Safeguarding the Integrity
of Our Courts: The Impact of
ICE Courthouse Operations
in New York State
iii
Executive Summary 1
Overview of ICE Courthouse Operations from 2016-Present 3
How ICE Courthouse Operations Complicate the Work of District Attorney 7
Oces and Compromise Public Safety
Fearful Victims and Witnesses 7
Manhattan District Attorney’s Oce 10
Bronx District Attorney’s Oce 11
Brooklyn District Attorney’s Oce 12
Decline in Calls to Immigrant Aairs Unit Hotlines 13
Decline in Clean Slate Participation 17
Burden of Filing Writs to Produce 18
How ICE Courthouse Operations Instill Fear and Undermine Gender-Based 21
Violence Prevention
Decrease in Orders of Protection 22
Decline in Visits to Family Justice Centers 23
Fewer Survivors Seeking Civil Legal Assistance 24
Reduced Communication with Law Enforcement 25
Reluctance to Pursue Remedies in Family and Supreme Court 27
Increased Fear of Compliance with Court Orders 33
Abusers Threatening to Call ICE 34
How ICE Courthouse Operations Disrupt the Work and Mission of Public 37
Defender Oces
Fear of Attending Court and Increasing Issuance of Bench Warrants 38
Justice Distorted in the Criminal Courts and Barriers to Zealous Defense 40
Disappearing Litigants 42
Resource Drain for Public Defender Oces 45
ICE’s Escalating Use of Force and Surveillance 46
iv
How ICE Courthouse Operations Frustrate the Purpose of Problem-Solving 48
Courts
ICE Presence in the Problem-Solving Courts 49
A Deterrent to Participation 50
Human Tracking Court: ‘A Paralyzing Fear of Public Systems’ Exacerbated by ICE 50
Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations on Youth 52
How ICE Courthouse Operations Discourage Claimants in Civil Courts 56
How ICE Courthouse Operations Complicate the Protocol and Duties of 60
Courthouse Sta
How Legal Professional Associations Have Responded to ICE Courthouse 64
Operations
How Judicial Stakeholders Have Responded to ICE Courthouse Operations 68
Statements of Sitting Judges Across the Country 68
Statement from Retired Judges from Across the Country 70
How Elected Ocials Have Responded to ICE Courthouse Operations 72
Recommendations for Court Rules 80
Acknowledgements 82
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
1
Executive Summary
The ICE Out of Courts Coalition the Coalition is comprised of over organizations
and entities across New York State. As community-based organizations, unions, civil legal
services providers, public defenders, family defenders, anti-violence advocates, law schools,
and civil rights and liberties groups serving New Yorkers of all ages, races, and immigration
statuses, we have been alarmed and appalled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s
ICE increasing dependence on our State’s court system as its preferred venue for
surveilling and detaining immigrant New Yorkers.
For over two years, the Coalition has gathered qualitative and quantitative data from
aected stakeholders across issue areas and roles within the justice system. Following
meetings with the Chief Judge and the Chief Administrative Judge, the Coalition has spent
signicant energy compiling the data collected in this report. The data collected in this
report demonstrates the full breadth of the negative impact ICE courthouse operations have
had on the administration of justice, as well as equal access to justice, in New York State.
This report demonstrates just how widespread this problem is — aecting not just New York
City but the whole state, aecting not just criminal but problem-solving and civil courts
as well. Information presented here attests to how systemic this issue has become in the
fair and ecient administration of justice, and how ICE courthouse operations have had
an outsized eect on the most vulnerable New York State residents, including victims and
survivors of domestic and gender-based violence, single mothers, those eligible for problem-
solving courts and youth.
The report begins with an overview of the astronomical increase in ICE
courthouse operations since and shows the negative impact of this increase on
countless stakeholders. Statewide, law enforcement agencies, from district attorney oces
to the Attorney General’s Oce, have publicly condemned ICE for disrupting the trust
between New York’s immigrant residents and law enforcement. District attorney oces
that participated in the Coalition’s data-gathering describe how victims, survivors, and
witnesses were often too fearful to pursue justice in courts or to participate in their services
geared toward immigrant residents. Advocates similarly point out a pronounced chilling
eect among victims, survivors, and witnesses in reporting abuses to law enforcement
or pursuing legal claims. Most disturbingly, advocates also reported how ICE’s highly
publicized tactics have emboldened abusers, who use threats of deportation to keep their
clients from seeking legal redress. Public defender organizations recount how disruptive
ICE’s recent tactics have been to not just their attorneys’ daily work but also to their resource
allocation and morale.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
2
The report highlights how ICE courthouse operations thwart the intended outcomes
of problem-solving courts and those designed for tracking victims, youth, and other
vulnerable populations. ICE’s targeting of relief-eligible individuals induces fear around
court-related activities, including alternatives to incarceration and other rehabilitation-
focused programs run by the Center for Court Innovation. This atmosphere of fear has
spread beyond criminal courts to civil courts. ICE’s courthouse operations hinder these
problem-solving and civil courts from carrying out their missions of providing opportunity
and redress to vulnerable New Yorkers.
As recounted here, the widespread corrosive impact of ICE courthouse operations on New
York State Courts has been documented and condemned by legal professional associations
at the city, state, and national level. Numerous sitting and retired judges as well as elected
ocials have spoken up against ICE’s tactics. Given the insidious and pervasive impact ICE
courthouse operations have had on the function and mission of the New York justice system,
the Coalition urges the Oce of Court Administration to adopt two rules to address the
problems identied in this report:
. Employees of the Unied Court System shall not:
i. Assist with federal immigration enforcement activities in the course of their
employment, in any courthouse of the New York State Unied Court System
except to the extent they are described in Section (2).
ii. Inquire into the immigration status of any individual within any courthouse of
the Unied Court System unless such information about a person’s immigration
status is necessary for the determination of program, service, or benet
eligibility or the provision of services.
iii. Provide any information to immigration enforcement ocers regarding
persons appearing before the court, except information regarding citizenship or
immigration status, as required by 8 U.S.C. § 1373, and then only if known.
. Civil arrests without judicial warrants:
Civil arrests may only be executed within a courthouse of the Unied Court System
when accompanied by a judicial warrant or judicial order authorizing that the
person who is the subject of such warrant be subjected to a civil arrest. “Judicial
warrant” is dened as a warrant issued by a magistrate sitting in the judicial branch
of local, state, or federal government. “Judicial order” is dened as an order issued
by a magistrate sitting in the judicial branch of local, state, or federal government.
These rules will help protect New Yorkers’ access to the courts and ensure increased public
safety and legal protections for all.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
3
Overview of ICE Courthouse
Operations from -Present
See Immigrant Def. Project, The Courthouse Trap: How ICE Operations Impacted New York’s Courts in 2018 at
Jan. , www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/TheCourthouseTrap.pdf comparing
ICE courthouse operations from to reported in .
See id.
Id. at .
Id.
Id. The gures cited in the report are up-to-date as of January , . Since individuals arrested by ICE may
spend months in detention before they have a chance to see an immigration judge, IDP may not hear of an
individual’s arrest until they nally resurface in immigration court.
The Immigrant Defense Project IDP has documented a sharp
increase of in ICE courthouse enforcement in and around
New York’s courts since .
In particular, IDP documented an
almost increase in ICE courthouse operations from
to , with a further increase over the number of
operations.
IDP tracks two types of operations: arrests and sightings.
An arrest refers to an operation
where IDP was able to conrm that ICE took an individual into custody.
Arrests include
operations that occur both inside of a courthouse and in the immediate vicinity of a
courthouse.
A sighting refers to an operation where IDP conrmed that witnesses saw ICE
agents or ICE vehicles, but were not able to verify an arrest.
IDP collects reports of ICE courthouse arrests and sightings through collaborations with
community-based and legal services organizations across New York State, as well as
through calls and reports received on IDP’s hotline. In addition, New York State uniquely
houses Regional Immigrant Assistance Centers RIACs across the state and the New York
Immigrant Family Unity Project NYIFUP in immigration courts. Both initiatives have
provided a mechanism for IDP to collect rsthand accounts of courthouse enforcement.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
4
IDP conrms details by speaking with the witnesses and the individuals arrested by ICE
themselves, along with their family members and attorneys.
In addition to the reports collected by IDP sta, IDP has obtained “unusual occurrence
reports” through a FOIL request with the Oce of Court Administration.
These reports
cover the period from February , to August , .
Of the reports, matched
an operation that was independently reported to IDP, were possible matches, and
did not match a report documented by IDP.
For this time period, IDP received reports of
ICE courthouse operations that were not documented in an OCA unusual occurrence
report.
Immigrant Defense Project Reports: ICE Courthouse Operations
In 2017
ICE courthouse
operations. 13 involved
sightings of ICE; 159
involved arrests.
In 2016
ICE courthouse
operations. All
involved arrests.
In 2018
ICE courthouse
operations. 24 involved
sightings of ICE; 178
involved arrests.
Id.
See N.Y. State Oce of Court Admin., Unusual Occurrence Reports, attached to Letter from Shawn Kerby,
Assistant Deputy Counsel, in response to Freedom of Information Law “FOIL” request, dated Aug. ,
App. RR.
See id. App. RR.
See Immigrant Def. Project, ICE Courthouse Operations from // to //: A Comparison of
Operations Reported to IDP and Operations Documented by OCA’s Unusual Occurrence Reports App. UU.
See id. App. UU.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
5
Sightings
Arrests
ICE Operations
ICE courthouse operations increased
by more than 1700% between 2016–2018
Fig 1
A majority of reports come from New York City.
In , Brooklyn reported the largest
number of arrests in the city, with incidents, with Queens a close second at .
In ,
Brooklyn and Queens were again the top two boroughs for ICE courthouse enforcement,
with arrests reported in Brooklyn and in Queens.
Staten Island reported the largest
increase in arrests from to , doubling from to .
ICE also actively pursues individuals in many courts outside of the city. Since the beginning
of , IDP has received courthouse arrest reports from counties outside of the city, with
the largest number coming from Westchester.
While most arrests in focused on larger
county or city courthouses, ICE appeared to increase operations in town and village courts
in .
Operations were reported in more than a dozen town and village courts scattered
Immigrant Def. Project, The Courthouse Trap: How ICE Operations Impacted New York’s Courts in 2018 at Jan.
, www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/TheCourthouseTrap.pdf.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
6
across Westchester, Rockland, Columbia, Orange, Ulster, and Albany counties.
In ,
there was a signicant surge in reports out of Westchester, with the county reporting
arrests, up from four the previous year.
Counties Reporting ICE Courthouse Operations
Albany, Bronx, Broome, Columbia, Dutchess, Essex, Fulton, Kings (Brooklyn), Monroe,
Nassau, New York (Manhattan), Orange, Onondaga, Putnam, Queens, Rensselaer, Richmond
(Staten Island), Rockland, Saratoga, Schenectady, Suffolk, Tompkins, Ulster, Weschester.
As Albany Law School Professor Sarah Rogerson explains, “In New York City there is a
volume of cases, but there are more eyes and ears. It could be happening upstate but we
don’t know because we can’t be in every city and town court.”
Id.
Id.
Mallory Moench, Immigrants In or Near Capital Region Courts Increasingly Fear ICE Arrests, Times Union Jan.
, , https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Capital-Region-courts-dangerous-for-immigrants-
as-.php.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
7
How ICE Courthouse Operations
Complicate the Work of District
Attorney Oces and Compromise
Public Safety
District attorney oces from across New York State expressed
how ICE courthouse operations complicate their ability to ensure
fair and eective prosecutions of crimes. Below are four main
areas in which the district attorney oces expressed concern.
Fearful Victims and Witnesses
District attorneys across the state have publicly stated their concern about how ICE
presence in New York courts has discouraged noncitizen crime victims from reporting
crime. They report that this fear has resulted in the reluctance of domestic violence victims,
survivors, and witnesses to come to court to testify, as well as a reduction in the number of
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
8
participants in clean slate and other community outreach programs targeted at noncitizens.
An alarming and natural consequence of this chilling eect, they stress, is the inability of
district attorneys to prosecute perpetrators and other dangerous individuals, resulting in a
serious public safety issue.
Concern around this issue is so prevalent that prominent New York District Attorneys have
spoken out. Bronx County District Attorney Darcel D. Clark lamented that when a witness
or a victim is arrested by ICE, the district attorney is often incapable of prosecuting a case.
Dismissing such cases, she stressed, will result in “dangerous individuals being released
back into the community.” Moreover, she stated, “This could have a chilling eect on
getting witnesses to assist in our cases, potentially resulting in a threat to public safety.”
Cyrus Vance Jr., the Manhattan District Attorney, armed that all New Yorkers, whether
documented or not under federal law, have the right to safely attend court proceedings, and
that the fear of deportation inhibits crime victims from coming forward and disincentivizes
defendants from responsibly attending court dates. He specically noted that “Deporting
New Yorkers who show up to court is antithetical to our values and detrimental to our public
safety.”
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez called upon ICE to designate courthouses as
sensitive locations, like schools or places of worship. Discussing courthouse arrests made
by ICE, he emphasized that, “These actions jeopardize public safety by instilling fear in
immigrant communities, which makes victims and witnesses afraid to come forward to
report crimes, and unable to get justice.”
Albany District Attorney David Soares stated, “The activities of Immigration Customs
Enforcement is compromising our ability to hold accountable perpetrators who prey
upon victims from vulnerable immigrant communities.”
Westchester District Attorney
Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr. reiterated the objections of his counterparts, contending that his
oce’s eorts are undermined by ICE’s presence in Westchester criminal courts. He stated,
“When ICE uses our local courthouses to make civil immigration arrests, both immigrants
who are victims of or witnesses to domestic violence, scams, wage theft or violent crimes
are now fearful that coming to court may lead to arrest by ICE.”
Silvia Finkelstein,
the Executive Director of the Immigration Unit at the Nassau County District Attorney’s
Oce, has reported that the current administration’s enforcement prerogative contributed
Immigrant Def. Project, Protect Our Courts Act: Prosecutor Statements, https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.
org/wp-content/uploads/Prosecutor-Statements-Updated-.pdf.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
9
substantially to the fear and disincentive of the immigrant population to come forward
to report crime or to participate in the criminal justice system generally.
Madeline
Singas, the Nassau County District Attorney, expressed concern for ICE’s impact on crime
reporting by noncitizens:
New York’s justice system works best when everyone has
access. Immigrants who are victims of domestic violence, wage
theft, fraud, or violent crime should be able to seek justice
regardless of their status, and they should be able to come to
court for that purpose without fear that their appearance will
lead to civil arrest by ICE.
Citizens and noncitizens alike are both vulnerable to criminal oenses. Noncitizens living
in the U.S., regardless of status, are regularly the victims of the same crimes suered by
citizens. In fact, noncitizens are more likely to be the victims of crime in the United States
than their U.S.-born counterparts.
Additionally, immigrants are victims of unique crimes
that prey on their vulnerable statuses. For example, individuals in immigrant communities
are particularly vulnerable to crimes,
and this concern, particularly for the Latinx
community, has only increased since the presidential election.
Indeed, in , FBI
hate crime data revealed a increase in attacks against the Latinx community, the target
Peter Belore, D.A.: Fear Rising Among Immigrant Witnesses to Crimes, Long Island Herald Feb. , ,
http://liherald.com/stories/da-fear-rising-among-immigrant-witnesses-to-crimes, “’Given the current
climate, there is a lot of fear in the immigrant communities to come forward or participate in any way in the
criminal justice system,’ Finkelstein said.”.
Immigrant Def. Project, The Protect Our Courts Act: Prosecutor Statements, https://www.
immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Prosecutor-Statements-Updated-.pdf.
Frances Bernat, Immigration and Crime, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology Apr. ,
http://oxfordre.com/criminology/view/./acrefore/../acrefore-
-e- “In regard to victimization, immigrants are more likely to be victims of crime. Foreign-
born victims of crime may not report their victimization because of fears that they will experience negative
consequences if they contact the police.”.
Int’l Ass’n of Chiefs of Police, Police Chiefs Guide to Immigration Issues at July , https://kymnradio.
net/wp-content/uploads///Police-Chiefs-Guide-to-Immigration.pdf.
Jessica Weiss, Six Months of Hate: How Anti-Immigrant Sentiment Is Aecting Latinos in the United States,
Univision News June , , https://www.univision.com/univision-news/united-states/six-months-of-
hate-how-anti-immigrant-sentiment-is-aecting-latinos-in-the-united-states “In recent months, hate crimes
have targeted Latinos around the country, in small towns and big cities, coast-to-coast. Though the weeks
immediately before and after the presidential election saw the most reports, incidents have continued at a
steady tick.”.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
10
of signicant anti-immigrant bigotry, compared to .
In addition, immigrants are
regularly targeted for fraudulent housing schemes and wage exploitation.
Immigrants are
also recurring victims of notario fraud, where those who are not licensed attorneys promise
green cards or visas in exchange for large sums of money and then fail to deliver, often
leaving families worse o.
Such perpetrators operate with impunity in the current climate
due to a decline in reporting rates.
District attorney oces participated in this report’s data gathering by responding to a
questionnaire drafted by Coalition members.
The questionnaire asked for data on crime
reporting, victim and witness participation in prosecutions, frequency of writ ling, and
eect of ICE enforcement on oce management, including the burden of producing
immigration detainees for criminal court proceedings.
Data gathered from questionnaire
responses is set forth below.
Manhattan District Attorney’s Oce
The Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, Jr. stressed that judicial warrants
should be required in order for ICE to make a courthouse arrest and has stated that
such civil arrests engender fear in victims against reporting and cooperating in criminal
prosecutions.
