Re: Case Examples of Noncitizens Arrested by ICE in New York City Courthouses

Transcription

1 28 West 39th Street, Suite 501, New York, NY Tel: Fax: Deborah Fleischaker Senior Policy Advisor Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties U.S. Department of Homeland Security Building 410, Mail Stop #0190 Washington, D.C Re: Case Examples of Noncitizens Arrested by ICE in New York City Courthouses Dear Ms. Fleischaker, I understand that you are the point person within the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties monitoring cases of ICE courthouse arrests. The following case examples were compiled by the Immigrant Defense Project in New York City. Through our legal hotline and coordination of immigration attorneys at public defender offices, we have heard countless stories of ICE picking up noncitizens in courthouses in New York City. I have included below just some examples of this practice that is widely taking place across the city. Criminal defense attorneys report that these courthouse arrests are causing immense fear of returning to court amongst noncitizen criminal defendants. They also impedes the ability of attorneys to represent and properly advise their clients. As you know, access to courts is critical to ensuring equal justice under law, public safety, basic functioning of the criminal justice system, and protection for vulnerable groups. We ask that the Department of Homeland Security treat New York City courthouses and surrounding areas as sensitive locations under its current policy guidance (2011 ICE memo; 2013 CBP memo). We also ask that DHS issue uniform department-wide guidance that includes all courthouses as sensitive locations. Any questions about these cases can be sent to Alisa Wellek at the Immigrant Defense Project (alisa@immdefense.org or ). Thank you for your time and consideration, Alisa Wellek Interim Executive Director Immigrant Defense Project

2 Kings County (Brooklyn) Our client was arrested by ICE in Kings County Criminal Court last June while appearing on a turnstile jumping charge that was dismissed. He is a longtime LPR who has lived in the U.S. since age 1. He has been in immigration detention since last summer, an excellent work history, and is the father of a 6 year old USC daughter. He has an upcoming cancellation hearing. I don't have other details about the ICE arrest at this time. (Source: Cardozo Immigrant Justice Clinic) Romino I.: No prior order, no prior arrests. Client (a young man his early 20 s from Mexico) was arrested in Brooklyn in July of 2012 after allegedly touching the butt of a girl on the subway. A video was posted on a popular website (gawker.com) showing the client being held down by multiple individuals while two women (one of whom is presumably the woman he allegedly grabbed) pull his hair and yell in his face. The video shows the police arriving and taking the client away. He had no hold at arraignments. He reported no prior contacts with ICE. The judge set $1500 bail but we were able to have family in the courtroom to pay it before the client was sent to Rikers so he was released. ICE was there at the Brooklyn courthouse the next court date and took him into custody. (Source: Brooklyn Defender Services) My client was out on bail for unlicensed driving. He was sitting in the court part in Brooklyn waiting for his attorney and two ICE officers arrested him. They let him call his attorney to tell her he had been arrested by ICE. The criminal court judge issued a warrant anyway. He was NTA d and charged with an aggravated felony based on convictions, subject to mandatory detention. His criminal record is all misdemeanors. However, he is an LPR with a USC claim so we got him released a week later. He immediately voluntarily returned on the warrant. He is now being represented by Boise Schiller at 26 Fed first appearance will be April 11. (Source: Brooklyn Defender Services) My client was picked up in court when he appeared on an open case for driving without a license. ICE was waiting for him in Brooklyn Criminal Court and arrested him before the criminal defender arrived. He was a long-time Lawful Permanent Resident who had a prior endangering welfare of child case. He was in ICE detention for 8 months and recently won Cancellation of Removal. (Source: Brooklyn Defender Services) Bronx County FG: Bronx Courthouse, Aug Lawful permanent resident deportable for 2 misdmeeanor CIMTs; had 4 open cases that he was in court on. He was out on bail on all of them. When he was at his next court appearance, ICE picked him up in court. He was then detained by ICE from Aug 2011-March 2012 until we could finally get him writted back to resolve his cases. All four pending cases dismissed 1

