Karthik Boutin