Nitin Savur, the Executive Assistant District Attorney for Strategic
Initiatives and Deputy Chief of the Trial Division for the Manhattan District Attorney’s
Oce, elaborated:
Anti-Defamation League, New ADL Study Details How Extreme Anti-Immigrant Hate Has Been Thrust Into the
Mainstream Nov. , , https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/new-adl-study-details-how-extreme-
anti-immigrant-hate-has-been-thrust-into-the.
Alexandra Ricks, Latinx Immigrant Crime Victims Fear Seeking Help, Urban Inst. Sept. , , https://www.
urban.org/urban-wire/latinx-immigrant-crime-victims-fear-seeking-help “Immigrants are often victims
of labor violations, such as labor tracking and wage theft, because some employers see them especially
undocumented immigrants as particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Latinx immigrants are six times more
likely that their US-born white counter parts to suer minimum-wage violations.”.
Anna M. Hill & Susan E. Reed, Immigration Scams: Good Feelings and Double-Dealing, Am. Bar Assoc. Oct.
, , https://www.americanbar.org/groups/young_lawyers/publications/tyl/topics/immigration-law/
immigration-scams-good-feelings-and-doubledealing/ “In best-case scenarios, scam victims lose only a few
hundred dollars. In the worst situations, victims pay thousands of dollars, never recover original documents,
and incur irreversible immigration consequences, including deportation.”.
See, e.g., Decl. of Lee Wang, Esq., Senior Sta Attorney, Immigrant Def. Project ¶¶ , dated Feb. ,
App. NN; Decl. of Elizabeth Tonne-Daims, Esq., Padilla Attorney, Nassau Legal Aid Soc’y, & Reg’l
Immigration Assistance Ctr. Attorney ¶ , dated Feb. , App. JJ.
See, e.g., Decl. of Lee Wang, Esq., Senior Sta Attorney, Immigrant Def. Project ¶¶ , dated Feb. ,
App. NN; Decl. of Elizabeth Tonne-Daims, Esq., Padilla Attorney, Nassau Legal Aid Soc’y & Reg’l
Immigration Assistance Ctr. Attorney ¶ , dated Feb. , App. JJ.
See, e.g., Attachment to Decl. of Lee Wang, Esq., Senior Sta Attorney, Immigrant Def. Project, dated Feb. ,
App. OO.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
11
We see [the eects of fear] often when victims of crimes
report to the NYPD, but give fake names, addresses and phone
numbers out of fear that ICE will somehow track them down.
Unfortunately, when we then need them to come to our oce
for grand jury, or trial preparation, we cannot locate them
because their contact information was not real.
The Trial Division of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Oce reported a heightened fear
among noncitizens of testifying in criminal court since .
As part of trial preparation,
noncitizen witnesses are notied that their immigration status must be divulged to the
defense before trial, which, in turn, causes undocumented noncitizen witnesses to fear
that ICE will gain access to this information.
Assistant District Attorney Savur indicated
that there is confusion among the immigrant population with respect to the relationship
between the District Attorney’s Oce and ICE: “We have to assure them — that we do not
work for ICE, we do not have ICE agents in our oce or in our buildings.”
In certain areas
of Manhattan, such as Washington Heights, some immigrants were less likely to attend
community events sponsored by law enforcement.
Even more troubling have been reports that noncitizens experience such tremendous fear
around any aspect of the justice system that the fear goes well beyond attending court to
testify or reporting a crime. In fact, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Oce has reported
that noncitizen victims have expressed fear of availing themselves of certain victim services
including counseling, developing safety plans, and relocation.
Bronx District Attorney’s Oce
The Domestic Violence Bureau of the Bronx District Attorney’s oce Bronx DV Bureau
reports that numerous complaining witnesses expressed fear of testifying or otherwise
participating in criminal proceedings due to ICE presence in the courthouse.
In one
See, e.g., id. App. OO.
See, e.g., id. App. OO.
See, e.g., id. App. OO.
See, e.g., id. App. OO.
See, e.g., id. App. OO.
See, e.g., id. App. OO.
Attachment & Decl. of Terry Lawson, Dir., Family & Immigration Unit, Bronx Legal Servs., dated Mar. ,
App. S.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
12
instance, the Bronx DV Bureau reported that a previously cooperative complaining witness
became extremely reluctant to testify following several news reports regarding ICE arrests
occurring in courthouses.
In another case, the complaining witness was reluctant to report
a violation of an order of protection because the alleged violator threatened to report her
immigration situation to ICE if she called the police.
When she appeared to report the
violation, she was visibly terried.
The Bronx DV Bureau has also seen witnesses express
fear of ICE arrest in the courthouse.
In one case cited, a complaining witness’s mother was
very reluctant to testify because she feared ICE would be in the court.
The Bronx District Attorney Appeals Bureau reports that defendants refuse to testify
in post-conviction relief hearings due to fear of ICE in courts.
In one case, a sex abuse
victim’s mother was terried to testify because the defendant had been arrested and
detained by ICE.
In that same case, two outcry witnesses, the defendant’s wife and
daughter, were initially cooperative and planned to testify, but after the defendant’s ICE
arrest and detention, became uncooperative and refused to testify.
Brooklyn District Attorney’s Oce
As Brooklyn District Attorney, Eric Gonzalez, says, “we now work in an atmosphere
of fear and intimidation that discourages victims and witnesses, both documented and
undocumented, from coming forward to report crimes.”
District Attorney Gonzalez
arms that in several cases before his oce, victims and witnesses have expressed fears of
coming to criminal court due to ICE in courts.
In one instance, a victim robbed at gunpoint
refused to testify because he feared an ICE arrest in court.
In another case, a man robbed
at knifepoint refused to testify because he was not a US citizen, and without his testimony,
Id. App. S.
Id. App. S.
Id. App. S.
Id. App. S.
Id. App. S.
Id. App. S.
Id. App. S..
Id. App. S.
Eric Gonzalez & Judy Harris Kluger, How ICE Harms the Justice System: The Feds’ Aggressive Tactics in our
Courthouses are Emboldening Violent Criminals, N.Y. Daily News Aug. , , https://www.nydailynews.
com/opinion/ny-oped-how-ice-harms-the-justice-system--story.html.
Id.
Id.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
13
the assistant district attorney ADA was forced to reduce the charges to a misdemeanor.
In another case, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Oce was forced to dismiss assault
charges because the eyewitness would not testify due to similar fears.
The Brooklyn
Special Victims Bureau struggled to prosecute a sexual abuse case where the witness, an
undocumented mother of the victim, feared cooperation due to ICE in courts.
Decline in Calls to Immigrant Aairs Unit Hotlines
In recent years several District Attorney’s Oces across the state, including Manhattan,
Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau, Westchester, and Orange counties, have established
Immigrant Aairs Units and Oces IAUs.
These IAUs serve various purposes, such
as, for example in Nassau County, the acceptance and investigation of crimes reported by
noncitizens, U visa certications visas available for noncitizen crime victims who have
cooperated in the prosecution of the perpetrator, criminal complaint walk-in services,
fraud prevention education, referral services, and community outreach to noncitizen crime
victims.
Among the resources oered to the immigrant communities in participating counties, IAUs
operate hotlines for noncitizens to report crimes, ask questions, and obtain referrals for
access to legal or other resources.
The IAUs that have been open the longest have seen the
most dramatic declines in call rates since January .
Id.
Id.
Id.
N.Y. State Dist. Attorneys League of Immigrant Aairs Flyer App. WW.
Nassau Cty. Dist. Attorney’s Oce, Oce of Immigrant Aairs Flyer App. VV.
N.Y. State Dist. Attorneys League of Immigrant Aairs Flyer App. WW.
See, e.g., E-mail from Jose Interiano, Deputy Chief, Immigrant Aairs Unit, Kings Cty. Dist. Attorney’s Oce,
to Seth Hoy, Dir. Of Commc’ns, Legal Servs. N.Y.C., dated Apr. , App. LL.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
14
Calls to Hotline
Calls to Brooklyn DA’s IAU Decreased by 67% Post-Election
After increasing in 2016, call volume decreased precipitously
Fig 2
As seen in Figure , during the last year of the Obama Administration, calls to the Brooklyn
IAU hotline increased from to calls, an increase of .
In , however, the
trend reversed: call volume dropped to calls and remained roughly the same the
following year.
The number of calls received by the Brooklyn IAU dropped in ,
compared with calls received before in .
Calls to Hotline
Calls to Nassau DA’s IAU Decreased by 90% Post-Election
Calls decreased at a much faster rate starting in 2017
Fig 3
Id. App. LL.
Id. App. LL.
Id. App. LL.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
15
The Nassau District Attorney’s IAU saw similar trends. From March to December ,
the hotline received calls.
The following year, in , the calls dropped to .
The decline was most severe in , in which call volume — a mere three calls — decreased
.
In , call volume recovered only slightly, to , still only of pre-
numbers.
Complaints Made
With Univision Event Only Walk-ins
Walk-in Complaints in Nassau Decreased Notably Post-Election
Unsolicited walk-in criminal complaints decreased by half
Fig 4
Added to its hotline call data, the Nassau IAU has observed a notable decrease in walk-in
complaints by noncitizens since .
From March through December , the Nassau
IAU conrmed walk-ins.
In , its rst full year, the Nassau IAU saw walk-ins.
The following year, the number of walk-ins dropped by more than half, to in , and in
.
Attachment I to Decl. of Elizabeth Tonne-Daims, Esq., Padilla Attorney, Nassau Legal Aid Soc’y & Reg’l
Immigration Assistance Ctr. Attorney, dated Feb. , App. KK.
Id. App. KK.
Id. App. KK.
Id. App. KK.
Id. App. KK.
Id. App. KK.
Id. App. KK.
The Nassau IAU hosted a joint public event with Univision in , which brought in complaints. Figure
includes both a count of unsolicited walk-ins and a count including the complaints from the Univision event.
Id. App. KK.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
16
Calls to Hotline
The Queens DA’s IAU Also Saw Election Eects
The call volume in 2017 rose partially because of questions
about immigration post-election
Fig 5
The Queens IAU experienced a somewhat dierent pattern of calls, attributable, in part, to
county-specic factors and the election.
As shown in Figure , call volume increased,
from in to calls in , following increased awareness of the unit.
Many of
the calls cited concerns related to President Trump’s election.
In , the number of
calls decreased to .
The Bronx IAU hotline was installed in Spring of , too short a period to determine
yearly trends before and after President Trump’s election and resulting ICE enforcement
changes.
Additionally, while there were more calls in than , that dierence
appears to be due to a news segment that aired on Univision.
Decl. of Elizabeth Tonne-Daims, Esq., Padilla Attorney, Nassau Legal Aid Soc’y & Reg’l Immigration
Assistance Ctr. Attorney, dated Feb. , App. JJ.
Id. App. JJ.
Id. App. JJ.
Id. App. JJ.
Attachment & Decl. of Terry Lawson, Dir., Family & Immigration Unit, Bronx Legal Servs., dated Mar. ,
App. S. Additional data was provided by the Bronx District Attorney’s Oce for this report. See
Attachment & Decl. of Terry Lawson, Dir., Family & Immigration Unit, Bronx Legal Servs., dated Mar. ,
App. U.
Attachment & Decl. of Terry Lawson, Dir., Family & Immigration Unit, Bronx Legal Servs., dated Mar. ,
App. S.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
17
Decline in Clean Slate Participation
District Attorney oces often oer Clean Slate events in churches
or community centers to allow individuals to resolve their summons
warrants on-site without risk of arrest. The Manhattan District Attorney’s
oce reported that since , the number of people who participate in
its program has decreased considerably.
A Clean Slate event held on
November , drew people; yet a similar event on June ,
drew only people — a decrease.
With increased reporting of ICE
courthouse arrests, the attendance has decreased further: A similar event
held on April , drew a mere attendees, a decrease of about
.
According to the Deputy Chief of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Trial
Division, the oce attributes such sudden drop o in attendance “in part
due to the fear that ICE will show up and round people up,” stating further
that “although undocumented witnesses were always nervous about
coming to our oce prior to , the concerns have increased with the
current administration and there is a general fear of law enforcement due to
their immigration status and fear of deportation.”
In addition, both the Manhattan and Bronx District Attorneys’ oces noted that, since
, they have experienced a decline in those who sought their victim-related assistance
via the adjacent Family Justice Centers.
More data on the drop o in Family Justice Center
participation is covered in section IVB below.
Attachment to Decl. of Lee Wang, Esq., Senior Sta Attorney, Immigrant Def. Project, dated Feb. ,
App. OO.
Id. App. OO.
Id. App. OO.
Id. App. OO.
Id. App. OO.
Clean Slate Event
Participation
(Number of people)
November ,
June ,
April ,
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
18
Burden of Filing Writs to Produce
Increased ICE operations in New York State courts require law enforcement to expend
substantial resources to le and execute writs to produce litigants held in ICE custody.
District attorney oces have the burden of drafting and ling these writs as well as
retrieving detainees from ICE custody.
Usually, two detectives from a New York City
law enforcement agency are sent to ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations at the
Manhattan Immigration Court on Varick Street where detainees are held in order to pick
them up and transport them to the criminal court.
Despite Criminal Procedure Law ., which articulates the writ process, district
attorneys across New York have found the procedure to be erratic, confusing, and
cumbersome.
Often ICE does not honor the writ to produce the defendant in a timely
manner, if it does so at all.
ICE purports that its reluctance or failure to produce a defendant has been a concern that
the writ is a ploy to recoup the defendant to New York’s jurisdiction in order to dismiss the
conviction and release the defendant back into a sanctuary city.
ICE also routinely refuses
to send a detainee to New York for a post-conviction relief motion hearing, where the
underlying crime was a basis for deportability.
Where noncitizen defendants with pending criminal cases have been arrested and detained by ICE, an
application for a writ of habeas corpus ad prosequendum, or writ of production, must be led by prosecuting
oces and subsequently ordered by the presiding state court judge. The writ requests retrieval of the detainees
from federal immigration detention to attend their criminal court proceedings. See, e.g., U.S. Marshals Serv.,
Service of Process: Writ of Habeas Corpus last visited Mar. , , https://www.usmarshals.gov/process/
habeas.htm.
Attachment to Decl. of Lee Wang, Esq., Senior Sta Attorney, Immigrant Def. Project, dated Feb. ,
App. OO.
Id. App. OO.
Id. App. OO.
ICE’s toolkit for prosecutors, a resource created by ICE for state and federal prosecutors to facilitate
cooperation between agencies, explicitly notes that as a federal agency, it is not bound by state court orders,
but that it will “generally” honor such writs. See U.S. Immigration & Customs Enf’t, Protecting the Homeland:
Toolkit for Prosecutors at Apr. , https://www.ice.gov/doclib/about/oces/osltc/pdf/tool-kit-for-
prosecutors.pdf.
Attachment to Decl. of Lee Wang, Esq., Senior Sta Attorney, Immigrant Def. Project, dated Feb. ,
App. OO.
Id. App. OO.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
19
The Manhattan District Attorney Trial Division reports that ICE detentions, resulting from
New York State court ICE arrests, frustrate prosecutions that require writs to produce in
three ways:
. the severity of the charges do not warrant a writ, i.e., most are misdemeanors;
. the defendant is no longer in its jurisdiction; and
. ICE fails to produce the defendant per the writ.
In , the Nassau District Attorney’s oce was forced to le writs to produce ICE
detainees for their court dates in District Court, though only were produced.
In County
Court, where felonies are prosecuted, the Nassau District Attorney’s Oce led writs for
defendants in ICE custody with pending felony charges.
The Bronx DV Bureau observes that, “To say navigating ICE is a labyrinthine endeavor
would be an understatement. There is no publicly available information about how to
produce a person from ICE. I had to go up the ag pole to the Chief Counsel for New York to
gure out the process.”
In one case, after ICE arrested and detained a defendant charged
with criminal mischief with no attorney present, it took two and a half months for ICE to
produce him to take a plea.
In another case, the ADA made several attempts to have the
defendant produced from ICE custody, but was unsuccessful because ICE refused to release
the defendant to the detectives who had been sent to pick him up.
The Bronx DV Bureau
reports that ICE refuses to comply with writs, citing suspicions of the District Attorney’s
intentions:
Id. App. OO.
Attachment I to Decl. of Elizabeth Tonne-Daims, Esq., Padilla Attorney, Nassau Legal Aid Soc’y, & Reg’l
Immigration Assistance Ctr. Attorney, dated Feb. , App. KK revealing that some of the detainees
who were not produced had already been deported or had bonded out of ICE custody.
Id. App. KK.
Attachment & Decl. of Terry Lawson, Dir., Family & Immigration Unit, Bronx Legal Servs., dated Mar. ,
App. S.
Id. App. S.
Id. App. S.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
20
…up until recently, ICE has always complied with the writ
requests so long as we send ocers to pick up the defendant.
However, recently, an ICE handler informed us that they are
no longer producing defendants to state custody because they
don’t trust the state ocials to return them to federal custody.
The experiences of the district attorney oces across New York demonstrate how ICE
courthouse operations hinder their work and mission. Their signicant dedicated attempts
to cultivate trusting relationships with their immigrant residents through initiatives such
as IAUs, Clean Slate events, and Family Justice Centers are undermined daily by ICE
courthouse operations.
Id. App. S.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
21
How ICE Courthouse Operations
Instill Fear and Undermine Gender-
Based Violence Prevention
Increased ICE enforcement operations in and around New York
State courthouses deter many immigrant survivors from seeking
relief in court. When those harmed are discouraged from seeking
legal protections, they are pushed further into the shadows
and made more vulnerable to abusive partners who threaten to
call ICE. New York agencies and anti-violence advocates have
collected data on the chilling eect of ICE courthouse operations
since January . Seven observable trends in the data include:
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
22
. a drop in orders of protection issued against intimate partners;
. a drop in survivors seeking assistance at Family Justice Centers, located in the
vicinity of New York State Courts and district attorneys’ oces;
. fewer survivors seeking civil legal assistance;
. reduced communication with law enforcement;
. reluctance to pursue armative petitions in Family and Supreme Courts;
. increased fear of compliance with court orders; and
. a rise in ICE-related threats from abusive partners.