3 in July. He was then sent back to ICE. He had his merits hearing in front of an Immigration Judge on Sept 2012 and it was granted. (Source: Bronx Defenders) Mr. B is a native and citizen of the Dominican Republic. He first came to the United States on a visitor's visa in the mid-1980s and subsequently went through consular processing for LPR status in the mid-1990s. After becoming a LPR, he took a short trip to the DR, and on return was put into removal proceedings and charged as criminally inadmissible for a prior conviction from New Jersey, and also for not possessing valid entry documents, as he did not disclose the prior conviction when he applied for LPR status a the U.S. Consulate in Santo Domingo. The immigration judge found him ineligible for relief and ordered him removed. The BIA affirmed the decision. Mr. B continued to live his life in the United States. He has multiple US citizen children and a US citizen partner of many years. More than ten years after his removal order was entered, Mr. B received a DAT for driving with a suspended license, and was ordered to appear for arraignment at Bronx County Criminal Court. The day of Mr. B's DAT, plainclothes ICE agents blocked the only exit out of the DAT part. The criminal court clerk notified Mr. B's defense counsel that immigration agents were in the court part to arrest Mr. B. Defense counsel then called a Bronx Defenders immigration attorney, who went to the DAT part to meet Mr. B. The immigration attorney met Mr. B, and spoke with him in the waiting area outside the DAT court part. After approximately 20 minutes, ICE agents interrupted Mr. B's consultation with counsel and placed him in handcuffs. Mr. B's attorney firmly asked the agents to give him and Mr. B the opportunity to finish their consultation. The agents refused, saying, "He brought this on himself." Within 24 hours of Mr. B's arrest, his partner and her adult daughter, as well as four of his US children came to the Bronx Defenders to offer whatever support they could to secure permission for Mr. B to remain in the United States. (Source: Bronx Defenders) Mr. G immigrated to the United States from a rural community in The Gambia in the mid-1990s. After arriving in this country, he found friends in the West African community in The Bronx who took him in and gave him guidance as to how to begin his life here. Mr. G recalls signing paperwork soon after coming to the United States, but does not know what he signed. Over the course of many years, he accrued a criminal record of minor, nonviolent offenses having entirely to do with peddling knock-off clothing and accessories, movies, and cds, and also driving-related offenses. At the same time, Mr. G married and grew his family. His wife was granted asylum in this country and then became a LPR. Together they have four US citizen children. Mr. G was arrested and charged with felonylevel driving with a suspended license. At his first post-arraignment court date, plainclothes ICE agents appeared at the Bronx County Hall of Justice to arrest him outside the courtroom. Mr. G effectively disappeared from his family's life, and it took the collaboration of multiple Bronx legal services agencies to find him 2

4 in immigration detention and to communicate information back and forth between him and his family. (Source: Bronx Defenders) C.R. - Deportable LPR from DR (due to several DV-related contempt and assault convictions since 2002). He appeared in Bronx Criminal Court for the 3rd or 4th time on a drug sale case in early Oct. 2013, and he was picked up by an ICE agent before his case was called. I don't know how the agent was dressed -- no one was there to witness it, we found out later. (Source: Bronx Defenders) S.B. - Deportable LPR from Jamaica (due to old drug case from out of state, possession with intent to sell that's charged as ag fel). He appeared in Bronx Criminal Court for the 2nd time in late Nov on a bizarre charge I had never seen before related to unlawful employment of a security guard, and he was picked up by an ICE agent. I witnessed all of it happen because I came to meet with the client, and I called his name out. The court officer heard me, signaled to a big guy in a sweatshirt, who then put client into cuffs. I talked to him and learned he was an ICE agent. (Source: Bronx Defenders) Bronx Hall of Justice - Fugitive Ops showed up to pick up a deportable LPR (had a few charges) client. Ongoing criminal case was a and it had been going on for some time. We got bail set so he stepped in so we could figure out what was going on. When case was over, we got ICE to ROR him and then won our merits in front to Judge Bain. We never figured out why Fugitive Ops was looking for him. I think we thought it was because he had done i-90 a few years ago and they had issued NTA then. (Source: Bronx Defenders) Bronx Hall of Justice - Fugitive Ops showed up at DATs to pick up a PFO illegal reentrant client of mine who is severely mentally ill. He got a DAT ticket for weed possession. He was deported in he has an ugly federal conviction in CA for alien smuggling -- reentered around I got ICE to ROR him, though, because of his mental health issues and now we are waiting for a reasonable fear interview to be scheduled. (Source: Bronx Defenders) Queens County One of our criminal defense attorneys in Queens County reported that she was in DAT (desk appearance ticket) arraignments and that the co-defendant in her client s case was arrested by ICE after the arraignment as he left the courtroom. The officers were in plain clothes. The arraignment took place on 1/24/14. (Source: Legal Aid Society) Generally, there were three cases I was able to document when QLA was staffing DATs so I don t think that it adequately represents all ICE arrests at DATs in terms of frequency of arrests in Queens. Prior to the most recent arrest by ICE at DATs, most of the individuals were pulled off the waiting line and apprehended 3

