Advocates Push Back On MA Courthouse Arrests

Civil rights and immigrant rights groups in Massachusetts are seeking to stop the increasingly common practice of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from arresting people as they come to court for other business. The immigrant advocates want the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to declare courthouses as "sensitive locations" -- like churches, hospitals and schools -- where immigration enforcement would be only in a dire emergency. It's believed to be the first petition of its kind in the country:

"The petition asks the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to issue a 'writ of protection' that would block ICE from arresting people in courthouses for civil immigration violations. The attorneys point to a common law doctrine that protects people who have business before a court from arrest on civil matters.

'It is based on a simple longstanding principle: If people fear arrest on unrelated civil matters, they will be hesitant to go to court, and that will severely undermine the functioning of our judicial system,'Wendy Wayne of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, Massachusetts’ public defender agency, said in a statement."

One example cited by the petitioning attorneys involves a women who wanted to go to court to renew a restraining order against her ex-husband who had abused her, but was too intimidated by ICE agents who might be at court. One can imagine cases where witnesses in criminal proceedings would not show up for court cases due to the situation in courthouses.

The action in Massachusetts comes as the conservative Federal Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled Tuesday that Texas could enforce a state law banning "sanctuary cities" and sanction local law enforcement officials for not cooperating with Federal immigration authorities on detainer requests. Like Arizona's notorious "papers please" SB 1070 law, the Texas bill (SB 4) also allows local law enforcement to check on the immigration status of people stopped for traffic violations and other business.

(photo: Old Granite Courthouse, Salem, MA)