{"id":16047,"date":"2017-12-26T20:53:11","date_gmt":"2017-12-27T01:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=16047"},"modified":"2018-12-28T12:24:23","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T17:24:23","slug":"big-apple-ice-mayor-de-blasio-cant-keep-ice-courthouses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2017\/12\/26\/big-apple-ice-mayor-de-blasio-cant-keep-ice-courthouses\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Apple On ICE: Mayor de Blasio Can\u2019t Keep ICE Out Of Courthouses"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio apparently missed the memo from FAIR\u2019s Research Director Matt O\u2019Brien<\/a>.\u00a0 De Blasio seems to think that he, or at least someone, can and should somehow keep particular law enforcement officers\u2014namely Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)\u2014out of public courthouses in his city.\u00a0 And he\u2019s clearly not alone<\/a> in this kind of dangerous wishful thinking.<\/p>\n

In a softball interview on December 15, the mayor said<\/a> he believes \u201c[t]he court system should be an off-limits place to ICE\u201d and that the city \u201chad no problem\u201d imposing a blanket rule that keeps ICE off the property of its public schools and hospitals, so the courts should be able to do the same thing.<\/p>\n

But of course the idea that New York City ever actually imposed any such rule on ICE, or ever could, is nonsense.\u00a0 City officials can issue all the feel-good \u201cguidance\u201d documents<\/a> they want about immigration enforcement in schools and hospitals, but they still legally mean absolutely nothing, since ICE is a federal agency over which the city has no authority.\u00a0 If de Blasio and Co. don\u2019t understand that, maybe they also missed the Supremacy Clause<\/a> of the U.S. Constitution, which says that federal law is the supreme law of the land.<\/p>\n

One thing federal law<\/a> absolutely does not say is that ICE\u2019s authority or the arrest powers of its officers end at the door of a school or hospital (or of a courthouse either).\u00a0 The only reason ICE rarely enters or makes arrests at schools, hospitals or houses of worship is because the agency itself has chosen not to, by adopting a policy<\/a> saying it regards those places as \u201cSensitive Locations.\u201d\u00a0 The policy isn\u2019t required by law and it doesn\u2019t even rule out entry or enforcement at those places: it just spells out when ICE personnel do and don\u2019t need approval from their supervisors to do so.\u00a0 And the policy certainly isn\u2019t because of rules adopted by New York City or any other local government.<\/p>\n

ICE\u2019s Sensitive Locations Policy doesn\u2019t include courthouses.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t include them for a few very good reasons.\u00a0 First, especially in sanctuary cities like New York where local police refuse to honor detainers<\/a> to hold illegal aliens for ICE and where local jails grant ICE little or no access, a courthouse is the next best alternative<\/a> for protecting the safety of ICE\u2019s own officers, the aliens being arrested themselves, and any nearby bystanders.\u00a0 This should be obvious because as ICE spokeswoman Rachael Yong Yow points out<\/a>, \u201ceveryone inside the building has already been screened “for weapons and other contraband.\u201d\u201d\u00a0 This reason alone simply cannot be overstated: when ICE has to make street arrests in the community, of people who may be armed, the potential for violence escalates dramatically.<\/p>\n

Second, courthouses may be the only place ICE can actually find particular illegal aliens who they\u2019re already looking for.\u00a0 ICE explains this rationale in its own online Frequently Asked Questions on Sensitive Locations and Courthouse Arrests<\/a>: \u201ctracking down priority fugitives is highly resource-intensive. It is not uncommon for criminal alien targets to utilize multiple aliases and provide authorities with false addresses. Many do not have a stable place of employment. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, courthouses are by long custom, by principle and by law expected to be open to the entire general public in ways that schools, hospitals and even places of worship are not.\u00a0 They are public places for doing public business openly and in public view.\u00a0 This understanding is enshrined in the guarantee by the Sixth Amendment<\/a> to the U.S. Constitution that \u201c[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public<\/u><\/strong> trial,\u201d [emphasis added]but it applies to everything done in a courthouse, which is presumed to be open to all unless a judge finds legal grounds to close or restrict access to an individual case.\u00a0 Indeed, New York\u2019s own rules of court<\/a> proudly proclaim this very same principle, stating that \u201c[t]he sittings of every court within this state shall be public,\u201d which actually goes beyond the Sixth Amendment to cover not only criminal but civil, family court<\/a>, and other legal proceedings. \u00a0And ICE officers are no less members of the public than anyone else is.<\/p>\n

In New York, unlike most states, those rules of court are laws enacted by the state legislature.\u00a0 So Mayor de Blasio has no direct control over them.\u00a0 But let\u2019s assume for a moment he could convince the legislature to pass a law saying the courts are open to the public \u201cexcept for ICE,\u201d and then get Governor Andrew Cuomo to sign it.\u00a0 In New York such a scenario unfortunately doesn\u2019t sound like all that much of a stretch.\u00a0 So then ICE could be kept out of New York courthouses\u2026right?<\/p>\n

Wrong, because then that would be the state as well the city having missed the Supremacy Clause (again).\u00a0 No matter what state law might say\u2014or be changed to say in the future\u2014federal law is still the supreme law of the land.\u00a0 And one thing federal law absolutely does say is that interfering with immigration enforcement is a felony.\u00a0 Or rather, potentially one or more of several felonies: not just \u201cconceal[ing], harbor[ing], or shield[ing]\u201d<\/a> illegal aliens, but also Obstruction of Justice<\/a>.\u00a0 Notably, there are no exceptions for local elected officials, judges, police, or anyone else.<\/p>\n

So ultimately, if Bill de Blasio or any other<\/a> sanctuary-city<\/a> politicians<\/a> around the country<\/a> want to risk federal prison by blocking the courthouse door to ICE, they\u2019re welcome to try.