How Denver Is Counteracting ICE Agents Operating Inside Courthouses

When immigration lawyers with the Meyer Law Firm first captured video evidence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducting arrests inside the hallways of the Lindsey Flanigan Courthouse in February, it caused panic in Denver’s immigrant communities.

Since the video’s release, Denver’s City Attorney Kristin Bronson announced that nine domestic violence cases had to be dropped because witnesses or victims in the cases were afraid to report to the courthouse for hearings; they thought they might encounter ICE agents.

In April, Mayor Michael Hancock and members of Denver’s city council sent a letter to the director of the local ICE field office requesting that ICE stay out of Denver’s courthouses. The city received a response in early June in which ICE flatly rejected the request, arguing that it was safer for ICE agents to use public courthouse hallways to conduct their operations because everyone has to enter the courthouse through secure screening.

Mayor Hancock’s Deputy Communications Director Jenna Espinoza says that the Mayor was not surprised but disappointed by the response. (In March, Jeff Sessions and DHS Secretary John Kelly had already told California’s Chief Justice the same thing: ICE will continue to operate inside courthouses).

Read more: http://www.westword.com/news/denver-introduces-protections-for-immigrants-from-ice-agents-in-courthouses-9201775