Decrease in Orders of Protection
Orders of protection issued against intimate partners or family members
dropped from
, in to , in .
This decline coincides with the dramatic rise in ICE
courthouse operations in . A closer look at the data reveals how this decrease is greater
in the local criminal courts. In particular, in New York City Criminal Courts and City and
District Courts outside of New York City, there were , orders of protection issued
against intimate partners or family members in , compared with , in — a
decline of ..
“Under Executive Law § , the Oce of Court Administration calls orders that must be led with the
registry ‘required.’ These orders involve intimate partners or family members. Other orders of protection
issued against unrelated parties such as neighbors are ‘not required’ to be led with the registry . . . .” N.Y.
State Oce for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, New York State Domestic Violence Dashboard 2017 at n.
Oct. , http://www.opdv.ny.gov/statistics/nydata//-dv-dashboard.pdf.
Compare N.Y. State Unied Court Sys., Orders of Protection in UCS’s Domestic Violence Registry with
an Issue Date ////, dated May , App. XX with N.Y. State Unied Court Sys., Orders of
Protection in UCS’s Domestic Violence Registry with an Issue Date ////, dated Jan. , App. YY.
See N.Y. State Unied Court Sys., Orders of Protection in UCS’s Domestic Violence Registry with an Issue Date
////, dated Jan. , App. YY.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
23
Decline in Visits to Family Justice Centers
In New York City, Family Justice Centers FJCs are operated by the New York City Mayor’s
Oce to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence ENDGBV and are generally located in
the vicinity of New York State courts and the local district attorney oce. In , the City’s
ve FJCs saw a decline in the number of new, foreign-born client visitors compared
to .
According to the Mayor’s Oce to End Domestic and Gender-based Violence
ENDGBV
, “foreign-born New Yorkers who have not yet visited a Center may face
additional barriers to seeking FJC services compared to the prior year.”
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
No. of Foreign-Born Clients
New Returning
New vs. Returning Foreign-Born FJC Clients By Year
2011–2017
Source: OCDV in Focus: A Closer Look at Foreign-Born Clients Visiting the New York City Family Justice
Centers, https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/ocdv/downloads/pdf/Foreign-Born -FJC-Client-Report.pdf.
Fig 7
FJCs are open, public facilities that provide a space for non-prot organizations, including legal-aid providers,
to meet with survivors of domestic violence and sex tracking. FJCs are available to anyone, regardless of
“language, income, gender identity, or immigration status.” See N.Y.C. Mayor’s Oce to Combat Domestic
Violence, OCDV in Focus: A Closer Look at Foreign-Born Clients Visiting the New York City Family Justice Centers
, https://www.nyc.gov/assets/ocdv/downloads/pdf/Foreign-Born-FJCClient-Report.pdf emphasis
added.
Formerly known as the Mayor’s Oce to Combat Domestic Violence OCDV.
See N.Y.C. Mayor’s Oce to Combat Domestic Violence, OCDV in Focus: A Closer Look at Foreign-Born Clients
Visiting the New York City Family Justice Centers , https://www.nyc.gov/assets/ocdv/downloads/pdf/
Foreign-Born-FJCClient-Report.pdf.”
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
24
Fewer Survivors Seeking Civil Legal Assistance
Fewer immigrants harmed by intimate partner and gender-based violence are seeking civil
legal assistance in New York. Between and , Sanctuary for Families Sanctuary
closed , fewer cases and assisted fewer clients seeking orders of protection,
compared to the previous year.
Sanctuary saw a substantial decrease in the number
of clients seeking assistance for family law matters.
Conversations with current and
prospective clients lead Sanctuary sta to conclude that ICE courthouse operations were
largely to blame.
Civil legal services providers across New York saw similar eects of ICE courthouse
operations on survivors’ willingness to access their services. For example, in May ,
Atossa Movahedi, of the Domestic Violence Project of the Urban Justice Center UJC,
reported at least two incidents where clients stopped working with UJC due to ICE
courthouse operations.
UJC supervising immigration attorney Joy Ziegeweid explained
her experience with a woman reluctant to access her services: “Two days before Celia’s
scheduled consultation, her therapist called me and told me that Celia was afraid of being
arrested by ICE at our oces and was afraid to come to her appointment with me.”
Likewise, Andrea Panjwani, former Immigration Practice Managing Attorney at My
Sisters’ Place, recounted similar experiences with survivors who chose not to seek their
services.
In the case of a woman who had been brutally attacked by her children’s
father:
When I asked her what happened, she reported that the father
of her children raped her in a parking lot and then severely beat
her about the head with his sts and “metal things.” She has
neurological damage and what appears to be permanent vision
loss as a result. When I asked her why she did not report it or
See Letter from Dorchen Leidholdt, Dir., Ctr. for Battered Women’s Legal Servs., to Terry D. Lawson, Dir.,
Family & Immigration Unit, Bronx Legal Servs. at , dated July , App. SS.
See id. App. SS.
See id. App. SS.
Decl. of Atossa Movahedi, Esq., Dir., Legal Servs. & Dev., Domestic Violence Project, Urban Justice Ctr. ¶¶
, dated May , App. Y.
Decl. of Joy Ziegeweid, Supervising Immigration Attorney, Domestic Violence Project, Urban Justice Ctr. ¶ ,
dated May , App. Q.
Decl. of Andrea Panjwani, Managing Attorney, Immigration Practice, My Sisters’ Place ¶ b, dated May ,
App. CC.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
25
ask us to help her get a restraining order at Family Court, she
told me she was afraid of being picked up by ICE.
New York Legal Assistance Group NYLAG represents an increasing number of clients
who express fear in accessing our courts to seek orders of protection.
One woman, Lisa,
who met with NYLAG spoke about wanting to separate from her husband, who frequently
hits and pushes her in front of their three children.
After learning that she would have
to appear in court to get an order of protection, Lisa decided not to le a case.
Lisa
specically said that she had heard stories of ICE coming to courts in New York, and she
didn’t feel safe there.
Lisa had to weigh her and her children’s safety, against the safety of
being in court as an undocumented person.
Reduced Communication with Law Enforcement
Immigrant survivors of intimate partner and gender-based violence experience
overwhelming fear of engaging with law enforcement as a direct result of increased ICE
courthouse operations.
Surveys of legal services professionals conducted over the past two
years provide quantitative data on the decreased willingness of survivors to communicate
with law enforcement due to ICE in the courts. According to an internal Sanctuary survey,
. of sta surveyed reported an increase in noncitizen clients who are fearful of seeking
assistance from law enforcement at least clients in total since early .
Key
ndings from the ICE in NYS Courts Legal Service and Advocates Survey show that
of providers surveyed worked with immigrants who expressed fear of serving as a
complaining witness.
Anti-violence advocates also provided substantial qualitative data on survivors who decline
to communicate with law enforcement police, district attorney oces, criminal courts due
Id. App. CC.
Decl. of Victoria Goodlof, Senior Sta Attorney, N.Y. Legal Assistance Grp. ¶ , dated Feb. , App. K.
Id. App. K.
Id. App. K.
Id. App. K.
See Letter from Dorchen Leidholdt, Dir., Ctr. for Battered Women’s Legal Servs., to Terry D. Lawson, Dir.,
Family & Immigration Unit, Bronx Legal Servs. at , dated July , App. SS.
A. of Pooja Asnani, Deputy Dir., Immigration Intervention Project, Sanctuary for Families at , dated Feb. ,
App. D.
Immigrant Def. Project, Key Findings: ICE in NYS Courts Legal Service and Advocates Survey, https://www.
immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/ICE-out-of-courts-survey-nal-.pdf.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
26
to ICE courthouse operations in New York.
For example, in May , Andrea Panjwani
explained that, in the Lower Hudson Valley:
We have several cases with pending investigations and clients
are expected to appear for interviews at the District Attorney’s
Oce, local police departments, local FBI oces and so forth.
We have two cases with the Westchester District Attorney right
now and their oce is housed at the Courthouse. These clients,
who have survived horric crimes, including child rape and
aggravated assault, are asking me to help them get the charges
dropped against the defendants because they are afraid that
one of the ways the defendants would retaliate would be by
alerting ICE to the court dates.
Similarly, Evangeline Chan, Director of Safe Horizon’s Immigration Law Project,
explained in June that a Safe Horizon client had to be hospitalized due to injuries
inicted by her husband and that the police were called by hospital sta when the client
disclosed the abuse. But while discussing the case with her Safe Horizon attorney, the client
expressed fear “that her husband would disclose her immigration status in open court or to
immigration ocials as retaliation for his arrest.”
As a result, Chan explained, “the client
decided not to cooperate with the DA’s oce and is advocating with the DA to drop the
charges against her husband.”
According to Dorchen Leidholdt of Sanctuary, “One of
our clients declined to report domestic violence to the New York Police Department and
declined to obtain an order of protection for her and her children for fear of negative
immigration repercussions for herself.”
Attorneys at Sanctuary “overwhelmingly report that their clients are fearful of going to the
police and that their clients’ expressions of fear that accessing police protection will result in
The appendix contains numerous adavits describing more rsthand accounts with survivors.
Decl. of Andrea Panjwani, Managing Attorney, Immigration Practice, My Sisters’ Place ¶ a, dated May ,
App. CC.
Decl. of Evangeline M. Chan, Dir., Immigration Law Project, Safe Horizon ¶ , dated June , App. G.
Id. App. G.
A. of Claire R. Thomas, N.Y. Law Sch. ¶ , dated July , App. II.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
27
arrest and deportation are greater than ever before.”
A Sanctuary client
stated that “previously she felt no fear about cooperating with the police but
the presence of ICE in the neighborhood she lives in and rumors that the
police cooperate with ICE have convinced her that reporting her husband’s
abuse and cooperating with his prosecution will place her at great risk from
immigration authorities in the U.S.”
Sanctuary’s internal survey also
found that its clients often choose not to serve as complaining witnesses,
with . of sta reporting an increase in noncitizens expressing fear of
serving as a complaining witness since January .
Survivors’ family members are also unwilling to communicate with law
enforcement, as illustrated by Carolina Guiral, sta attorney at Bronx
Legal Services: “I have also seen how some of my clients who have had
the courage to come forward to report a crime that has been committed
against them are impeded from doing so due to their family members’
unwillingness to cooperate in their cases because they do not want to place
themselves at a higher risk of being discovered by ICE.”
The ripple eects
of ICE courthouse operations go on and on for survivors of violence.
Reluctance to Pursue Remedies in Family and
Supreme Court
Immigrant survivors of intimate partner and gender-based violence are
increasingly reluctant to pursue available remedies in Family and Supreme
Court, due in part to ICE courthouse operations.
According to the
ICE in NYS Courts Legal Service and Advocates Survey, of providers
See Letter from Dorchen Leidholdt, Dir., Ctr. for Battered Women’s Legal Servs., to Terry D. Lawson, Dir.,
Family & Immigration Unit, Bronx Legal Servs. at , dated July , App. SS.
See id. at App. SS.
See A. of Pooja Asnani, Deputy Dir., Immigration Intervention Project, Sanctuary for Families at , dated Feb.
, App. D.
Decl. of Carolina Guiral, Sta Attorney, Family & Immigration Unit, Bronx Legal Servs. ¶ , dated Aug. ,
App. L.
See, e.g., A. of Pooja Asnani, Deputy Dir., Immigration Intervention Project, Sanctuary for Families at ,
dated Feb. , App. D “Fear of ICE interaction or deportation plays a role in the overwhelming majority
of my non-citizen clients’ decisions in reporting or going forward with a case.”; Written Testimony of Carmen
Maria Rey, Esq. Deputy Dir., Immigration Intervention Project, Sanctuary for Families, Submitted to the
N.Y.C. Council, Comm. on Courts & Legal Servs., Chair, Council Member Rory Lancman at , dated June ,
App. DD; Decl. of Andrea Panjwani, Managing Attorney, Immigration Practice, My Sisters’ Place ¶ a,
dated May , App. CC.
2017 ICE in NYS Courts
Legal Service and
Advocates Survey
of providers surveyed have
had clients who decided not
to seek help from the courts
worked with immigrants
who failed to seek custody
or visitation
worked with someone who
failed to pursue an order of
protection
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
28
surveyed have had clients who decided not to seek help from the courts, worked with
immigrants who failed to seek custody or visitation, and worked with someone who
failed to pursue an order of protection, all due to fear of ICE.
Anti-violence advocates provide additional details about the post-January decline
in participation in civil court proceedings by immigrant survivors. Claire Thomas says
that “our clients are now anxious to enter New York State Courts for fear that they will be
apprehended simply because they are not U.S. citizens.”
Describing his interactions with
survivors at Queens Family Justice Center, UJC sta attorney Salar Rivani says “about
half the clients screened are undocumented and it has become a regular occurrence that
they will ask about their risk of deportation from beginning a case in any of the New York
courts.”
Hamra Ahmad, Director of Legal Services at Her Justice, explains that their
clients have declined to pursue Family Court actions:
One client who had led for a U Visa with assistance from
Her Justice withdrew her Family Court petitions because
she was afraid of ICE enforcement in the courts. Another
undocumented client whom Her Justice advised on Family
Court matters over the phone was too afraid to even come
to our oce to seek pro bono representation because of the
pervasive fear of increased immigration enforcement.
Carolina Guiral of Bronx Legal Services relays what happened with one of her clients who
led a family oense petition in Family Court:
During the months leading up to her hearing, my client
showed signs that she did not want her case to go forward. She
eventually disclosed to me that she was afraid to go forward
with her case and that it was causing her an enormous amount
of stress. As a result of her fear, she has requested that her
Immigrant Def. Project, Key Findings: ICE in NYS Courts Legal Service and Advocates Survey, https://www.
immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/ICE-out-of-courts-survey-nal-.pdf.
A. of Claire R. Thomas, N.Y. Law Sch. ¶ , dated July , App. II.
Decl. of Salar Rivani, Esq., Sta Attorney, Urban Justice Ctr., Domestic Violence Project ¶ , dated May ,
App. EE.
A. of Hamra Ahmad, Dir., Legal Servs., Her Justice ¶ , dated July , App. B.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
29
family oense petition be withdrawn. The testimony of a close
family member who witnessed the abuse inicted on my client
would have been essential evidence in her case and perhaps it
would have encouraged her to go forward with her case. If there
were court rules prohibiting arrests of undocumented persons
in the courthouse without a warrant, my client’s family may
have been willing to testify on her behalf and my client would
have had the support she needed to proceed with her family
oense petition.
Guiral’s client spoke anonymously to Law regarding her fear of pursuing her rights
in Family Court.
She explained that she knew that she could request a U visa if she
continued with her Family Court matter, “but I couldn’t sleep because I was fearful to go to
the courthouse.”
Data from the Oce of Court Administration demonstrates that Guiral’s client is not alone.
In , there were requests for U visa certications made to the New York City Family
Courts.
In , that number dropped to requests, a decline.
The number
of requests recovered slightly in to , still a decline from the number
of requests.
While overall New York City U visa certication request numbers seem
stronger in , though, a closer look at the borough-specic data reveals a bleak picture
for Manhattan, Staten Island, and Queens Family Courts.
From to , there was
a decline in U certication requests in Manhattan in , in and in
; an decline in Staten Island in , in , in ; and a decline in
Queens in , in , and in .
The dramatic drop-o of undocumented
Decl. of Carolina Guiral, Sta Attorney, Family & Immigration Unit, Bronx Legal Servs. ¶ , dated Aug. ,
App. L.
RJ Vogt, With Courthouse Arrests, Is Justice Too Risky for Immigrants?, Law Mar. , , https://www.
law.com/articles/.
Id.
Attachment & Decl. of Terry Lawson, Dir., Family & Immigration Unit, Bronx Legal Servs., dated Mar. ,
App. T.
Id. App. T.
Id. App. T.
Id. App. T.
Id. App. T.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
30
survivors of violence who seek U visa certications demonstrates that survivors are not
seeking available remedies from New York City Family Court.
With increased ICE courthouse operations, attorneys have been forced to change the way
they advise survivors. According to Dorchen Leidholdt of Sanctuary:
Previously when clients expressed concern that a lack of
immigration status might place them at risk of arrest and
deportation if they petitioned for protective orders, custody
or visitation, child support, divorce, and/or special immigrant
juvenile status, or made appearances in cases for such
protection and relief, we attempted to correct what was then a
misapprehension. Now we must carefully review our clients’
immigration status before providing legal advice and if we
learn that our clients are not fully documented, we must
explore with them the possibility that pursuing these remedies
may place them and their children at risk of arrest, detention,
and eventual deportation. Our lawyers struggle with balancing
clients’ often urgent needs for legal remedies against the
danger that pursuing these remedies may place them in.
Hamra Ahmad also reports that in the eighteen-month period following January :
Her Justice has changed the nature of advice to foreign-born
clients and to pro bono attorneys working with our clients. We
can no longer assure Her Justice clients that they will be free
from apprehension by ICE in New York’s courthouses . . . We
help foreign-born clients weigh the risks of pursuing civil court
relief or appearing as a witness in court given increased ICE
enforcement in and around courthouses. Pro bono attorneys
working with Her Justice are more concerned than they once
See Letter from Dorchen Leidholdt, Dir., Ctr. for Battered Women’s Legal Servs., to Terry D. Lawson, Dir.,
Family & Immigration Unit, Bronx Legal Servs. at , dated July , App. SS.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
31
were about how to present their clients’ immigration status in
Family Court.
