Rage at bust of immig at B’klyn court
LEGAL EAGLES protested outside a Brooklyn courthouse Friday after federal agents took an undocumented Panamanian immigrant into custody at the building.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents picked up Diogenes Pinzon moments after he walked out of an eighth-floor courtroom in Brooklyn Criminal Court Friday morning, court officials said.
Pinzon, 38, was fighting a domestic violence case. His girlfriend accused him of threatening and robbing her on May 25, 2017.
“(It) was done extremely inconspicuously,” Legal Aid Attorney Rebecca Kavanagh said, describing the grab on Twitter. “If you are a non-citizen & have a case today in any court downtown Brooklyn, contact your lawyer ASAP.”
During his hearing, the more serious charges against Pinzon were dismissed, but he still faced some misdemeanor charges, sources said. He’s been arrested 15 times since 2005, authorities said.
Legal Aid and Brooklyn Defender Service lawyers began protesting outside the building moments later.
“We are appalled by yet another courthouse arrest by ICE,” the aid society and defender services said in a joint statement. “If the people we represent cannot safely appear in court to participate in their own defense – and, further, are sanctioned with warrants for not appearing – then the integrity of the whole system must be questioned.”
“This is intolerable,” the statement continued. “Something must change and it must change now. Courts must protect all those they hail into their chambers, not feed them into the Trump administration’s mass detention and deportation machine.”
Similar demonstrations were held outside Bronx Criminal Court in February when agents detained an undocumented Ivory Coast man following a court appearance there.
Sightings of ICE agents in or near courthouses around New York State spiked from 11 in 2016 to 139 last year, according to the Immigrant Defense Project.
The group has documented least 25 arrests both inside and outside courthouses and three attempted arrests in New York City since the beginning of this year.
Court officials have a lower number. Pinzon’s arrest is the fifth time this year an undocumented immigrant was arrested by the feds in a city courthouse, they said.
An ICE spokesman said that, under their current policy, “courthouses are not considered sensitive locations” — and arrests there will continue.
“Absent a viable address for a residence or place of employment, a courthouse may afford the most likely opportunity to locate a target and take him or her into custody,” the spokesman said.
Federal agents have to focus on courthouses in sanctuary cities like New York because local leaders refuse to cooperate with their mandate, the spokesman said.
“Now that some 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,” the spokesman said.
When “officers have to proactively search for these criminal aliens, regardless of the precautions they take, it needlessly puts our personnel and potentially innocent bystanders in harm’s way,” he added.