5 before they were able to make their court appearance. The only reason this came to QLA s attention is because a Court officer witnessed ICE s arrest and reported it to the Criminal Court Judge. I m sure there were other incidents when a client warranted, because ICE apprehended prior to the attachment of counsel and no one knew that the client even showed up for the Court hearing. Below are three examples of ICE arrests at DATs: (Source: Queens Law Associates) (1) August 2012, Iranian National Client was issued a DAT for petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property in the fifth degree. He entered the Queens Criminal Court and successfully went past security. On his way to the DAT courtroom on the 1 st floor, he was stopped by two unidentified ICE agents and asked whether he was [name of client]. He confirmed his name, and they then identified themselves as Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He was handcuffed and then escorted out of the building. He was transported to 26 Federal Plaza and questioned for about an hour. He was held for approximately 4-5 hours before he was released on his own recognizance. He had a final order of removal, but was not checking in with ICE. They placed him on the supervised release program, and he has been checking in regularly with ICE at 26 Federal Plaza. He was not permitted to appear for his DAT. His companion notified QLA and QLA secured an ACD in his absence. (2) September 2012, Mexican National Client arrived at DATs in Queens Criminal Court around 11 am. She notified the Court officers that she arrived, and they told her to wait. Then, two unidentified men approached and asked her for identification. She produced her ID and she was informed that they were arresting her for immigration deportation reasons. They were in plain clothes, one appeared Filipino and the other was African American. They then identified themselves as ICE and presented their federal badges to the client. She was immediately handcuffed and taken to 26 Federal Plaza. She was not permitted to appear for her DAT. Court officers informed QLA and the case was adjourned for another court hearing. At 26 Federal Plaza, she was interviewed by ICE, fingerprinted and photographed. Client had a final order of removal. She was released on her own recognizance, because her son was sick and was going to be in surgery. She was placed on the supervised release program. She returned to court for the adjourned date and obtained an ACD. 4

6 (3) February 2014, Mexican National New York County Client arrived in DATs in Queens Criminal Court. Intuitively, he felt something was wrong when he checked in and the Court officers kept coming over to talk to him. Initially, they offered him an ACD with 3 days of community service. An ex parte conversation took place between the criminal court judge and the court officer, and the client s case was recalled and the new offer was a straight ACD to be sealed immediately. The QLA attorney was not aware of the conversation and was not notified of why there was a new offer. Nonetheless, he took it for obvious reasons. Client and 2 other individuals were stopped on their way out of DATs and approached by 2 ICE agents whom were unidentified in plain clothes. They asked him and his two friends their names, and they confirmed their identity. The ICE agents then identified themselves by opening up their jackets which revealed shirts underneath that said ICE. All three were handcuffed and taken to 26 Federal Plaza. Before they were transported by car, one of the individuals was escorted to room G64 to pay a fine and then taken to immigration. Client and one of the other two gentleman remain in ICE custody at Hudson County Correctional. Client had a pending removal proceeding and the other detainee had a final order of removal. Client Mr. D is a citizen of Great Britain and has been in the United States for 29 years. He was ROR'ed at arraignments on 7/22/13, and did not show up on his next court date (9/19/13). It was not until 10/9/13 that his criminal defense attorney learned that client had been picked up by ICE in the lobby of 100 Centre Street on 9/19/13 and had been detained at Essex County jail ever since. This was the reason he had not shown up to his court date, though no one was informed about it. It was not until 1/15/14 that his attorney was FINALLY able to get client's case recalendared to 1/22/14, at which time the judge expunged the bench warrant due to the proof he had obtained of client being taken by ICE inside the couthouse on his last court date. Client had a prior removal order. The current case was for a misdemeanor assault. The case is still pending and it seems that ICE will deport the client without allowing him to resolve the charges. (Source: Legal Aid Society). 5