County judge in Chicago area bars ICE from arresting people at court

By CHRISTINE FERNANDO Associated Press 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 up-to-date 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 likely 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 Precaution defended the practice of making arrests at courthouses calling it common sense We aren t particular medieval kingdom there are no legal sanctuaries where you can hide and avoid the consequences for developing the law DHS explained in a Wednesday announcement 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 ratified at least a dozen immigration arrests at or near county courthouses since the end of July when representatives reported 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 peril being arrested by ICE Cruz Rodriguez an assistant constituents defender with the office s immigration division disclosed 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 explained 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 explained 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 explained in a Wednesday comment to The Associated Press Evans noted 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 revealed in a report 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 officers and legal organizations and has drawn lawsuits from particular 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 Related Articles This family visit to a military base ended with ICE deporting a Marine s dad Feds seize billion in bitcoin indict crypto fraud kingpin who ran Cambodian forced labor camps State Department adviser charged with illegally retaining classified records Stocks remain unsteady on Wall Street amid agreement disputes corporate profit reports Storm decimates Alaskan villages and drives more than people from their homes Meanwhile Illinois Gov JB Pritzker suggested federal agents may have violated a ruling by a federal judge last week that revealed 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 reported he expected the attorneys involved to go back to court to make sure that is enforced against ICE ICE is causing this mayhem he noted They re the ones throwing tear gas when people are peacefully protesting The comments also come after Pritzker denounced Perimeter 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 public members detained by ICE majority in recent days a landscaper and father of three children detained earlier this month