Court chief to protesters: We can’t stop ICE raids

By Ken Dixon
Published 12:00 am EDT, Tuesday, March 10, 2020

HARTFORD — About 50 people gathered on the steps of the state Supreme Court building Monday afternoon to protest a growing pattern of undercover raids and arrests by agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in state courthouses.

In response, Chief Court Administrator Patrick L. Carroll III said he is also disturbed by the seizure of foreign-born people here without legal permission, but there is little he can do because courthouses are public buildings.

Alok Bhatt of New Haven, community defense coordinator for the Connecticut Immigrant Rights Alliance (CIRA), said the point of the demonstration was to underscore a series of warrant-less arrests.

“We feel this is a problem for several reasons, on top of just excessive policing particularly of communities of color, it also disrupts the everyday operation of the courthouses themselves,” he said. “Oftentimes these arrests happen in very violent and abrasive fashion and this becomes a very disruption public scene.”

Bhatt said that in many cases judicial marshals who should keep a hands-off attitude toward ICE targets, have been helping the federal agents.

“Other jurisdictions around the country have at least taken some steps to prohibit ICE from entering unless they have a judicial warrant, which seems reasonable,” Bhatt said, adding that the activists have heard before that state officials do not believe they can hinder ICE.

The federal agents have been active in several courthouses, including Derby, Norwalk, Meriden and New Haven. In 2013, the state passed the so-called TRUST Act, which was updated last year, to limit cooperation between state marshals and ICE.

Camila Bortolleto, a Danbury based activist and co-founder of CT Students for a Dream, said ICE has also been at the Danbury court house.

“It’s not an everyday occurrence. ICE does wait for people to come out from their court appointment or before they go in. If they have a warrant or they’re looking for somebody they’ll wait for them at the courthouse.”

Carroll, in a statement Monday noted that Chief Justice Richard Robinson and his predecessor Chase Rogers, formally asked Attorneys General William Barr and Jeff Sessions to stop ICE enforcement activities in Connecticut courts.

“The facts are clear: the Judicial Branch has sought the exact same thing that CIRA is seeking — no ICE enforcement activity in the courts,”Carroll said.

“As regards the request that we ban ICE from even entering our courts, we are being asked us to do something that we simply cannot do under the law.

Pursuant to the Constitution, our courts are open and the Judicial Branch cannot ‘ban’ anyone from our courts.

We have trained — and will continue to train — our Judicial Marshals on the comprehensive requirements of Connecticut’s Trust Act and also continue to assure compliance with the provisions of that law.”

The protesters also want ICE subpoenas to be rejected by the state Judicial Branch, the resignation of judicial marshals who assist ICE, and reparations for victims and families affected by ICE courthouse arrests.

The demonstration was co-sponsored by the CT Bail Fund, Make the Road CT, the Hartford Deportation Defense, Planned Parenthood Votes! CT, and the CT Working Families Party.

https://www.middletownpress.com/midd...E-15118711.php