CHICAGO (AP) — A Cook County Supreme Court judge signed an order Tuesday night barring ICE from arresting people in court. Cook County, which also includes Chicago, has been the subject of a federal immigration crackdown in recent months.
Detaining people outside courthouses is a common practice for federal agents, who have been stationed outside county courthouses for weeks, making arrests and drawing large crowds of protesters.
The order, which took effect Wednesday, prohibits civil arrests of “parties, witnesses, or potential witnesses” during court proceedings. This includes arrests inside the courthouse, in the parking lot, and on surrounding sidewalks and doorways.
“The fair administration of justice requires that courtrooms remain open and accessible and that litigants and witnesses can appear in court without fear of civil arrest,” the order states.
The Department of Homeland Security defended its arrest practice in court as “common sense.”
“We are not a medieval kingdom. There are no legal sanctuaries where we can hide and avoid the consequences of breaking the law,” DHS said in a statement Wednesday. “There is nothing in the Constitution that prohibits us from arresting people who violate the law if we find them.”
Local immigration and legal advocacy groups, including the county’s public defender’s office, have called for such an order, saying clients are avoiding court for fear of being detained. The agency has confirmed at least 12 immigration arrests at or near county courthouses since the end of July, and representatives said at the time there was an increased presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement outside courthouses.
“I have talked many times with clients who have had to make the difficult decision of either missing court and getting a warrant for their arrest, or showing up in court and risking being arrested by ICE,” Cruz Rodriguez, assistant public defender for the agency’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division, said at a press conference earlier this month.
Domestic violence advocacy groups also signed a petition earlier this month asking Cook County Circuit Court Chief Judge Timothy Evans to issue the order. This comes after advocates announced that the woman was arrested by ICE last month while in domestic violence court.
Alexa Van Brunt, director of the MacArthur Justice Center’s Illinois office, which filed the petition, said she was “pleased” with Evans’ order.
“This is a necessary and overdue step to ensure the people of Cook County can access their courthouses without fear,” she said in a statement to The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Mr Evans said justice “depends on each individual’s ability to appear in court without fear or interference.”
“Our courts continue to be places where everyone, regardless of their background or circumstances, can feel safe and confident in participating in the judicial process,” Evans said in a statement.
Tactics used to detain people in Chicago-area courts include bigger jump in Court immigration control arrest all over the country. of Stormy immigration crackdown Court operations have been condemned by judicial officials and legal organizations; Lawsuits from several states and Adoption of the bill trying to stop that practice.
President Donald Trump’s administration sued New York state in June over a 2020 law that bars federal immigration agents from making arrests in state, city and other municipal courts.
Meanwhile, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker suggested that federal agents may have violated a federal judge’s ruling last week that says weapons such as tear gas and pepper spray cannot be used against journalists or peaceful protesters, after a coalition of news organizations and protesters filed a lawsuit over the conduct of federal agents during protests outside Chicago-area ICE facilities. Pritzker said he hopes the lawyers involved will “return to court to ensure enforcement against ICE.”
“ICE is causing this mayhem,” he said. “They are the ones spraying tear gas when people are peacefully protesting.”
The comments also came after Pritzker accused Border Patrol agents of using tear gas on protesters. gathered on Tuesday after a high-speed chase through a residential area on Chicago’s South Side.
Community efforts against ICE are also ramping up in the nation’s third-largest city, with neighborhood groups coming together to monitor ICE operations and film incidents involving federal agents in their communities.
On Tuesday, hundreds of people participated in “Whistlemania” events across the city, creating thousands of “whistle kits” containing whistles, “Know Your Rights” flyers and instructions on how to use them to alert neighbors that immigration officers are nearby.
There is also a growing number of GoFundMe pages being set up to pay the legal costs of community members detained by ICE, most recently a landscaper and father of three who was taken into custody earlier this month.