Joy Ziegeweid of UJC recounts similar experiences, relaying the story of what happened
when she met with her client, Celia:
At our appointment, Celia, a victim of severe domestic violence
at the hands of the father of her child, told me that she had led
for custody and an order of protection, but she was not sure if
she should continue the case, because she was afraid that she
might be arrested at the next Family Court hearing. I used to
be able to tell my fearful clients that it was extremely unlikely
that ICE would show up at a New York courthouse. I no longer
can tell them that. Celia is a woman who has not committed
a crime. She is a single mother attempting to raise her child
in safety. An order of custody and an order of protection
would help her to do that, but because of ICE enforcement at
courthouses, she is now fearful of accessing the justice to which
she is entitled.
Carmen Maria Rey, Brooklyn Law School professor and former Sanctuary attorney,
explains her heartbreaking experience of working with a woman who lost her daughter to
her abusive partner and chose not to go to Family Court for help because he threatened “that
if she tries to get her daughter back, he will call immigration and have her deported” and “if
she les for custody, he can tell ICE where she will be on the day of her Court hearing, and
they will likely come to arrest her.”
A. of Hamra Ahmad, Dir., Legal Servs., Her Justice ¶ , dated July , App. B.
Decl. of Joy Ziegeweid, Supervising Immigration Attorney, Domestic Violence Project, Urban Justice Ctr. ¶ ,
dated May , App. Q.
Written Testimony of Carmen Maria Rey, Esq., Deputy Dir., Immigration Intervention Project, Sanctuary for
Families, Submitted to the N.Y.C. Council, Comm. on Courts & Legal Servs., Chair, Council Member Rory
Lancman at , dated June , App. DD.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
32
Chelsea Whipp at UJC explains that “even my clients who have legal status fear accessing
the courts, because they believe it makes them visible to ICE and thus susceptible to
detention.”
Others explain that survivors express fear about walking past New York
State courthouses alone i.e., without legal representation. As one Sanctuary advocate
explains: “I work at the Queens FJC and have had numerous clients ask me a stereotypically
“American” looking white woman to walk them to the subway after our appointments
because they are fearful of walking past the court alone.”
Shani Adess, Associate Director of NYLAG’s Matrimonial and Family Law Unit, states
that an increasing number of immigrant survivors express fear about whether it is safe to
appear in civil courts to seek orders of protection, or le for custody, support or divorce
against their abusers.
“We used to evaluate safety in terms of survivor’s safety in relation
to the abuser being brought to court. Now, . . . we have to look to whether their physical
safety in this country is at risk if they come forward. We work with clients to develop safety
plans that encompass all of their fears, but anytime you limit resources and options for
survivors who are looking for protection, you are making survivors and their children, and
our communities, less safe.”
Antoinette Delruelle at NYLAG, speaks about a client in her twenties and now raising two
children as a single mom having ed physical violence at the hands of their father, who
tearfully explained that she could not go get a divorce or child support because if she went to
Court she was afraid that given ICE’s presence, she would be arrested and deported. “M
y children are young and need me, I can’t risk being taken from them and having them lose
me,” she said, explaining that she would have to gure out how to support her children
alone, and remain formally tied to her abuser as his wife.
Even for clients who are still willing to come forward with claims, they face obstacles in
pursuing their cases when witnesses to the case refuse to appear in court out of fear of
immigration enforcement. NYLAG represented a client who sought an order of protection
against their husband. The sole witness in her case was a friend, who refused to testify in
the case fearing she would be arrested by ICE in the courthouse and deported for being
Decl. of Chelsea Whipp, Esq., Immigration Sta Attorney, Domestic Violence Project, Urban Justice Ctr. ¶ ,
dated May , App. PP.
See A. of Pooja Asnani, Deputy Dir., Immigration Intervention Project, Sanctuary for Families at , dated Feb.
, App. D.
Decl. of Shani Adess, Esq., Assoc. Dir., Matrimonial & Family Law Unit, N.Y. Legal Assistance Grp. ¶ , dated
Feb. , App. A.
Id. App. A.
Decl. of Antoinette Delruelle, Senior Sta Attorney, N.Y. Legal Assistance Grp. ¶ , dated Feb. , App. I.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
33
here without status.
Not being able to produce the witness weakened the client’s case
substantially in the eyes of the court and other counsel.
Increased Fear of Compliance with Court Orders
ICE courthouse operations discourage tracking survivors from complying with court
orders.
After ICE agents attempted to arrest a woman in the Queens Human Tracking
Intervention Court in June , Yvonne Chen, Outreach Manager for Sanctuary’s Anti-
Tracking Initiative, described an interaction with two women scheduled to appear in the
court that day:
[A]fter court broke for lunch, two Chinese women approached
me anxiously, questioning why ICE was there and if they were
going to be deported next. They were terried to even exit the
courtroom and asked me to escort them outside so they could
get some food, as they had been waiting since early morning for
their case to be heard. As we were about to exit the courthouse,
they panicked and decided to remain huddled inside the
courthouse rather than risk arrest. I could tell they were
famished, but because they could not bring themselves to step
outdoors, the best I could do was bring them some stale bagels.
As I sat with them for a few minutes, they wondered how they
Decl. of Micah Horwitz, Esq, Sta Attorney, N.Y. Legal Assistance Grp. ¶ , dated Feb. , App. M.
Id. App. M.
Letter from Dorchen Leidholdt, Dir., Ctr. for Battered Women’s Legal Servs., Sanctuary for Families, to Terry
D. Lawson, Dir., Family & Immigration Unit, Bronx Legal Servs. at , dated July , App. SS.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
34
could possibly nish their sessions and return to court given the
risk that doing so could cause them to be deported.
The woman whom ICE sought to detain on June , “was on track to have the charges
against her dismissed after completing her mandated services” but in coming to court to
“comply with the legal requirement to appear in court as scheduled, she suddenly risked
detention and deportation.”
Because “all of this occurred in front of dozens of other
immigrant defendants in the same situations,” the Sanctuary sta opined, “many surely
resolved at that moment never to return or complete their services.”
Abusers Threatening to Call ICE
Increased ICE enforcement in New York, especially in and around courthouses, emboldens
abusive partners who weaponize threats to call ICE.
Sanctuary’s internal survey reveals
that . of survey respondents have clients at least who reported an increase
in abusers threatening to call ICE.
Susanna Saul, Managing Attorney at Her Justice,
explains:
Another trend that I have noticed in the past few months is that
undocumented clients are increasingly reporting that their
Written Testimony of Carmen Maria Rey, Esq. Deputy Dir., Immigration Intervention Project, Sanctuary for
Families, Submitted to the N.Y.C. Council, Comm. on Courts & Legal Servs. Chair, Council Member Rory
Lancman at , dated June , App. DD. See also Letter from Dorchen Leidholdt, Dir., Ctr. for Battered
Women’s Legal Servs., Sanctuary for Families, to Terry D. Lawson, Dir., Family & Immigration Unit, Bronx
Legal Servs. at , dated July , App. SS. The Human Tracking Intervention Court is one of eleven
such problem-solving courts in New York State that adjudicate the cases of people arrested for prostitution,
recognizing that many have been subjected to sex tracking and all are at high risk of tracking and other
forms of gender violence. See N.Y. State Unied Court Sys., Human Tracking Intervention Courts: Overview
last updated July , , https://www.nycourts.gov/courts/problem_solving/htc/index.shtml; see also N.Y.
State Unied Court Sys., Problem-Solving Courts Overview last updated Dec. , , https://www.nycourts.
gov/COURTS/problem_solving/index.shtml.
Written Testimony of Carmen Maria Rey, Esq., Deputy Dir., Immigration Intervention Project, Sanctuary for
Families, Submitted to the N.Y.C. Council, Comm. on Courts & Legal Servs. Chair, Council Member Rory
Lancman at , dated June , App. DD.
Id. App. DD.
See, e.g., A. of Hamra Ahmad, Dir., Legal Servs., Her Justice ¶ , dated July , App. B “In the current
climate of increased enforcement, abusers’ threats to report undocumented clients to the immigration
authorities feel even more real to our clients than they once did.”.
See A. of Pooja Asnani, Deputy Dir., Immigration Intervention Project, Sanctuary for Families at , dated Feb.
, App. D.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
35
abusive former partners are threatening to “take them to court
and have them deported” if they don’t do what their former
partners want. In one example, a client reported that her former
partner threatened to “take her to court and have her deported”
if she did not allow him to see their daughter. In some
instances, their partners have actually made false allegations
against my clients using the family court and criminal systems.
This is a trend that I have seen in the past but it takes on an
extraordinary signicance to my clients now because of the
extreme immigration consequences that can arise from these
accusations.
Evangeline Chan of Safe Horizon states:
From our domestic violence shelters, [Child Advocacy Centers]
and [Crime Victim Assistance Program], we receive constant
referrals for clients . . . who want to know what options and
rights they have if they are too afraid to enter government
buildings because of ICE, but need protection from their
abusers who threaten to report them to ICE and/or take their
children away from them.
Micah Horwitz at NYLAG represented a client who routinely threatened to call ICE on her
and deport her whenever she “disobeyed him”; disobeying him included leaving the house
without his permission, or speaking with friends or family on the telephone.
Until she
spoke with an attorney, she believed that getting a divorce or ling for an order of protection
would cause her to be deported.
“ICE presence in courthouses builds on this belief that
abusers often tell survivors: that they have complete power over them, that if they disobey
them, or try to ee, or go to court: all their abuser has to do is make a call and ICE will detain
Decl. of Susanna Saul, Esq., Managing Attorney, Her Justice ¶ , dated May , App. GG.
Decl. of Evangeline M. Chan, Dir., Immigration Law Project, Safe Horizon ¶ , dated June , App. G.
Decl. of Micah Horwitz, Sta Attorney, N.Y. Legal Assistance Grp. ¶ , dated Feb. , App. M.
Id. App. M.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
36
and deport them. True or not, the presence of ICE in courthouses makes this threat all the
more real.”
Advocates have countless stories about these threats.
One Sanctuary advocate reports
that “several clients mentioned their abusers were directly using the news to instill fear in
clients” and that “one client mentioned her abuser screamed at her during a violent abuse
‘If Trump is president then I can do whatever I want.’”
Decl. of Shani Adess, Esq. Assoc. Dir., Matrimonial & Family Law Unit, N.Y. Legal Assistance Grp. ¶ , dated
Feb. , App. A.
See, e.g., Decl. of Susanna Saul, Managing Attorney, Her Justice ¶ , dated May , App. GG.
See A. of Pooja Asnani, Deputy Dir., Immigration Intervention Project, Sanctuary for Families at , dated Feb.
, App. D.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
37
How ICE Courthouse Operations
Disrupt the Work and Mission of
Public Defender Oces
See N.Y.C. Bar Assoc., Recommendations Regarding Federal Immigration Enforcement in New York State
Courthouses at Jul. , https://s.amazonaws.com/documents.nycbar.org/les/ICEcourthouse.
pdf noting that although ICE has primarily targeted New York’s criminal courts, they have also executed
arrests in civil courts and problem-solving courts.
ICE courthouse operations disrupt longstanding best practices
of public defender oces and inhibit zealous representation of
those facing criminal charges in New York State courts. The vast
majority of ICE courthouse operations in New York involve people
with cases in criminal court.
Institutional public defenders
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
38
identify ve systemic disruptions to the administration of justice
in New York:
. clients’ rising fears of attending court and increased issuance of bench warrants;
. barriers to mounting a zealous defense;
. litigants disappearing into ICE detention;
. resource drain in public defender oces; and
. ICE’s escalating use of force and surveillance.
Fear of Attending Court and Increasing Issuance of Bench
Warrants
The public defender oces report that noncitizen clients fear an ICE arrest at their scheduled
court dates.
Clients regularly express fear to their advocates that court appearances will
result in ICE detention.
The ICE in NYS Courts Legal Service and Advocates Survey,
which surveyed legal service providers statewide, found that out of legal services
providers worked with clients who expressed fear of going to court.
Matt Knecht,
Managing Director of Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem NDS, explains “our
attorneys are reporting an increased fear of our non-citizen clients to appear in court,
contrary to their own legal interests and the eciency interests of the Court.”
New York
County Defender Services NYCDS elaborates:
Many of our noncitizen clients feel that they cannot risk the
potential exposure to ICE in court, so they prioritize their own
liberty over allowing the criminal justice process to play out.
See, e.g., Decl. of Justine Luongo, Attorney in Charge, Criminal Def. Practice, The Legal Aid Soc’y ¶ , dated
Feb. , App. V.
See, e.g., A. of Sarah Deri Oshiro, Managing Dir., Immigration Practice, Bronx Defs. ¶ , dated Mar. ,
App. BB.
Immigrant Def. Project, Key Findings: ICE in NYS Courts Legal Service and Advocates Survey, https://www.
immdefense.org/ice-courts-survey.
Decl. of Matt Knecht, Managing Dir. of Neighborhood Def. Serv. of Harlem, dated Oct. , App. P.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
39
As a result, after being advised of the potential immigration
consequences, many of our noncitizen clients choose to take a
plea at arraignments so that they need not return to court and
risk a potential ICE arrest.
Kathy Rodriguez, a former Arraignment Clerk and Administrative Assistant for NYCDS,
describes the eects on clients and sta:
Clients are now calling our oce to ask about the consequences
of making their court dates (as opposed to missing their
court dates) because they are afraid ICE is outside waiting
for them. They are terried, hysterical, and untrusting of any
governmental employee because they feel like we were all out
to get them. Our jobs as administrative assistants went from
sources of information to counselors — a job that I am not
mentally prepared to handle. These phone calls replay in my
head way too often.
Cynthia C. Darrell, the Bureau Chief of Suolk County Legal Aid Society’s East End
Bureau, adds that “this anxiety occurs even on minor trac oenses where the plea
bargain is only a ne.”
These fears disproportionately eect vulnerable populations: “My
clients who are mothers, especially single mothers, worry about their children. If they are
detained in court who will pick up their children at school? How will the children know what
happened to them? Who will care for them?”
Clients do not attend court out of fear of ICE at an alarming rate: according to NYCDS’s
internal survey, of respondents said that they have had clients fail to appear in court
due to fear of ICE presence.
When noncitizen clients do not attend scheduled court
Decl. of the Immigration Unit, N.Y. Cty. Def. Serv. ¶ , dated July , App. AA.
Decl. of Kathy Rodriguez, Arraignment Clerk & Admin. Assistant, N.Y. Cty. Def. Servs. ¶ , dated July ,
App. FF.
Decl. of Cynthia C. Darrell, East End Bureau Chief, Suolk Cty., Legal Aid Soc’y at , dated July , App. H.
Id. App. H.
Immigration Enforcement in NYC Courts: Experiences and Observations of Center for Court Innovation Sta,
provided by Jethro Antoine, Dir. of Centralized Cmty. Justice Projects, Ctr. for Court Innovation App. TT.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
40
appearances, they have bench warrants issued against them.
But bench warrants stall
resolution of cases indenitely and task the New York Police Department NYPD warrant
squad with nding and arresting those who do not appear.
Justice Distorted in the Criminal Courts and Barriers to
Zealous Defense
ICE courthouse operations negatively impact outcomes in clients’ criminal cases. The
Immigration Unit at NYCDS observes that their noncitizen clients choose to take pleas at
arraignments, rather than litigate their cases, because they know that ICE may be at future
court dates.
This phenomenon was reported across boroughs and public defender oces.
Over half of the NYCDS attorneys who responded to an internal survey stated that their
clients have taken less favorable pleas to avoid having to return to court for fear of ICE.
Sarah Deri Oshiro, Managing Director of the Immigration Practice at The Bronx
Defenders, notes that “attorneys report that their clients accept plea bargain oers that they
otherwise would have declined in order to end a criminal case sooner, and reduce the risk
of arrest by ICE in court.”
Matt Knecht observes the same phenomenon at NDS:
[M]any . . . clients’ cases would be dismissed or otherwise
resolved favorably, but because of ICE’s presence in and around
criminal court, clients are more likely to take unfavorable pleas
to avoid returning to court. Clients are foregoing their right to
have a trial or have a full investigation in their case because
Decl. of Justine Luongo, Attorney in Charge, Criminal Def. Practice, The Legal Aid Soc’y ¶ , dated Feb. ,
App. V.
Decl. of Matt Knecht, Managing Dir. at Neighborhood Def. Serv. of Harlem, dated Oct. , App. P
“for clients who do not return to court, warrants are issued for their arrest and their cases remain in limbo
indenitely”.
Decl. of the Immigration Unit, N.Y. Cty. Def. Servs. ¶ , dated July , App. AA “As a result, after being
advised of the potential immigration consequences, many of our noncitizen clients choose to take a plea at
arraignments so that they need not return to court and risk a potential ICE arrest.”.
Immigration Enforcement in NYC Courts: Experiences and Observations of Center for Court Innovation Sta,
provided by Jethro Antoine, Dir. of Centralized Cmty. Justice Projects, Ctr. for Court Innovation App. TT.
Decl. of Sarah Deri Oshiro, Managing Dir., Immigration Practice, Bronx Defs. ¶ , dated Mar. , App. BB.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
41
they feel pressured to get a case resolved as soon as possible for
fear of ICE contact.
Josh Epstein, Supervising Immigration Attorney at Queens Law Associates QLA, adds
that “in many cases, these at-risk clients could have received a form of a dismissal i.e.
CPL § . dismissal, adjournment in contemplation of dismissal ACD at a subsequent
adjournment date.”
Justine Luongo, Attorney-in-Charge of the Criminal Defense
Practice at The Legal Aid Society LAS, sees the same trend at LAS:
[Our] clients are so fearful of ICE’s presence in the courts
that they sometimes reject dispositions which involve
programs or community service, because of the additional
court appearances. Non-citizen clients may even choose to
remain incarcerated rather than accept a program which will
involve monitoring because of the risk of ICE detention and
removal from the United States. Attorneys have also observed a
decrease in clients’ participation in “Clean Slate” events which
allow clients to resolve old summons warrants.
