By Gina Martinez
Two weeks after ICE agents arrested a woman in Human Trafficking Intervention Court in Queens for overstaying her visa, the City Council Courts & Legal Services Committee, chaired by Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Hillcrest), held a joint hearing last week with the Immigration Committee to examine the impact of recent ICE activity in New York City courthouses.
According to Lancman, the woman was appearing on a low-level prostitution-related charge. He said ICE agents frequently stake out city courthouses in order to target and detain immigrants appearing in court. ICE’s presence at city courthouses has left litigants, victims and witnesses afraid to appear in court, Lancman said.
A report issued by the Immigrant Defense Project, a non-profit that helps protects and expands the rights of all immigrants, found that 74 percent of respondents worked with immigrants who expressed fear of the courts because of ICE. Further, the report showed 67 percent of advocates working with survivors of violence had clients refuse to seek help through the courts out of fear of ICE.
ICE’s current policy prohibits enforcement activity at “sensitive locations.” These locations include schools, hospitals and places of worship, but not courthouses. ICE’s refusal to designate courthouses as “sensitive locations” is undermining the judicial system and making our communities less safe, Lancman said at the June 28 hearing.
“This is the choice too many immigrant New Yorkers are now forced to confront: Show up in court and risk deportation, or don’t show up in court and lose access to our justice system,” Lancman said. “ICE’s enforcement activity in our courts is frightening victims, litigants, witnesses and defendants away from participating in the peaceful and orderly resolution of civil disputes and criminal charges. Our system of justice is being undermined, making all of us less safe, and our society less fair. ICE must immediately designate our courts as ‘sensitive locations’ where people can come and go without fear of deportation.”
At the hearing, legal services providers and immigration advocates detailed the effects that ICE enforcement activity is having on the operation of the courts. Tina Luongo, attorney-in-charge of criminal practice at The Legal Aid Society, said ICE preys upon unsuspecting immigrants at courts throughout the state, interrupting justice and deterring individuals from seeking basic legal protections and services afforded by our court system.
“This will continue until the Office of Court Administration takes immediate and bold action,” Luongo said. “OCA has vested powers to enact policies to help thwart these raids. Inaction is no longer an option.”
Judy Harris Kluger, executive director of Sanctuary for Families, said that ICE’s actions are having a detrimental effect on the judicial system and on victims who turn to the courts for help.
“Immigrants in New York should not be at risk of deportation when seeking justice,” she said. “If this continues, ICE will drive those who desperately need help — including trafficking and domestic violence victims served by Sanctuary for Families — away from the important life-saving services that we and other service providers offer.”
Reach Gina Martinez by e-mail at gmart
