Blogs

In March of 2018 I wrote about the practice of ICE Agents entering courthouses to arrest suspected undocumented aliens and the chilling effect it has on our judicial system.[i]  The Committee even co-sponsored a presentation about this issue in January of 2019 with the Committee on Immigration Representation at the New York State Bar Association Annual Meeting.

In September of 2019, NYS Attorney General Letitia James and Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez sued ICE to stop the practice.[ii]  The Legal Aid Society and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP brought a second suit.

Good news came this week that the Attorney General and District Attorney won a summary judgment motion that will stop ICE from making arrest in NYS courthouses.[iii]

The US District Court, in an opinion by Justice Jed Rakoff, the senior judge of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, ruled that “the Court declares ICE’s policy of courthouse arrests, as now embodied in the Directive, to be illegal, and hereby enjoins ICE from conducting any civil arrests on the premises or grounds of New York State courthouses, as well as such arrests of anyone required to travel to a New York State courthouse as a party or witness to a lawsuit.”[iv]

The other case by the Legal Aid Society is still in progress. They are aware of the decision in the first case, so there may a quick resolution.

[i] https://communities.nysba.org/blogs/hubert-g-plummer-esq/2018/03/25/usccr-condemns-ice-agents-in-courthouses

[ii] https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-james-da-gonzalez-and-legal-aid-society-seek-halt-ice-arrests-courthouses

[iii] https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2020/attorney-general-james-wins-lawsuit-against-trump-administrations-illegal-policy

[iv] https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/19cv8876_opinion_and_order_final.pdf

The author[s] is solely responsible for this blog submission.  It does not represent the position of the New York State Bar Association or its Committee.