The frequency of ICE courthouse operations forces public defenders to balance their duty
to pursue the best possible criminal justice outcome for their clients with the risk of ICE
detention, as LAS attests:
Non-citizens often feel pressured to accept unfavorable
dispositions in their cases, because litigating will entail
repeated court appearances. These non-citizens must balance
their desire to exercise their due process rights in criminal
court with their fear that they will be apprehended by ICE in
Decl. of Matt Knecht, Managing Dir. of Neighborhood Def. Serv. of Harlem, dated Oct. , App. P.
Decl. of Joshua Epstein, Esq., Supervising Immigration Attorney, Queens Law Assocs. ¶ , dated Feb. ,
App. J.
Decl. of Justine Luongo, Attorney in Charge, Criminal Def. Practice, The Legal Aid Soc’y ¶ , dated Feb. ,
App. V.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
42
the courthouse, even when the charges are ultimately likely to
be dismissed or result in acquittal.
Non-citizens are also forced to accept unfavorable pleas because ICE detention blocks
their ability to participate in community service, anger management, or substance abuse
programs, common conditions of more favorable pleas.
Appellate Advocates attorneys are
also forced to advise their clients that pursuing a legal claim involves a risk of ICE detection
or arrest in the courthouse: According to an internal survey, more than half of Appellate
Advocate attorneys surveyed had to provide this advice.
Distortions to the functioning of New York’s criminal justice system, caused by ICE
courthouse operations, create serious due process and equal access issues.
ICE courthouse
operations create a separate class of litigants who experience New York’s criminal justice
system very dierently than their fellow New York residents with US citizenship.
Disappearing Litigants
When conducting courthouse operations, ICE frequently arrests and detains litigants
without alerting their attorney, the district attorney’s oce, or the criminal court.
Molly
Kalmus, Sta Attorney at NYCDS, reports that she only learned of her client’s courthouse
ICE arrest because her client’s friend was going through his belongings and found her
business card.
ICE arrested her client on the courthouse steps as he attempted to appear
Id. ¶ App. V.
Decl. of Joshua Epstein, Esq., Supervising Immigration Attorney, Queens Law Assocs. ¶ , dated Feb. ,
App. J “Clients in ICE detention frequently receive worse plea oers from the Queens County District
Attorney’s oce because the clients cannot access programs that are contingent on receiving ACDs or non-
criminal dispositions such as disorderly conduct violations. These programs include assistance for anger
management, parenting skills, sex-oenders, and alcohol and substance abuse.”.
Decl. of Sarah Vendzules, Esq., Sta Attorney, Appellate Advocates ¶ , dated Feb. , App. MM.
Sarah Hill Rogerson, Sovereign Resistance to Federal Immigration Enforcement in State Courthouses Geo.
Immigr. L. J. .
Id.
Decl. of Justine Luongo, Attorney in Charge, Criminal Def. Practice, The Legal Aid Soc’y ¶ , dated Feb.
, App. V “While arrests used to take place in common, and sometimes restricted, areas of the
courthouse, ICE apprehensions have expanded to the area right outside the courthouse while clients are going
to and from court. Attorneys are often unaware that their clients have been apprehended by ICE and nd out
days or many weeks later after the client does not make their scheduled court appearance.”
Decl. of Molly Kalmus, Sta Attorney, N.Y. Cty. Def. Serv. ¶ , dated July , App. N.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
43
for his criminal court case, failing to inform Ms. Kalmus, the district attorney’s oce, or
the court.
LAS reports similar experiences:
At times, our clients have been detained without our
knowledge. In one such incident from summer 2018, one of our
clients was arrested as he left a court appearance. He missed
his subsequent appearance. After the resulting bench warrant,
it took a month before we discovered that he had been in ICE
custody and could take appropriate action.
Cynthia Darrell of LAS, East End Bureau, echoes her colleagues’ experiences: “The only
reason anyone knew why our client did not appear in court was because the family of this
person was present when ICE detained them and the family advised the lawyer.”
ICE often fails to produce clients who are in immigration custody for their criminal court
dates.
Even when a New York court issues a writ ordering production of an individual
in ICE custody, ICE maintains that as a federal agency, it is “not bound by state court
orders.”
At The Bronx Defenders, the majority of immigration attorneys who represent
clients detained by ICE who have open criminal cases report that ICE has not produced their
clients for criminal court hearings.
Id. App. N.
Decl. of Justine Luongo, Attorney in Charge, Criminal Def. Practice, The Legal Aid Soc’y ¶ , dated Feb. ,
App. V.
Decl. of Cynthia C. Darrell, East End Bureau Chief, Suolk Cty., Legal Aid Soc’y ¶ , dated July , App. H.
Decl. of Sarah Deri Oshiro, Managing Dir., Immigration Practice, Bronx Defs. ¶¶ , dated Mar. ,
App. BB; Decl. of Molly Kalmus, Sta Attorney, N.Y. Cty. Def. Serv. ¶ , dated July , App. N.
See U.S. Immigration & Customs Enf’t, Protecting the Homeland: Toolkit for Prosecutors Apr. , ht tps://
www.ice.gov/doclib/about/oces/osltc/pdf/tool-kit-for-prosecutors.pdf.
Decl. of Sarah Deri Oshiro, Managing Dir., Immigration Practice, Bronx Defs. ¶¶ , dated Mar. ,
App. BB.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
44
Furthermore, in several cases, ICE has transferred clients to facilities far outside of the New
York region, making it virtually impossible for clients to meet with their criminal defense
attorneys and making the likelihood of ICE producing a client for future appearances even
more remote.
The Immigrant Defense Project described the consequences of one man’s arrest outside
of a courthouse and subsequent transfer to Oklahoma:
After several ICE agents were caught on tape tackling a
man outside of the Queens Criminal Court, the man faced
long odds. He was torn from his family, locked up in a New
Jersey immigration jail and facing deportation with an open
criminal case. But a few days later, things got worse when ICE
transferred him to a detention facility in Oklahoma. In the
New York area he had been eligible to get a free immigration
attorney through a special program that assigns attorneys to
indigent immigrants. But in Oklahoma, he had to go it alone
in immigration court. Without an attorney, he was quickly
deported, but his criminal case remained open. Even though
he was now out of the country, a Queens judge issued a bench
warrant for his arrest because he failed to appear in court.
By arresting litigants in the New York Courts before they can resolve criminal cases and
then failing to produce them for court appearances, ICE routinely suppresses the due
process rights of New Yorkers.
Immigrant Def. Project, The Courthouse Trap: How ICE Operations Impacted New York’s Courts in 2018 Jan.
, http://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/TheCourthouseTrap.pdf.
Id.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
45
Resource Drain for Public Defender Oces
ICE presence in the criminal courts requires that public defenders devote signicant
resources to respond. Addressing the risk of an ICE arrest in court requires additional
sta time and resources to be directed towards client advisals.
Many criminal defense
attorneys escort clients out of the courthouse and to the train in order to witness and
invoke their clients’ rights in case of ICE arrest. As Josh Epstein of QLA arms:
QLA attorneys escort extremely high risk clients in and out of
court. This takes a vast amount of attorney time. Additionally,
this is a very stressful process and impacts the anxiety levels of
clients and attorneys.
Other defenders explain how monitoring the court for ICE presence detracts from
representation of other clients:
Both [my client] and I were anxious throughout the morning,
and it made it dicult for me to focus on the other cases I had
to handle. I was constantly scanning the courthouse for ICE
presence.
Further, public defenders must develop and implement trainings and protocols to address
ICE courthouse arrests.
For example, at The Bronx Defenders, the management team
has had to create and deliver training on sta’s ethical and professional responsibilities
regarding the presence of ICE and ICE arrests in and around the courthouses.
Decl. of Sarah Deri Oshiro, Managing Dir., Immigration Practice, Bronx Defs. ¶¶ , , dated Mar. ,
App. BB.
Decl. of Joshua Epstein, Esq., Supervising Immigration Attorney, Queens Law Assocs. ¶ , dated Feb. ,
App. J.
Decl. of Sarah Kaufmann, Esq., Sta Attorney, N.Y. Cty. Def. Serv. ¶ , dated July , App. O.
Brooklyn Def. Servs., Responses to Questions for Data Collection, dated July , App. F.
Decl. of Sarah Deri Oshiro, Managing Dir., Immigration Practice, Bronx Defs. ¶ , dated Mar. , App. BB.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
46
ICE’s Escalating Use of Force and Surveillance
The public defender oces report that ICE arrest and surveillance tactics in and around
courthouses have become increasingly brazen.
QLA reports that ICE agents in unmarked
cars followed their client’s car when leaving criminal court, and when the agents pulled the
client over, seven agents, with guns drawn, surrounded his car.
In another incident, a
mother and her son were leaving criminal court in Brooklyn when plainclothes ICE agents
appeared out of nowhere, grabbed the son, and started dragging him into an unmarked
car.
Confused and alarmed, the mother began to ask the agents who they were.
The
agents refused to answer, and when she cried out for help, an ICE agent shoved her against
a wall, causing her head to hit the wall, while repeatedly telling her to “shut up.”
A
bystander who witnessed an ICE arrest in Brooklyn called to report that she had seen a
man being kidnapped.
As Luis Bautista of Make the Road New York observes:
ICE raids disregard the family members and loved ones
accompanying an individual and the traumatic experience of
witnessing such raids. Community members have reported
being scared, confused, and not sure how to respond when
plainclothes ICE ocers are physically detaining their loved
one. Once an ICE custody, the impact on their family is
tremendous. Fernando*, an MRNY community member, was
arrested by plainclothes ICE ocers outside of Kings County
Criminal Court on January 2019. Fernando is currently
in immigration detention and says that “being in here
[immigration detention center] is dicult not only for me, but
also on my son.” Fernando’s family member, Isabel*, states
Immigrant Def. Project, The Courthouse Trap: How ICE Operations Impacted New York’s Courts in 2018 at Jan.
, www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/TheCourthouseTrap.pdf.
Decl. of Joshua Epstein, Esq., Supervising Immigration Attorney, Queens Law Assocs. ¶ a, dated Feb. ,
App. J.
Immigrant Def. Project, The Courthouse Trap: How ICE Operations Impacted New York’s Courts in 2018 at Jan.
, www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/TheCourthouseTrap.pdf.
Id. at .
Id.
Id. at .
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
47
that “Fernando’s son is so sad” and that he “keeps asking us
when Fernando is coming home and we just tell him soon.”
Fernando’s family is now scared of going to any court or
making a report to the police because of fear of ICE.
ICE agents use courthouses as a venue to surveil New York’s immigrant residents. There
have been numerous sightings of ICE agents sitting in courtrooms or roaming the hallways
of courthouses to wait for individual cases to be called.
While surveilling individuals at
the courthouse, ICE agents also eavesdrop on privileged attorney-client conversations and
follow attorneys, litigants, and their family members.
In Brooklyn, after a judge excused
a party’s appearance for the day, the attorney left to meet the party at a nearby fast food
restaurant.
Unbeknownst to the attorney, ICE agents followed her from the court, and as
soon as she and her client parted ways, ve plainclothes agents arrested the client.
Violent and surreptitious courthouse operations make clients and attorneys anxious and
paranoid at the prospect of court appearances.
ICE courthouse operations cast a dark
shadow over defenders’ case strategies, advice, and use of oce resources.
A. of Luis Bautista, Esq., Sta Attorney, Make the Road N.Y. ¶¶ , dated Feb. , App. E.
Immigrant Def. Project, The Courthouse Trap: How ICE Operations Impacted New York’s Courts in 2018 at Jan.
, www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/TheCourthouseTrap.pdf.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
48
How ICE Courthouse Operations
Frustrate the Purpose of Problem-
Solving Courts
By conducting numerous operations in New York’s problem-solving
courts, ICE frustrates the creative, holistic, and rehabilitative
mechanisms established by the New York Unied Court System
and the Center for Court Innovation. For litigants in problem-
solving courts, ICE presence deters participation in court
proceedings, reduces attendance in related programs, increases
anxiety, and heightens suspicions of case managers and other
court sta.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
49
ICE Presence in the Problem-Solving Courts
Federal immigration ocers are a visible presence in and around New York’s problem-
solving courts. Since , operations by federal immigration agents have been seen in and
around the following problem-solving courts:
• Queens Human Tracking Intervention Court;
• Harlem Community Justice Court;
• Midtown Community Court;
• Red Hook Community Justice Court;
• Brooklyn Young Adult Court;
• Brooklyn Mental Health Treatment Court.
ICE agents also frequent the programs run by the Center for Court Innovation CCI in
connection with problem-solving courts. For example, in Bronx Criminal Court, CCI runs
Bronx Community Solutions, a program that provides alternatives to incarceration and nes
in non-violent cases.
CCI sta report that ICE agents have been seen in the hallways near
their Bronx Community Solutions oces in Bronx Criminal Court.
CCI sta for Brooklyn
Justice Initiatives, a program that supports youth and individuals with mental health needs,
have seen ICE agents walking the hallways outside of their oces and sitting outside of their
oces.
See N.Y. State Oce of Court Admin., Unusual Occurrence Reports, attached to Letter from Shawn Kerby,
Assistant Deputy Counsel, in response to Freedom of Information Law “FOIL” request, dated Aug. ,
App. RR documenting arrests at several problem-solving courts; Immigration Enforcement in NYC
Courts: Experiences and Observations of Center for Court Innovation Sta, provided by Jethro Antoine, Dir.
of Centralized Cmty. Justice Projects, Ctr. for Court Innovation App. TT describing ICE operations in and
around CCI-run programs.
See generally Ctr. For Court Innovation, Bronx Community Solutions last visited Mar. , , https://www.
courtinnovation.org/programs/bronx-community-solutions.
See Immigration Enforcement in NYC Courts: Experiences and Observations of Center for Court Innovation
Sta, provided by Jethro Antoine, Dir. of Centralized Cmty. Justice Projects, Ctr. for Court Innovation App. TT.
Id. App. TT.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
50
A Deterrent to Participation
The increased presence of ICE agents in and around problem-solving courts aects
participation in court proceedings and associated programs: CCI sta report that both
youth and adult participants “have voiced concerns about coming to court appearances and
clinic appointments.”
Participants who are not citizens “often state that they nd the legal
system to be increasingly unsafe and would do anything to avoid being court involved.”
Fears of ICE in court lead participants to decline voluntary fatherhood and workforce
development programs held in the Midtown Community Court.
Participants also voice
apprehension about attending supervised check-ins with Brooklyn Justice Initiatives.
Fears of ICE in the courts also cause participants to question the role of program sta.
With ICE agents regularly stationed outside arraignments and the Young Adult part in
Brooklyn Criminal Court, a CCI supervisor reports that “participants have expressed
concerns about our relationship with law enforcement.”
Many sta have been asked by
“if they work closely with ICE.”
Some participants ask if “agreeing to participate in the
CCI program may be a trap of sorts.”
Human Tracking Court: ‘A Paralyzing Fear of Public
Systems’ Exacerbated by ICE
Since January , ICE has arrested four individuals at the Queens Human Tracking
Intervention Court HTIC, and attempted to arrest at least one other.
ICE continued
these operations in , arresting at least one individual as he attempted to enter the
Id. App. TT.
Id. App. TT.
Id. App. TT.
Id. App. TT.
Id. App. TT.
Id. App. TT.
Id. App. TT.
Id. App. TT.
See Letter from Dorchen Leidholdt, Dir., Ctr. for Battered Women’s Legal Servs., to Terry D. Lawson, Dir.,
Family & Immigration Unit, Bronx Legal Servs. at , dated July , App. SS; Decl. of Justine Luongo,
Attorney in Charge, Criminal Def. Practice, The Legal Aid Soc’y ¶ , dated Feb. , App. V; Decl.
of Molly Kalmus, Sta Attorney, N.Y. Cty. Def. Serv. ¶¶ , dated July , App. N; Liz Robbins, A
Game of Cat and Mouse with High Stakes: Deportation, N.Y. Times Aug. , , https://www.nytimes.
com////nyregion/a-game-of-cat-and-mouse-with-high-stakes-deportation.html.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
51
Queens Criminal Court for an appearance in the human tracking part.
The arrests
continued despite the widespread outrage of advocates for survivors of gender violence,
elected ocials, and jurists.
On June , , as discussed in section IVF above, three male ICE agents sought
to detain a young Chinese woman who had been arrested for unlicensed massage and
identied as a possible survivor of human tracking.
She had been “on track to have the
charges against her dismissed” after completing her mandated services.
While one ICE
agent loitered at the back of the courtroom and two more stood outside of the court part,
“dozens of other immigrant defendants” watched.
After this and other incidents, “news of ICE in the courtroom spread through the
communities served by the HTIC,” resulting in an increase in non-appearances all over
New York.
CCI sta in the Midtown Community Court report that concerns about court
appearances are “particularly prevalent among defendants in the Human Tracking
Court.”
Furthermore, due to the “menacing presence of immigration agents in the
courts,” attorneys often conclude that they can “no longer responsibly encourage clients to
seek the lifesaving help they need in the courts.”
ICE operations in HTICs and other courts designed to meet the specialized needs of trauma
survivors allow “exploiters to ourish” by “giving them an “extra layer of fear they can use
to coerce their victims into submission.”
The presence of ICE agents in the courts also
Decl. of Molly Kalmus, Sta Attorney, N.Y. Cty. Def. Serv. ¶¶ , dated July , App. N.
