Illegal immigrant's arrest at courthouse sparks protest
By Georgett Roberts and Joe Tacopino February 8, 2018 | 5:13pm | Updated
https://thenypost.files.wordpress.co...8&h=410&crop=1
Richard Harbus
An immigrant brought to the US when he was just 3 years old was arrested outside a Bronx courthouse Thursday by ICE officers who said he was in the country illegally.
Aboubacar Dembele, 27, who is married to a US citizen, went to the criminal court to fight an assault charge in connection with a fight on a bus in December — and he ended up in handcuffs.
“They were just waiting outside, just waiting,” his wife, Zaquera Lanier, 24, told The Post.
“They ask him for his name. And he said, ‘Yeah,’ and they said we have to arrest you.”
Dembele was taken into custody by eight to 10 officers in street clothes who identified themselves as Homeland Security, his wife said.
They told him his DACA application was rejected.
“We provided school records, diploma. We provided everything that they asked for and they said it’s not enough,” Lanier said.
It was not clear why Dembele’s DACA application was not accepted.
Dembele’s lawyer, Monica Dula, said her client was initially the one assaulted in the bus incident and defended himself.
“His case was heard in this courthouse. It should have been dismissed. It was reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor,” she said. “He has never been arrested before.”
The action prompted two legal advocacy groups to walk out in protest of the actions by federal authorities.
“As public defenders responsible for providing critical legal representation to hundreds of thousands of people across the city each year, we have watched Immigration and Custom Enforcement officials turn New York City’s courthouses into immigration enforcement zones,” read a joint statement from The Bronx Defenders and the Legal Aid Society.
https://nypost.com/2018/02/08/ice-ar...parks-protest/
