Last week, the chief justice of New Jersey\u2019s Supreme\nCourt ordered Garden State judges to further limit the ability of Immigration\nand Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest illegal immigrants in courthouses\nacross the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The alleged purpose of the May 23 directive<\/a>, in the words of New Jersey State Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, is to protect \u201cthe effectiveness of our system of justice\u201d by ensuring courthouses are \u201cviewed as a safe forum\u201d for witnesses and \u201ccriminal defendants.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n If individuals \u201cfear\u201d arrest for civil immigration violations, argued Rabner in a 2017 letter<\/a> to then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly requesting ICE cease courthouse arrests, \u201cserious consequences\u201d will follow,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those consequences, he says, would be that \u201cdefendants in state criminal matters may simply not appear\u201d in court. It is hard to believe that not having ICE present would convince an otherwise reluctant defendant to show up in court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides showing an uncomfortable level of concern for\nthe peace of mind of criminal defendants, Rabner\u2019s appears to miss two\nimportant points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, courts are public places, so ICE is well within\nits right to make arrests. Second, one of the reasons why there is any need to\nmake arrests in a courthouse is because of the failure of sanctuary\njurisdictions to cooperate in the transfer of custody of illegal aliens from\nprisons or jails to ICE officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, ICE predicted the likelihood of increased\ncourthouse activity after New Jersey State Attorney General Gurbir Grewal\nrolled out the Immigrant\nTrust Directive<\/a> last November. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Portrayed as an initiative to promote public safety<\/a> by building trust with local police, Grewal\u2019s directive placed restrictions on local law enforcement from engaging with federal authorities in immigration operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe probability is that at-large arrests and worksite enforcement operations, which already exist, will likely increase due to the fact that ICE ERO will no longer have the cooperation of the jails related to immigration enforcement,\u201d\u00a0ICE spokesman Emilio Dabul stated to NBC\u2019s local affiliate<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Jersey is not an isolated case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last month, New York<\/a> issued a directive requiring ICE officers to present a federal judicial warrant or an order from a state judge prior to making an arrest. In Massachusetts, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan and Suffolk County District Attorney Rachel Rollins on April 29 joined a lawsuit<\/a> on filed by activist groups to prevent ICE from making arrests in courthouses statewide. The case is currently being argued<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In New Jersey and in other sanctuary jurisdictions, courthouse\narrests are likely to increase not by ICE\u2019s choice, but out of necessity. The\ndisaster waiting ahead is two-fold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, by further restricting ICE\u2019s ability to detain\nand arrest criminal illegal aliens in areas where criminal illegal aliens are\nnot armed (courthouses, jails and prisons), the chances increase that a\ncriminal will be armed and endanger innocents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, by hampering ICE, the odds are greater that\ncriminal aliens will remain on the streets where opportunities to harm the\npublic abound. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last week, the chief justice of New Jersey\u2019s Supreme Court ordered Garden State judges to further limit the ability of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest illegal immigrants in courthouses across the state. The alleged purpose of the May 23 directive, in the words of New Jersey State Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner,<\/p>\n