CBS N.Y., NYC Ocials Call for End to Immigration Raids at Courthouses June , , https://newyork.
cbslocal.com////ice-raids-at-courthouses/; Liz Robbins, A Game of Cat and Mouse with High Stakes:
Deportation, N.Y. Times Aug. , , https://www.nytimes.com////nyregion/a-game-of-cat-
and-mouse-with-high-stakes-deportation.html; Beth Fertig, Outcry After Immigration Agents Seen at Queens
Human Tracking Court, WNYC June , , https://www.wnyc.org/story/outcry-after-immigration-
agents-come-tracking-victim-queens-courthouse/
Written Testimony of Carmen Maria Rey, Esq., Deputy Dir., Immigration Intervention Project, Sanctuary for
Families, Submitted to the N.Y.C. Council, Comm. on Courts & Legal Servs. Chair, Council Member Rory
Lancman at June , App. DD.
See Letter from Dorchen Leidholdt, Dir., Ctr. for Battered Women’s Legal Servs., to Terry D. Lawson, Dir.,
Family & Immigration Unit, Bronx Legal Servs. at , dated July , App. SS.
See id. App. SS.
See id. App. SS.
Immigration Enforcement in NYC Courts: Experiences and Observations of Center for Court Innovation Sta,
provided by Jethro Antoine, Dir. of Centralized Cmty. Justice Projects, Ctr. for Court Innovation App. TT.
See Letter from Dorchen Leidholdt, Dir., Ctr. for Battered Women’s Legal Servs., to Terry D. Lawson, Dir.,
Family & Immigration Unit, Bronx Legal Servs. at , dated July , App. SS.
See id. App. SS.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
52
compounds the “overwhelming anxiety and paralyzing fear of public systems” that many
immigrants carry with them from “traumatic experiences in their home countries.”
ICE
presence in the courts thus exacerbates the anxieties that many face, with “alarming”
mental health ramications.
Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations on Youth
ICE presence in Youth Courts frightens young people with limited or no history with the
courts and threatens to derail their futures in uniquely tragic ways. For example, when the
immigration attorney for a -year-old, due to appear for a trac ticket in Albany, could not
assure that ICE would not be present in the courthouse, the young person was unwilling to
go until she could nd pro bono counsel to accompany him.
According to James Milstein,
former Dir. of the Albany County Regional Immigration Assistance Center, the young
person’s concern was well-founded:
ICE often arrests individuals appearing in local courts in
connection with low-level oenses. In many instances,
the charges these individuals faced were so minor that
the arresting ocer issued desk appearance tickets to the
individual arrested. Nine of the arrests I documented targeted
noncitizens who appeared in court in connection with trac
violations. These violations included charges related to broken
tail lights and driving on an expired driver’s license.
On May , , three plainclothes ICE agents took a young person into custody after he
appeared to face minor charges in the youth part.
Particularly disturbing were reports
that before the young person was arrested, ICE called the Administrative Judge of Suolk
County Court to warn against “obstructing justice.”
Reportedly, the presiding judge then
See id. App. SS.
See id. App. SS.
Decl. of Mary Armistead, Esq., Clinical Fellow, Immigration Law Clinic, Albany Law Clinic & Justice Ctr. ¶ ,
dated June , App. C.
Decl. of James Milstein, Esq., Dir., Albany Cty. Oce of Immigration Assistance ¶ , dated Aug. , App. X.
Immigrant Def. Project, Building a Statewide Campaign – Fact Sheet: ICE in New York State Courts July ,
https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/CourthouseToolkitSection.pdf.
Id.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
53
promptly called the case, which allowed ICE to identify the young person.
The young
person, who had been brought here as an -year-old and applied for Special Immigrant
Juvenile Status SIJS, was surrounded and taken by ICE agents outside of the courtroom.
ICE uses the courthouses as bait and a venue for surveillance, as illustrated by the arrest of
Matthew Rojas on November , outside of the New Paltz Justice Court.
Reportedly,
on November , , ICE agents were inside the New Paltz Justice Court, where a
sign-in sheet was posted at the front of the courtroom.
The agents left “presumably to
await Rojas’s arrival.”
The -year-old, brought to the U.S. as a toddler, was on his way
into court to respond to his rst ever appearance ticket and was unprepared for the ICE
apprehension outside of the courthouse.
As Sarah Rogerson, Director of the Immigration Law Clinic at Albany Law School,
explains, such baiting tactics of arresting individuals on their way into or out of courthouses
is damaging to New Yorkers’ access to justice: “Anytime that you have the threat of ICE
agents at or near a place where the public frequents to obtain government services or access
justice, you have a problem.”
Furthermore, ICE ocials have lied about their identity
when apprehending youth in the immediate vicinity of courthouses, as they did in the case
of a twenty-year-old SIJS client at The Door who was taken by ICE from a bus stop across the
street from the Queens Criminal Court.
The impact of ICE detention on youth, both for the individual and their community, cannot
be overstated. For example, a young SIJS client of The Door became so depressed that he
was placed in solitary connement.
As Matthew Rojas’s friend explained after seeing him
in detention, “It’s a struggle for him to keep his head up and think that this might change
Id.
Id.
Terence P. Ward, New Paltz Resident Nabbed by ICE Agents Outside of Court, New Paltz Times Dec. , ,
https://hudsonvalleyone.com////new-paltz-resident-nabbed-by-ice-agents-outside-of-town-court/.
Id.
Id.
Roger Hannigan Gilson, New Paltz Takes on ICE, The Other Hudson Valley Dec. , , ht t ps://
theotherhudsonvalley.com////new-paltz-ice/?clidIwARYCdBgDgNtkuDeRuDNeaOMLCHj
zMBaRKzHjfcEaSInwqXmHWWb_Svg.
Id.
Decl. of Eve Stotland, Esq., Legal Dir., The Door’s Legal Servs. Ctr. ¶ , dated July , App. HH.
Id. App. HH.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
54
soon, when in reality he’s sitting there with people who have been there for months…it’s
denitely very tough on him in there.”
According to Eve Stotland, Director of The Door’s Legal Services Center, “as the young
people we serve and their families confront news of courthouse arrests, their access to
immigration relief shrinks.”
Potential caregivers for young people routinely decline to
move forward with guardianship petitions due to their fear of ICE in the courts.
A Bronx
Legal Services client, a -year-old boy from Honduras, was unable to move forward on
his guardianship and SIJS cases because his aunt, who houses, feeds, and clothes him, was
afraid she would be arrested by ICE in Family Court.
An Urban Justice Center client
struggled to get guardianship of her own child because her fellow household members were
too afraid to be ngerprinted by the Queens Family Court.
One father declined to be
the guardian for his own son when Professor Vanessa Merton of Pace University “could
not reassure him there was no risk” of being taken into ICE custody, deciding that “if he is
deported, he cannot be of any help to his son.”
The presence of ICE in and around courts also has a chilling eect on the practical training
and education of New York law students. Professor Claire Thomas of New York Law
School NYLS reports that her students who are not US citizens have expressed concerns
about appearing in New York state courts.
As Professor Thomas explains, “such
observation is crucial to students’ legal education and growth in the profession,” but she is
Roger Hannigan Gilson, New Paltz Takes on ICE, The Other Hudson Valley Dec. , , ht t ps://
theotherhudsonvalley.com////new-paltz-ice/?clidIwARYCdBgDgNtkuDeRuDNeaOMLCHj
zMBaRKzHjfcEaSInwqXmHWWb_Svg.
Decl. of Eve Stotland, Esq., Legal Dir., The Door’s Legal Servs. Ctr. ¶ , dated July , App. HH.
Id. ¶ App. HH.
Decl. of Terry D. Lawson, Dir., Family & Immigration Unit, Bronx Legal Servs. ¶ , dated May , App. R.
Decl. of Salar Rivani, Esq., Sta Attorney, Urban Justice Ctr., Domestic Violence Project ¶¶ , dated May
, App. EE. See also Decl. of Atossa Movahedi, Dir., Legal Servs. & Dev., Domestic Violence Project,
Urban Justice Ctr. ¶ , dated May , App. Y “Our family court attorneys are experiencing push back
with Judges and Referees when making their requests to waive ngerprints in Guardianship proceedings
for household members. This has had an impact on the number of matters we have been able to le for SIJS
Special Immigrant Juvenile Status out of fear of our clients that their loved ones will be picked up by ICE after
being ngerprinted”; Decl. of Mary Armistead, Esq., Clinical Fellow, Immigration Law Clinic, Albany Law
Clinic & Justice Ctr. ¶¶ , dated June , App. C whose SIJS client almost lost her guardian sponsor due
to guardian’s fears of being arrested and separated from her USC children.
Decl. of Vanessa Merton, Esq., Faculty Dir., Immigration Justice Clinic, John Jay Legal Servs., Inc., Elisabeth
Haub Sch. of Law, Pace Univ. ¶ , dated May , App. W.
A. of Claire R. Thomas, N.Y. Law Sch. ¶ , dated July , App. II.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
55
“unable to reassure NYLS students who are not U.S. citizens that they will not be at risk for
apprehension by ICE upon entering New York State Courts.”
As illustrated above, when they enter problem-solving courts, ICE agents arrest the most
vulnerable individuals, including youth, survivors of human tracking, the mentally ill, and
reentry program participants.
Id. ¶¶ App. II.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
56
How ICE Courthouse Operations
Discourage Claimants in Civil Courts
ICE courthouse operations discourage immigrants and their
family members from accessing New York State civil courts. This
eect is pronounced in housing courts where landlords threaten
to call ICE on immigrant tenants, pressuring them to resolve
their cases sooner and against their best interests. According to
the ICE in NYS Courts Legal Service and Advocates Survey,
of respondents said that their clients expressed fear of ling a
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
57
housing court complaint due to fear of ICE.
As one respondent
explained, “Tenants regardless of status are typically extremely
scared and skeptical about ghting for their rights in court
proceedings” and that “this fear has transformed into crippling
paralysis in the wake of ICE activity in New York State Courts.”
Through its Universal Access to Counsel program, New York City provides free legal counsel
to its residents in eviction proceedings.
Since , the number of citywide evictions has
dropped ,
with tremendous investment by New York City government.
Yet, the
success of this program depends on New Yorkers having access to the courts.
As Norey Lee Navarro, an attorney with Legal Services NYC, which receives funding
under the Universal Access to Counsel program, explains, “the cases that my oce handle
on a daily basis illustrate how the proposed court rules are critical to the general safety
and well-being of our clients, due process of our client’s rights, and the preservation
of aordable housing in New York.”
However, when some landlords suspect that
their tenants are immigrants, they threaten to call ICE during the course of a housing
proceeding.
“Landlords present in court often make derogatory statements towards
tenants based on tenants’ actual or incorrectly assumed immigration status, such as ‘He
wants an abatement in his rent? He is lucky that I don’t report him to ICE!’”
Tenants who come to housing court to ght an eviction proceeding settle their cases quickly,
agreeing to resolutions that do not account for all of their rights, due to fear of ICE in the
courts. In Navarro’s experience:
Immigrant Def. Project, Key Findings: ICE in NYS Courts Legal Service and Advocates Survey, https://www.
immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/ICE-out-of-courts-survey-nal-.pdf.
Id.
N.Y.C. Hous. Court, N.Y. State Unied Court Sys., About the Universal Access to Legal Services Law, last updated
Feb. , , https://www.nycourts.gov/COURTS/nyc/housing/aboutUniversalAccess.shtml.
Will Drickey, NYC Eviction Down Thanks to Legal Aid Program for Tenants, Metro Feb. , , ht t p s://
www.metro.us/news/local-news/new-york/universal-access-legal-counsel-evictions?clidIwARArCd-
KwyqVOgBqrZxWrrmjKrrL_ZPBAdlFtIA-mJOlfWzqIJLHYE.
Oce of Civil Justice, N.Y.C. Human Res. Admin., Universal Access to Legal Services: A Report on Year One of
Implementation in New York City Fall , https://www.nyc.gov/assets/hra/downloads/pdf/services/
civiljustice/OCJUAReport.pdf.
Decl. of Norey Lee Navarro, Esq., Sta Attorney, Bronx Legal Servs. ¶ , dated July , App. Z.
Id. ¶ App. Z.
Id. App. Z.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
58
In an eort to avoid ICE in housing court during a rst court
appearance, a tenant will likely feel pressured to resolve a
housing court case as quickly as possible and not ask for a
new court date to seek advice of counsel — this in turn will
likely result in the tenant unknowingly waiving defenses and
counterclaims, and signing judgment agreements with unjust
terms (i.e. an inaccurate amount of rent arrears, an overly harsh
probationary period, an unnecessary move out agreement
from a rent stabilized or rent controlled apartment, etc.). Or in
the worst possible scenario, immigrant [and] refugee tenants
will be unnecessarily evicted from their homes because such
tenants avoid appearing in housing court all together in an
eort to avoid ICE [and] the fear of deportation.
Not only does the lack of court rules encourage landlords to continue to use scare tactics,
it also discourages New Yorkers from going to court to seek repairs. Navarro says, “many
of our clients often adamantly decline to sue their landlords in HP actions for repairs and
instead continue to live in deplorable and unsafe conditions in their apartments.”
Justin
La Mort, Supervising Attorney at Mobilization for Justice, likewise explains:
It has been increasingly challenging to convince immigrant
tenants to organize and assert their rights in court. When I’m
asked if we can promise their safety I have to honestly respond
that I cannot make any guarantees. Many tenants are given
the choice from their landlords to abandon their rent stabilized
home or risk forcible deportation. My oce has clients who
were courageous enough to ght back but who are now hesitant
or outright refuse to return to court after being explicitly
threatened by their landlords or agents of the landlord that ICE
will be contacted. Their voices will go unheard if their cases go
Id. App. Z.
Id. ¶ App. Z.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
59
to trial as housing court is no longer a place they feel safe from
immigration enforcement.
Navarro would like to see court rules to address her clients’ fears of ICE in the Courts: “As a
housing attorney that regularly represents low-income immigrant and refugee tenants in
Bronx Housing Court, I strongly support the creation and implementation of court rules that
would prohibit/regulate the presence of United States Immigration & Customs Enforcement
ICE in New York State Courts.”
A. of Justin La Mort, Supervising Attorney, Mobilization for Justice, dated Feb. , App. .
Decl. of Norey Lee Navarro, Esq., Sta Attorney, Bronx Legal Servs. ¶ , dated July , App. Z.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
60
How ICE Courthouse Operations
Complicate the Protocol and Duties of
Courthouse Sta
Mazin Sidahmed & Felipe De La Hoz, Documents Show New York Ocers Alerted ICE About Immigrants in
Court, Documented Jan. , , https://documentedny.com////documents-show-new-york-
court-ocers-alerted-ice-about-immigrants-in-court/.
Increased ICE courthouse operations complicate the duties of
court ocers and other courthouse sta. In response to Freedom
of Information Law FOIL requests, the New York State Oce
of Court Administration OCA disclosed unusual occurrence
reports UOR covering the period from February , to
August , .
These UORs revealed disparities in the
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
61
documentation, or lack thereof, that ICE agents provided to court
ocers when executing courthouse arrests.
They also showed
cooperation between court ocers and ICE agents.
When conducting operations, ICE agents utilize administrative warrants, issued by the
agency itself, rather than judicial warrants.
Recently, in People ex rel. Wells v. DeMarco,
No. -, A.D.d , N.Y.S.d d Dep’t Nov. , , the Second
Department recognized the dierence, describing ICE “detainers” and “warrants” as
civil, and “administrative, not judicial.”
Further, ICE administrative warrants are often
based on outdated information and require only internal, supervisory review.
In contrast,
judicial warrants contain information reviewed and approved by a judge, which helps
prevent collateral arrests like the one on October , at the Saratoga City Court.
Further, the UORs indicate that most often, ICE agents presented neither administrative
nor judicial warrants, nor any authorizing documentation whatsoever.
Only one of the
arrests documented in the UORs referenced a judicial warrant.
In other cases, the UORs
reference documents presented by ICE but provide no details regarding their substance or
Id.
Id..
Statement of Supreme Court of Ill. Chief Justice Lloyd A. Karmeier, ICE Arrests Threaten to Chill Access
to Justice Aug. , , http://www.illinoiscourts.gov/Media/enews//_chief_justice.asp
explaining that ICE warrants are “merely civil administrative documents” that “are issued without review
by a neutral magistrate, do not meet the requirements necessary to support issuance of warrants in criminal
cases, and do not confer authorization for entry into locations where persons have a reasonable expectation of
privacy.”.
People ex rel. Wells v. DeMarco, No. , A.D.d , N.Y.S.d d Dep’t Nov. , .
N.Y.C. Bar Assoc., Recommendations Regarding Federal Immigration Enforcement in New York State Courthouses
at July , https://s.amazonaws.com/documents.nycbar.org/les/ICEcourthouse.pdf.
See N.Y. State Oce of Court Admin., Unusual Occurrence Reports, attached to Letter from Shawn Kerby,
Assistant Deputy Counsel, in response to Freedom of Information Law “FOIL” request, dated Aug. ,
App. RR showing that an individual went to answer a trac ticket at the Saratoga City Court, with an
“unknown companion,” and despite having no scheduled appearance and submitting a not guilty plea, two
ICE agents arrived and arrested them both.
On July , , a court ocer in the Queens Criminal Court reported that an agent informed him that he
planned to arrest the subject in court but “no warrant was presented by agent.” On May , , court ocers
in the Suolk County District Court reported that “no warrant was presented to court sta” by Homeland
Security Investigations agents, who “were present inside courtroom D to detain the defendant.” See id.
App. RR.
On May , , in the Bronx Supreme Court, “agents referenced a US District Court Arrest Warrant” and
the subject was arrested. See id. App. RR.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
62
validity.
The UORs describe the documentation as an “ICE detainer warrant,” “warrant
for deportation,” or “worksheet.”
These descriptions suggest that some court ocers
may not understand the distinctions between federal judicial warrants, ICE administrative
warrants, ICE detainer requests, and other agency documents.
