By GENE JOHNSON and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, Related Press
SEATTLE (AP) — Inside a Virginia courthouse, three immigration brokers in plainclothes — one masked — detained a person who had simply had misdemeanor assault prices dismissed. They declined to indicate identification or a warrant to the person, and one threatened to prosecute horrified witnesses who tried to intervene, cellphone video reveals.
In North Carolina, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed it arrested 4 individuals at a county courthouse, in line with native media studies, prompting the sheriff to precise issues a couple of lack of communication from the company in addition to about disruption to courtroom proceedings.
FILE – Protesters stand exterior of the Milwaukee County Courthouse, April 25, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photograph/Andy Manis, File)
Inside a courthouse in New Hampshire, a pair of brokers tackled a Venezuelan man exterior an elevator, flattening an older man with a cane within the course of. And in Boston, an ICE agent detained a person who was on trial. A municipal courtroom decide held the agent in contempt over the arrest, however the order was later overturned by a federal decide.
The flurry of immigration enforcement at courthouses across the nation previously month — already closely criticized by judicial officers and attorneys — has renewed a authorized battle from President Donald Trump’s first time period as advocates worry individuals would possibly keep away from coming to courtroom.
FILE – An indication is posted exterior of county Decide Hannah Dugan’s courtroom on the Milwaukee County courthouse, April 25, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photograph/Andy Manis, File)
It’s drawing additional consideration with final Friday’s arrest of Decide Hannah Dugan in Wisconsin. The FBI arrested Dugan on prices that she tried to assist a defendant evade ready federal brokers by letting him go away her courtroom by way of a jury door.
Historical past of ICE’s arrest practices
Lena Graber, senior workers lawyer with the Immigrant Authorized Useful resource Heart, instructed The Related Press that she’s conscious of at the very least a dozen current immigration arrests at courthouses across the nation.
“The historical context is really important,” Graber stated. “This is something that was not part of ICE’s practice until the first Trump administration, and people were shocked.”
FILE – Individuals collect to reveal the arrest of Decide Hannah Dugan, exterior the Federal courthouse in Milwaukee, April 25, 2025. (AP Photograph/Devi Shastri, File)
ICE lengthy had a normal observe of not arresting individuals at sure areas, together with colleges, hospitals, courthouses and church buildings. However throughout the first Trump administration, the company adopted a coverage explicitly permitting courthouse arrests of “specific, targeted aliens,” arguing that it was particularly necessary in “sanctuary” jurisdictions the place officers don’t notify the company earlier than releasing immigrants dealing with deportation instances.
Courthouse immigration arrests jumped, drawing condemnation from judicial officers and authorized organizations, in addition to lawsuits from some states and the adoption of payments in search of to dam the observe.
Dugan’s case is just like one introduced throughout the first Trump administration towards a Massachusetts decide who was accused of serving to a person sneak out a again door of a courthouse to evade a ready immigration officer. A decide in Oregon confronted related allegations — although not an arrest or legal prices — in 2017.
The chief justices of some states, together with California and Washington, requested ICE to cease, saying worry of arrest would maintain crime victims and witnesses from exhibiting up in courtroom. In a single well-publicized case, brokers in Texas arrested a lady whereas she was acquiring a safety order towards an alleged abuser.
The Biden administration imposed restrictions on courthouse immigration arrests, however they had been shortly undone when Trump returned to workplace this yr.
Underneath steerage issued Jan. 21, ICE officers are allowed to hold out immigration enforcement in or close to courthouses in the event that they imagine somebody they’re looking for will likely be there. Each time potential, the brokers are presupposed to make arrests in nonpublic areas, to coordinate with courthouse safety and to keep away from disrupting courtroom operations.
Virginia prosecutor guarantees to analyze courtroom arrest
Teodoro Dominguez Rodriguez, recognized by ICE as a Honduran nationwide, was confronted and arrested by immigration enforcement officers after he left a Charlottesville courtroom April 22. It was the second immigration arrest on the courtroom that day.
The primary wasn’t recorded, however as phrase unfold, Nick Reppucci, who heads the general public defender’s workplace there, scrambled workers to the courthouse. They captured Dominguez Rodriguez’s arrest on digicam.
The three brokers, one in a balaclava-style ski masks, ignored calls for from observers to indicate badges or a warrant, the video reveals. One agent threatened to have the U.S. lawyer’s workplace prosecute two ladies who tried to put themselves between the brokers and Dominguez Rodriguez.
Sherriff Chan Bryant confirmed that the brokers had proven badges and paperwork to a bailiff beforehand. However Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Lawyer Jim Hingeley criticized the officers for failing to establish themselves whereas making the arrest.
Reppucci decried the “normalization happening here, where federal law enforcement are at this point grabbing people without being required to show that person any form of identification.”
In a written assertion, ICE stood behind the actions of the officers, “who are trained to assess and prosecute apprehensions in a manner that best ensures operational success and public safety.”
The Related Press was unable to find kin who would possibly communicate on Dominguez Rodriguez’s behalf, and it was not clear if he had an lawyer representing him.
Repucci pressured the influence arrests like Dominguez Rodriguez’s might have on individuals coming to courtroom, a spot he stated is meant to be the place “disputes are resolved in an orderly, peaceful manner.”
“People in divorce proceedings, people with civil disputes, custody hearings, potential witnesses, all are going to be less likely to come to court,” he stated.
Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, and Rebecca Santana in Washington contributed to this report. Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas.
Initially Revealed: Might 1, 2025 at 1:18 PM EDT