The Wells court made three key holdings with respect to ICE warrants and cooperation
between state and federal ocials related to immigration: New York state law does
not authorize state and local law enforcement to eectuate warrantless arrests for civil
immigration law violations; New York state and local ocers do not have inherent
police power authority to make civil arrests, including civil immigration arrests; and an
administrative warrant, such as those issued by ICE, is not issued by a judge or a court, and
thus does not give state and local ocers the authority to arrest, seize, or detain someone
for civil immigration purposes.
Accordingly, New York court ocers are not authorized by
New York State or federal law to make or participate in civil immigration arrests.
The UORs show, however, that some New York State court sta have assisted ICE agents in
making their civil arrests.
According to the UORs, court sta have physically assisted with
In cases where ICE has provided documentation, UORs describe the documentation as an “ICE detainer
warrant,” “warrant for deportation,” or “worksheet.” See id. App. RR. These descriptions suggest that some
court ocers may not understand the distinctions between federal judicial warrants, ICE administrative
warrants, ICE detainer requests, and other agency documents. Recent guidance from the California Attorney
General’s oce on implementation of California Senate Bill SB includes a model policy regarding the
training of court sta as well as examples of commonly used ICE documents. See Cal. Dep’t of Justice, Oce
of the Attorney Gen., Securing Equal Access to Justice for All: Guidance and Model Policies to Assist California’s
Superior Courts in Responding to Immigration Issues Oct. , https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/les/agweb/pdfs/
immigration/court.pdf.
See N.Y. State Oce of Court Admin., Unusual Occurrence Reports, attached to Letter from Shawn Kerby,
Assistant Deputy Counsel, in response to Freedom of Information Law “FOIL” request, dated Aug. ,
App. RR.
People ex rel. Wells v. DeMarco, No. , A.D.d , N.Y.S.d d Dep’t Nov. , .
Id.; see also N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law § .a-f.
See N.Y. State Oce of Court Admin., Unusual Occurrence Reports, attached to Letter from Shawn Kerby,
Assistant Deputy Counsel, in response to Freedom of Information Law “FOIL” request, dated Aug. ,
App. RR.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
63
the arrests,
called ICE agents to notify them when a particular case would be called,
and provided information to immigration ocials by phone.
Court sta and judges have
also given ICE agents access to non-public areas of the courthouse, leading individuals to
those areas where ICE agents were waiting to make the arrest.
The UORs make clear that ICE courthouse operations create a work environment rife
with confusion and guesswork for court ocers and sta. Inadequate and nonexistent
documentation forces court ocers to guess at the ICE agents’ authority and jurisdiction,
leading inevitably to wrongful and collateral arrests. Further, under Wells, court ocers are
at risk of participating in civil immigration arrests, contrary to New York law, leaving them
open to civil liability for rights violations, when they cooperate with ICE in the absence of a
judicial warrant.
On September , , four court ocers from an unspecied NYC Civil Court in Brooklyn “assisted ICE
agents in eecting the arrest” of an individual outside of the courthouse. On November , , a participant
in the Center for Court Innovation Parole Re-Entry program at the Harlem Community Justice Center was
taken into custody by ICE ocers “with the assistance of the reporting ocer and Sgt. .” On November ,
, four court ocers in the Kings County Criminal Court observed ICE ocers attempting to handcu an
individual in the hallway outside of a courtroom. The court ocers separated the individual from his attorney
and “instructed ICE ocers” to take the individual to a restricted area of the court. See id. App. RR.
On February , , a court ocer from the New York County Criminal Court noted: “ICE agents left a
business card and asked to be notied before the case was called, which the court ocer did.” On March ,
, another court ocer from the New York County Criminal Court, reported: “ICE Ocer Outlaw gave
R/O reporting ocer his business card and left at approximately hours. Defendant appeared in the
courtroom for his court date and R/O called ICE Ocer Outlaw.” See id. App. RR.
On August , , a clerk in the Suolk County Court “received a call from Homeland Security inquiring if
defendant was on the calendar and Clerk stated he was and the caller hung up. At hours, Defendant’s
attorney , reported that his client was taken into custody by Homeland Security in the parking lot during
lunch recess.” See id. App. RR.
On February , , in the Cortland City Court, a court ocer informed a Judge that two ICE agents were
present to arrest an individual scheduled to appear before her. The report notes: “I informed Judge of
the situation in her chambers prior to the case and we agreed that she would proceed with the case with
immigration ocers waiting in the conference room next to the courtroom. At the conclusion of the court
case, the defendant went to the courtroom where he was taken into the conference room where he was taken
into custody.” On November , , in the Kings County Criminal Court, the reporting ocer notes that he
“separated the subject from defense counsel and instructed the ICE ocers to take the subject to the DV Pen
area which is a restricted, safe, and secure area.” On January , , a court ocer notes that ICE agents
arrested a -year-old man outside of a courtroom. A report issued by the Department of Homeland Security
in this case notes that ICE agents exited the building using a “non-public elevator escorted by New York State
Court Ocers.” See id. App. RR.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
64
How Legal Professional Associations
Have Responded to ICE Courthouse
Operations
Since ICE courthouse operations began in earnest, national, state,
and local legal professional associations have publicly condemned
them, issuing their own reports and recommendations.
On July , , the Association of Pro Bono Counsel APBCo, a professional
organization of the pro bono departments of leading law rms, wrote a letter urging
Chief Judge Janet DiFiore to “exercise her authority pursuant to the State Constitution”
to issue certain protective court rules to “preserve the professionalism and dignity of the
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
65
courtroom while safeguarding immigrants’ access to justice.”
As reported in section IV
above, APBCo noted how alleged criminals can weaponize their accusers’ immigration
statuses as “a de facto form of witness intimidation, abetted by ICE.”
APBCo also
bolstered claims that lawyers are “now faced with the dicult choice of being obligated
to encourage their immigrant clients to attend court appearances, while knowing that
doing so may result in their arrest and deportation.”
APBCo laid out the repercussion of
intensifying ICE courthouse operations: “The rising ICE presence in our courts says to New
York’s huge immigrant community — and those that represent, work with, employ and rely
upon them — that the removal of a few is more important than safety for all, that even our
courts will step back and allow spot arrests to trump even-handed justice for all.”
On August , , the American Bar Association’s ABA House of Delegates passed
a resolution calling for: ICE to add courthouses to the list of sensitive locations in which
immigration enforcement actions can be taken only in emergency circumstances, and
Congress to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act INA to codify this expanded
denition of sensitive locations.
The ABA passed this resolution in recognition of
“the critical importance of the fair and unfettered administration of justice and in order
to protect the right of all persons to access courthouses.”
The ABA described ICE’s
courthouse arrest tactics as “impacting some of our most vulnerable populations and
interfering with the proper administration of justice.”
On December , , the Fund for Modern Courts the Fund issued a report on the
impact of ICE courthouse arrests on the administration of justice.
The Fund report details
the eorts of Chief Judge Janet DiFiore and OCA to meet with Department of Homeland
Security DHS ocials to urge designation of courthouses as sensitive locations and
issuance of a protocol governing activities in courthouses by law enforcement agencies.
However, the Fund pointed out that such positive steps unfortunately were not enough to
Letter from Kevin J. Curnin, President, Ass’n of Pro Bono Counsel, to N.Y. State Court of Appeals Chief Judge
Janet DiFiore July , , https://apbco.org/wp-content/uploads///Ltr-to-Judge-
DiFiore-fr-APBCo-re-ICEINcursions-in-NYSCourthouses.pdf.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Am. Bar Assoc., ABA House Urges Congress Add Courthouse to ‘Sensitive Locations’ to ICE Guidelines Aug. ,
, https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives///aba_house_urges_cong/.
Id.
Id.
The Fund for Modern Courts, Protecting the Administration of Justice in New York State: Impact of ICE Arrests on
New Yorkers’ Access to State Courthouses Dec. , http://moderncourts.org/wp-content/uploads///
Modern-Courts-Report-December-ICE-and-NYCOURTHOUSES.pdf.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
66
ameliorate the concerns and forcefully stated that “it falls to the New York State judiciary
to do what is within their power to protect New Yorkers” by enacting “policy changes.”
The Fund recommended that: OCA require judicial warrants for civil immigration law
enforcement actions conducted in New York State courthouses; the presiding judges be
required to notify the targets of civil enforcement of the presence of agents; OCA limit
cooperation of court employees in civil immigration enforcement to those actions required
by law; and OCA reduce the frequency with which parties need to appear in court.
In January , the New York State Bar Association’s House of Delegates adopted a
resolution similarly calling on ICE to include courthouses in its list of sensitive locations and
on Congress to amend the INA to codify the policy around this expanded list of sensitive
locations.
In July , the New York City Bar Association City Bar published an extensive report
including recommendations for OCA regarding ICE courthouse operations. The City Bar
acknowledged OCA’s close monitoring of these types of civil enforcement actions and its
dialogue with ICE on the practice as well as ICE’s January directive.
However, the
City Bar also observed that “despite these steps, ICE’s courthouse arrests continue to
adversely impact the administration of justice and leave many individuals fearful of going
to court.”
The City Bar voiced serious concern that ICE courthouse arrests will have the
eect of “creating a class of state residents who are denied access to the justice system”
and “eroding the eectiveness of the state’s justice and court system.”
Given these
serious concerns, the unlikelihood of a response or solution being generated at the federal
level, and the “essential rights at issue,” the City Bar recommended that “the Chief Judge
exercise her authority under the New York State Constitution and Judiciary Law to issue ve
administrative rules to better protect access to justice and the due process rights of all New
Yorkers.”
The rst four largely tracked the recommendations for policy changes proposed
by the Fund for Modern Courts. However, the City Bar expressly tied the need for judicial,
Id. at , .
Id. at .
N.Y. State Bar Assoc., January 26, 2018: NYS Bar Association Approves Domestic Violence Initiative, Resolution to
Protect Immigrants in Courts Jan. , , https://www.nysba.org/CustomTemplates/SecondaryStandard.
aspx?id.
U.S. Immigration & Customs Enf’t, Directive Number 11072.1: Civil Immigration Enforcement Actions
Inside Courthouses Jan. , , https://www.ice.gov/sites/default/les/documents/Document//
ciEnforcementActionsCourthouses.pdf.
N.Y.C Bar Assoc., Recommendations Regarding Federal Immigration Enforcement in New York State Courthouses
at July , https://s.amazonaws.com/documents.nycbar.org/les/ICEcourthouse.pdf.
Id. at .
Id.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
67
not administrative warrants, for civil immigration enforcement actions to the common law
privilege against civil arrests while attending judicial proceedings.
The City Bar added
a recommendation that OCA should make available for public review the information
obtained and recorded by court personnel with respect to ICE enforcement activities in
courthouses.
Id. at , .
Id. at .
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
68
How Judicial Stakeholders Have
Responded to ICE Courthouse
Operations
See Am. Civil Liberties Union, Freezing Out Justice: How Immigration Arrests at Courthouses are Undermining
the Justice System , https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/les/eld_document/rep-icecourthouse-
combined-rel.pdf.
As reports of ICE courthouse operations increase, many sitting
and former judges have spoken out against ICE’s tactics.
Statements of Sitting Judges Across the Country
According to a May report by the American Civil Liberties Union ACLU, of
the judges surveyed reported interruptions due to an immigrant crime survivor’s fear of
coming to court.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
69
Judges have been vocal about how ICE’s courthouse operations are disruptions to the
paramount purpose of courthouses — the fair and equitable administration of justice.
Chief judges across the country have spoken out against ICE’s courthouse operations.
Chief Justice Lloyd A. Karmeier of The Supreme Court of Illinois called attention to the
erosion of equal access to justice for all Illinois residents caused by ICE’s tactics:
Concerns over the negative eects of ICE enforcement
actions on access to state judicial services may have particular
resonance in Illinois, where our state constitution enshrines
the philosophy that every person, not just citizens, ‘shall obtain
justice by law, freely, completely, and promptly’ and guarantees
to all persons, not just citizens, that they shall not be ‘deprived
See generally Letter from Supreme Court of Wash. Chief Justice Mary E. Fairhurst to the Sec’y of the Dep’t
of Homeland Sec. John F. Kelly Mar. , , https://www.courts.wa.gov/content/publicUpload/
SupremeCourtNews/KellyJohnDHSICE.pdf “When people are afraid to access our courts,
it undermines our fundamental mission. I am concerned at the reports that the fear now present in our
immigrant communities is impeding their access to justice . . . . Our ability to function relies on individuals
who voluntarily appear to participate and cooperate in the process of justice.”; Press Release, R.I. Judiciary,
Courts Must Remain Open and Accessible to All, Chief Justice Tells Lawyers, Judges June , , https://www.
courts.ri.gov/PublicResources/media/PDF/ICEenforcementweb.pdf Chief Justice Paul
A. Suttell spoke at the annual meeting of the Rhode Island Bar Association about his concern regarding ICE
arrests “either inside or near state court buildings,” remarking that “if people in our immigrant communities
are afraid to come to court, out of fear of federal apprehension, our core mission is compromised and there is a
risk of our neighborhoods becoming less safe.”.
See generally Letter from Supreme Court of Cal. Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye to Sec’y of the Dep’t
of Homeland Sec. John F. Kelly Mar. , , https://www.ncsc.org/~/media/Files/PDF/Topics/ICE/
CALetter.ashx “Enforcement policies that include stalking courthouses and arresting undocumented
immigrants, the vast majority of whom pose no risk to public safety, are neither safe nor fair. They not only
compromise our core value of fairness but they undermine the judiciary’s ability to provide equal access to
justice.”; Letter from Supreme Court of N.J. Chief Justice Stuart Rabner to Sec’y of the Dep’t of Homeland Sec.
John F. Kelly Apr. , , https://www.ncsc.org/~/media/Files/PDF/Topics/ICE/NJLetter.ashx “To
ensure the eectiveness of our system of justice, courthouses must be viewed as a safe forum. Enforcement
actions by ICE agents inside courthouses would produce the opposite result and eectively deny access to the
courts.”; Letter from Supreme Court of Or. Chief Justice Thomas A. Balmer to Sec’y of the Dep’t of Homeland
Sec. John F. Kelly Apr. , , http://res.cloudinary.com/bdyger/image/upload/v/CJ_ltr_
to_AG_Sessions-Secy_Kelly_re_ICE_rrubnc.pdf “I trust that DHS understands as well the central role that
the Oregon courts play in our state’s criminal justice system, our eorts to protect children and families, and
our daily work to ensure the rule of law for all Oregon residents. ICE’s detention or arrest of undocumented
residents in and near Oregon’s courthouses seriously impedes those eorts. It deters individuals, some
undocumented and some not, from coming to court when they should.”; Letter from Supreme Court of Conn.
Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers to Sec’y of the Dep’t of Homeland Sec. John F. Kelly May , , ht t p s://
www.ncsc.org/~/media/Files/PDF/Topics/ICE/CTLetter.ashx “I believe that having ICE ocers detain
individuals in public areas of our courthouses may cause litigants, witnesses and interested parties to view our
courthouses as places to avoid, rather than as institutions of fair and impartial justice.”.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
70
of life, liberty or property without due process of law nor be
denied the equal protection of the law.’
Statement from Retired Judges from Across the Country
Recently, a group of nearly 70 former state and federal judges, including 26 state
supreme court justices and 12 chief justices from across the ideological spectrum, wrote
a letter to Ronald D. Vitiello, Acting Dir. of ICE, urging the agency to stop making civil
immigration arrests at our nation’s courthouses.
With decades of experience presiding
over thousands of cases in trial and appellate courts, these judges explained that “judges
simply cannot do their jobs — and our justice system cannot function eectively — if
victims, defendants, witnesses, and family members do not feel secure in accessing the
courthouse.”
According to the judges, “ICE’s reliance on immigration arrests in courthouses instills fear
in clients and deters them from seeking justice in a court building. . . .”
This fear “has
meant valid law enforcement prosecutions are abandoned, or never pursued.”
In addition,
it has made it more dicult for courts to remain orderly places of business:
ICE’s courthouse activities have led to physical altercations
involving court employees, court sta burdened by ICE
requests to facilitate arrests, and disputes between court
administration and legal service providers. The environment
created by these incidents, in addition to the delays and
rescheduling that result when fear prevents parties from
Statement of Supreme Court of Ill. Chief Justice Lloyd A. Karmeier, ICE Arrests Threaten to Chill Access to
Justice Aug. , , http://www.illinoiscourts.gov/Media/enews//_chief_justice.asp internal
citations omitted.
Letter from Hon. Wallace B. Jeerson et. al. to Ronald D. Vitiello, Acting Dir. of U.S. Immigration & Customs
Enf’t Dec. , , https://www.scribd.com/document//Letter-From-Former-Judges-
Courthouse-Immigration-Arrestsfullscreen&from_embed.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
71
appearing in court, only makes it more dicult for judges and
court sta to do their jobs.
The judges also noted that:
[I]nterrupting criminal proceedings with civil immigration
arrests undermines the justice system. Immigration arrests
delay both exoneration and prosecution, including for the
many low-level oenses resolvable quickly and without
incarceration. ICE arrests have even put judges in the position
of facing defendants who request to be detained, rather than
released, because they know ICE ocers are waiting outside
the courtroom.
For these reasons, the judges urged ICE to take steps to restore condence in safe access to
the courts, including by treating courthouses as “sensitive locations,” similar to hospitals,
schools, and religious centers.
The letter was signed by six former state and federal judges
who served in New York: Hon. Jonathan Lippman (ret.), Chief Judge of the New York
Court of Appeals, Hon. Howard Levine (ret.), Associate Judge, New York Court of
Appeals, Hon. Katherine B. Forrest (fmr.), U.S. District Court, Southern District
of New York, Hon. John Gleeson (ret.), U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New
York, Hon. Shira A. Scheindlin (ret.), U.S. District Court, Southern District of New
York, and Hon. Gloria Sosa-Lintner (ret.), New York City Family Court.
Id.
Id. emphasis added.
Id.
Id.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
72
How Elected Ocials Have
Responded to ICE Courthouse
Operations
Press Release, Immigrant Def. Project, Elected Ocials, Advocates, and Public Defenders Gather to Introduce
Groundbreaking New Bill to Protect Immigrants from Unlawful ICE Arrests at Courthouses June , ,
https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Protect-Our-Courts-Act-press-release-
..FINAL.pdf.
Elected ocials from across New York State have also expressed
strong concerns regarding the escalation in ICE operations in and
around New York courthouses, and the chilling eect that this
activity has had on access to justice in our state. For example:
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
73
Thirty-eight Members of the New York State Assembly wrote in a letter to the
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security: “The increasingly aggressive
actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE agents over the past year,
especially in New York State courthouses, has raised serious concerns in our districts
throughout New York, including in our immigrant communities, and threatens
to sow distrust in the relationship among our constituents and state and local law
enforcement. The aggressive behavior and nature of ICE’s recent activities exhibits
a lack of respect for fairness and for due process and other rights aorded under the
New York and United States Constitution.”
New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer published an investigation of ICE
enforcement in New York City that concluded that ICE courthouse arrests were
part of an aggressive new push to detain and deport New Yorkers. The report, which
found that deportations from the New York City area surged by during the
rst years of the Trump administration, recommended passage of the Protect Our
Courts Act. “ICE’s predatory targeting of people who appear in State court for any
reason is harmful to New York’s justice system,” the report noted. “The Protect Our
Courts Act would add additional protections for immigrants and ensure that they
could appear in court and obtain justice without being arrested for an unrelated civil
immigration matter.”
Letter from Member of N.Y. State Assembly Patricia Fahy et. al. to Sec’y of U.S. Dept. of Homeland Sec.
Kristjen M. Nielsen Feb. , , https://www.scribd.com/document//DHSSecretary-Nielsen-
Letter.
Oce of N.Y.C. Comptroller Scott M. Stringer, The Demographics of Detention: Immigration Enforcement in
NYC Under Trump Feb. , https://comptroller.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/documents/Demographics_
of_Detention_.pdf.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
74
Assemblymember Michaelle C. Solages said: “Residents of our State rely on the
court system to address important legal issues that aect our communities. All New
Yorkers regardless of income, race, religion or immigration status should have the
opportunity to use the court system to advocate for themselves and their interests.
Federal immigration agents searching and detaining immigrants inside our courts,
deters individuals from interacting with the court system which in turns has a chilling
eect on our rights. I join the Immigrant Defense Project, SEIU BJ and all other
advocates to ensure that our courts remain safe for all New Yorkers.”
Assemblymember Ron Kim said: “While President Donald Trump and ICE
continue to target and punish law abiding immigrants, here in New York, we stand
strong together to protect all New Yorkers.”
Assemblymember Harvey Epstein said: “Emboldened by Donald Trump’s
xenophobia, ICE has accelerated the contemptible tactic of courthouse arrests, which
pervert the course of justice for immigrant and undocumented New Yorkers and
have a chilling eect on victims and witnesses attending proceedings. New Yorkers,
regardless of immigration status, should not be afraid to seek justice.”
Press Release, Immigrant Def. Project, Elected Ocials, Advocates, and Public Defenders Gather to Introduce
Groundbreaking New Bill to Protect Immigrants from Unlawful ICE Arrests at Courthouses June , ,
https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Protect-Our-Courts-Act-press-release-
..FINAL.pdf.
Id.
Id.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
75
Assemblymember Dan Quart said: “ICE has no place in our courts — their
presence severely threatens equal access to justice. Everyone, regardless of their
immigration status, should feel safe to seek help from the legal system. New York’s
state court system should not be used as a tool by ICE agents to arrest and deport
people. As federal authorities ramp up their enforcement of deportation orders, we
must work together on the state level to ensure immigrants are not fearful of entering
a courtroom.”
Senator Brad Hoylman said: “We’re all safer when everyone can feel comfortable
participating in the justice system, regardless of their immigration status. President
Trump’s racist immigration policy, carried out by federal immigration agents
serving as his personal deportation force, is instead undermining trust and forcing
undocumented New Yorkers who have witnessed or been the victims of crimes into
the shadows. Since the start of the Trump Administration, we’ve seen an outrageous
increase in ICE arrests and attempted arrests in and around courts in New
York. That’s unacceptable.”
Senator Jamaal Bailey said: “Having ICE in our courts has the potential to force
individuals to not appear because of fear. The presence of ICE agents in a court is not
related to the instant proceedings one may face in our justice system. No witness or
individual should feel intimidated because of the presence of individuals who do not
belong there.”
Id.
Press Release, Immigrant Def. Project, DAs, Defenders & Community Stand Together as Hoylman, Solages
Intro ICE Out of Courts Bill Jan. , , http://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/
Press-Release-POCA...pdf.
Id.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
76
New York State Attorney General Letitia James said: “Safe and universal access
to the court of law is key to a fair, democratic society and a basic requirement in the
vindication of individual rights. ICE’s indiscriminate campaign of courthouse arrests
puts all New Yorkers at risk and goes against everything we stand for.”
Former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said, “Targeting immigrants at our
courthouses undermines our criminal justice system and threatens public safety. If the
Trump Administration continues to arrest people in the heart of our justice system,
immigrants will be less likely to serve as witnesses or report crimes – and that leaves us
all at risk. I join District Attorney Gonzalez in calling for ICE to stop immigration raids
in our courthouses. Everyone, regardless of their immigration status or the status of
their loved ones, should have access to equal justice under the law.”
NYC Councilmember, Chair Immigration Committee, Carlos Menchaca said:
“ICE must go through the rigorous process of obtaining a judicial warrant as required
under our Constitution. In a dangerous move, our New York City Mayor De Blasio has
decided that some immigrants are worthy of legal representation and some are not
and Chief Judge Janet DiFiore has refused to act even though she has the authority
to ban ICE from disrupting judicial proceedings. Both need to understand that they
are standing in the way of justice and facilitating the emerging deportation machine
President Trump has been setting up since day one in oce.”
Press Release, Immigrant Def. Project, New York Assembly Introduces Groundbreaking New Bill
to Protect Immigrants From Unlawful ICE Arrests at Courthouses June , , https://www.
immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Protect-Our-Courts-Act-Press-Release-...pdf
Letitia James was a public advocate when she made this statement..
Press Release, N.Y. State Oce of the Attorney Gen., New York AG Eric Schneiderman and Acting Brooklyn
DA Eric Gonzalez Call for ICE to End Immigration Enforcement Raids in State Courts Aug. , , ht t ps ://
ag.ny.gov/press-release/new-york-ag-eric-schneiderman-and-acting-brooklyn-da-eric-gonzalez-call-ice-end.
Press Release, Oce of the Bronx Borough President, Elected Ocials, Advocates, and Public Defenders
Gather to Introduce Groundbreaking New Bill to Protect Immigrants from Unlawful ICE Arrests at
Courthouses June , , http://bronxboropres.nyc.gov////elected-ocials-advocates-and-
public-defenders-gather-to-introduce-groundbreaking-new-bill-to-protect-immigrants-from-unlawful-ice-
arrests-at-courthouses/.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
77
NYC Councilmember, Chair Committee on the Justice System, Rory Lancman
said: “ICE enforcement activity at city courts undermines our justice system and
creates fear within immigrant communities. We won’t have a system of justice if
people are afraid to come and be a part of that system.”
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. said: “Deporting New Yorkers who
show up to court is antithetical to our values and detrimental to our public safety.
The fear of unjust deportation stops crime victims from coming forward, and stops
defendants from responsibly attending their court dates.”
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said: “I have been calling on ICE for
months to treat our courthouses as sensitive locations and to stop arresting people
inside those buildings. These actions jeopardize public safety by instilling fear in
immigrant communities, which makes victims and witnesses afraid to come forward
to report crimes, and unable to get justice. Keeping Brooklyn safe and strengthening
community trust in law enforcement are my top priorities as Brooklyn DA, and ICE’s
actions undermine those important goals. I support the eorts to end this misguided
practice.”
Press Release, Immigrant Def. Project, DAs, Defenders & Community Stand Together as Hoylman, Solages
Intro ICE Out of Courts Bill Jan. , , www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Press-
Release-POCA...pdf.
Press Release, Oce of the Bronx Borough President, Elected Ocials, Advocates, and Public Defenders
Gather to Introduce Groundbreaking New Bill to Protect Immigrants from Unlawful ICE Arrests at
Courthouses June , , http://bronxboropres.nyc.gov////elected-ocials-advocates-and-
public-defenders-gather-to-introduce-groundbreaking-new-bill-to-protect-immigrants-from-unlawful-ice-
arrests-at-courthouses/.
Press Release, Immigrant Def. Project, New York Assembly Introduces Groundbreaking New Bill
to Protect Immigrants From Unlawful ICE Arrests at Courthouses June , , https://www.
immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Protect-Our-Courts-Act-Press-Release-...pdf.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
78
Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark said: “I encourage people to report
crimes so that they can be processed through the criminal justice system. If a
victim or witness who is essential to the prosecution of a heinous case is arrested by
Immigration and Customs Enforcement when he or she shows up at the courthouse,
we cannot go forward with the case, resulting in cases being dismissed and dangerous
individuals being released back into the community. This could have a chilling eect
on getting witnesses to assist in our cases, potentially resulting in a threat to public
safety. We need everyone to cooperate in our ght to keep the streets of the Bronx
safe.”
Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said: “New York’s justice
system works best when everyone has access. Immigrants who are victims of domestic
violence, wage theft, fraud, or violent crime should be able to seek justice regardless of
their status, and they should be able to come to court for that purpose without fear that
their appearance will lead to civil arrest by ICE.”
Albany County District Attorney David Soares said: “Courthouses should be
safe spaces for everyone. Prosecutors, advocates, and police have spent decades
researching and applying best practices in an eort to encourage the reporting of
violent crimes, including sexual assaults and domestic violence crimes. Demagoguery
of the issue has caused fear and confusion in many citizens and has led to decreased
reporting. The activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is compromising
our ability to hold accountable perpetrators who prey upon victims from vulnerable
immigrant communities.”
Press Release, Oce of the Bronx Borough President, Elected Ocials, Advocates, and Public Defenders
Gather to Introduce Groundbreaking New Bill to Protect Immigrants from Unlawful ICE Arrests at
Courthouses June , , http://bronxboropres.nyc.gov////elected-ocials-advocates-and-
public-defenders-gather-to-introduce-groundbreaking-new-bill-to-protect-immigrants-from-unlawful-ice-
arrests-at-courthouses/.
Immigrant Def. Project, The Protect Our Courts Act: Endorsements from New York Prosecutors, Statements
from Prosecutors Nationwide, https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/prosecutors-
pro_.pdf.
Id.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Our Courts: The Impact of ICE Courthouse Operations in New York State
79
Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams said: “ICE’s overaggressive behavior
in and around our courts has been counterproductive to public safety in our city and
our state.”
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. said: “ICE’s presence in the New York
State Court System has a chilling eect on justice. The agency’s presence in our courts
is preventing the fair adjudication of cases within our system, and is an aront to the
concept of impartial justice. . . I will continue to work with immigration advocates,
attorneys and others to protect our immigrant community from needlessly splitting up
families through detention and deportation.”
Press Release, Oce of the Bronx Borough President, Elected Ocials, Advocates, and Public Defenders
Gather to Introduce Groundbreaking New Bill to Protect Immigrants from Unlawful ICE Arrests at
Courthouses June , , http://bronxboropres.nyc.gov////elected-ocials-advocates-and-
public-defenders-gather-to-introduce-groundbreaking-new-bill-to-protect-immigrants-from-unlawful-ice-
arrests-at-courthouses/.
Id.
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80
Recommendations for Court Rules
Am. Immigration Council, Immigrants in New York , https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/
sites/default/les/research/immigrants_in_new_york.pdf.
This report identies the vast array of stakeholders in New York’s
justice system negatively aected by ICE’s enforcement operations
in and around the state’s courthouses, extending far beyond crime
victims, witnesses, defendants, and family members arrested
at courthouses. The impacted stakeholders include every actor
involved in ensuring the functioning and upholding of the justice
system: district attorney oces, anti-violence advocates, public
defender oces, problem-solving courts and sta, and current and
former judges.
This report also quanties and claries the disruptions to the New York State judicial
system, as experienced by these stakeholders. Taken together, the picture that emerges is
a systemic denial to New York state residents of their full and equal access to courts and
guaranteed protections of their state, federal, and constitutional rights.
In a state where one in ve residents is an immigrant, where there are over ,
undocumented immigrants, where one in twelve US-born children lives with at least one
undocumented family member, immigrants are integral to New York.
When so many of
our residents, especially the most vulnerable among us, are unsafe, we are all unsafe. When
so many of our residents, especially family members, friends, and co-workers of other New
Yorkers, are denied access to justice and equal opportunity to exercise their rights, we are
all less free. To address the systemic hindrance to the administration of New York’s justice
system that ICE courthouse operations have become, the Coalition strongly urges OCA to
promulgate the following court rules.
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81
. Employees of the Unied Court System shall not:
i. Assist with federal immigration enforcement activities in the course of their
employment, in any courthouse of the New York State Unied Court System
except to the extent they are described in Section (2).
ii. Inquire into the immigration status of any individual within any courthouse of
the Unied Court System unless such information about a person’s immigration
status is necessary for the determination of program, service or benet
eligibility or the provision of services.
iii. Provide any information to immigration enforcement ocers regarding
persons appearing before the court, except information regarding citizenship or
immigration status, as required by 8 U.S.C. § 1373, and then only if known.
. Civil arrests without judicial warrants:
Civil arrests may only be executed within a courthouse of the Unied Court System
when accompanied by a judicial warrant or judicial order authorizing that the
person who is the subject of such warrant be subjected to a civil arrest. “Judicial
warrant” is dened as a warrant issued by a magistrate sitting in the judicial branch
of local, state, or federal government. “Judicial order” is dened as an order issued
by a magistrate sitting in the judicial branch of local, state, or federal government.
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82
Acknowledgements
The ICE out of Courts Coalition would like to acknowledge
and thank the following individuals and organizations for their
contributions to this report:
Albany County District Attorney’s Oce
District Attorney David Soares
Albany Law School Clinic & Justice
Center
Mary Armistead
Sarah Rogerson
Anti-Defamation League - New York/
New Jersey
Amy Feinman
Micah Jones
Melanie Robbins
Appellate Advocates
Lisa Napoli
Sarah Vendzules
Association of Pro Bono Counsel
Brooklyn Defender Services
Richard Bailey
Nathaniel Damren
Nyasa Hickey
Brooklyn District Attorney’s Oce
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez
Bronx District Attorney’s Oce
District Attorney Darcel D. Clark
Bronx Immigration Partnership
Bronx Legal Services
Elsa Cruz Pearson
Carolina Guiral Cuervo
Terry Lawson
Norey Lee Navarro
Will Mont
Cardozo School of Law Kathryn O.
Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic
Lindsay Nash
Center for Appellate Litigation
Sussan Lee
Center for Court Innovation
Jethro Antoine
Greg Berman
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP
The Fund for Modern Courts
Her Justice
Hamra Ahmad
Amy Barasch
Rachel Braunstein
Susanna Saul
Immigrant Defense Project
Mizue Aizeki
Genia Blaser
Andrew Wachtenheim
Lee Wang
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83
LatinoJustice PRLDEF
Jose Perez
Legal Aid Society of Nassau County
Legal Services NYC
Make The Road New York
Luis Bautista
Jessica Young
Manhattan District Attorney’s Oce
District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr.
Nitin Savur
Mobilization for Justice
Justin La Mort
My Sister’s Place
Andrea Panjwani
Nassau County District Attorney’s Oce
District Attorney Madeline Singas
Silvia Finkelstein
Neighborhood Defender Services of
Harlem
Michelle Gonzalez
Stephanie Lopez
Matt Knecht
Annie Mathews
New York Immigration Coalition
New York City Bar Association
Maria Cilenti
New York County Defender Services
Rebecca Ackerman
Brittany Brown
Meagan Hu
Molly Kalmus
Sarah Kaufmann
Katherine LeGeros Bajuk
Diane Lopez
Kathy Rodriguez
New York Law School
Claire R. Thomas
New York Legal Assistance Group
Shani Adess
Antoinette Delruelle
Hayat Bearat
Victoria Goodlof
Micah Horwitz
Pace University, Elisabeth Haub School
of Law, Immigration Justice Clinic
Vanessa Merton
Regional Immigration Assistance Center
(Capital Region)
James Milstein
Regional Immigration Assistance Center
(Long Island)
Elizabeth Tonne-Daims
Christina Gaudio
Safe Horizon
Evangeline M. Chan
Sanctuary for Families
Pooja Asnani
Yvonne Chen
Anika Kabani
Judy Harris Kluger
Dorchen Leidholdt
Carmen Maria Rey
Suolk County Legal Aid Society
Cynthia C. Darrell
Tiany Tavares
The Bronx Defenders
Ryan Brewer
Gloria Chacon
Rosa Cohen-Cruz
Sarah Deri Oshiro
Brigitte Hamadey
Lauren Migliaccio
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The Door
Eve Stotland
The Legal Aid Society of New York
Tanya De La Cruz
Justine Luongo
Hasan Shaqullah
Queens District Attorney’s Oce
Queens Law Associates
Joshua Epstein
Urban Justice Center- Domestic Violence
Project
Atossa Movahedi
Salar Rivani
Chelsea Whipp
Joy Zeigeweid
Westchester County District Attorney’s
Oce
District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr.
