Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have arrested six people inside courthouses in New York City in 2019, according to the Office of Court Administration. New York City is the only place in the state where immigrants were arrested. ICE agents produced a judicial warrant in each of the arrests, in accordance with a recent rule change brought down by the OCA.
In April, the OCA declared all ICE agents must have a warrant signed by a federal judge if they want to make any arrests on New York state court property. “In January of 2018, as a direct result of our communications with ICE officials, ICE issued a formalized policy regarding potential arrest situations in courthouses,” said Lucian Chalfen, head of OCA. “Even before our April 2019 Directive regarding agents needing a Federal Warrant, agents began to limit arrests to individuals with active Federal Warrants… We continue to monitor the situation and are mindful of their activities not having an effect on courthouse operations,” Chalfen said.
The arrests happened in the New York County Supreme Court, Kings County Criminal Court and Bronx Criminal Court, among others. Most of the people arrested were men. More than 200 immigrants were detained by ICE in and around courthouses statewide in 2018, according to the Immigrant Defense Project. This change amounts to a 97 percent drop in arrests between the two years. Queens Eagle
Hello, I’m Max Siegelbaum with today’s edition of Early Arrival. You can email me at max.siegelbaum@documentedny.com.
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NJ Official Responds to Mayoral Pledge to Not Cooperate With ICE
Essex County officials had mixed reactions to the Trump administration’s decision to delay immigration raids across the country. Mayors of several major U.S. cities respond to Trump’s initial raid promise by declaring they would not cooperate with any immigration authorities. Yet the township commissioner for Nutley, New Jersey was not pleased with the mayors’ opposition, saying “some public officials have vowed not to cooperate. Hopefully they will be arrested. Local police should obey their orders but make sure they name in their reports who ordered them not to enforce federal law,” he said in a Facebook post. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) said after the city declared itself a sanctuary city, ICE started increasingly arresting people. He vowed to support communities affected by ICE enforcement. Patch
Assemblymember Catalina Cruz and Sen. Jessica Ramos Speak out Against Mass Deportation Threat in Jackson Heights
New York state assemblymember Catalina Cruz (D) and state Sen. Jessica Ramos (D) spoke to a crowd in Jackson Heights, Queens on Monday about President Trump’s latest threats of a mass deportation operation. The lawmakers called it a political move to guarantee votes and money for Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign. Both representatives spoke about their upbringing as children of undocumented immigrants and urged the residents to know their rights, reminding them that they should refuse to open the door for ICE agents without a judicial warrant, and to only speak in the presence of a lawyer in case of an arrest. “Last year it was the caravan, this year is getting into people’s homes to separate them. This president continues to play with the lives of immigrants in the name of politics,” Cruz said. Isadora Varejão for Documented
More Clerks Rebel Against Driver’s License Bill
Monroe County’s executive will likely sue New York over the passage of the Green Light NY bill, which allowed the state to begin issuing licenses for undocumented immigrants. Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo (R) said the bill “puts state law at odds with federal law, endangers public safety and rewards those who have not followed the rule of law in the first place,” and added that she won’t licenses be issued “without a fight.” Other clerks elsewhere in the state are also rebelling against the new law. Putnam County Clerk Michael Bartolotti (R) said “the concept of allowing driving privileges to those who cannot prove lawful presence in the United States is very troubling to me.” The Examiner, Rochester City Newspaper
National
Children Moved After Squalid Holding Facility Conditions are Exposed
The federal government moved hundreds of migrant children who were detained at a Texas Border Patrol station where they were allegedly forced to soil themselves and look after other children. Most of the infants, toddlers and teens were scheduled to be transferred by Tuesday to other shelters and facilities run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, CBP said. Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) demanded answers for the decrepit conditions in a letter sent to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. Still, a Tuesday report said 100 of those children had been moved back to their original facility. Associated Press, The New York Times
Photograph of Father and Daughter Who Died Trying to Cross the Border Elicits Strong Response
A father and daughter float face down on the bank of the Rio Grande, her tiny arms wrapped around his neck. This powerful image was captured Monday by journalist Julia Le Duc shortly after Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his 23-month-old daughter Valeria died trying to cross the river into the United States. “It’s very hard to see that photograph,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas). “It’s our version of the Syrian photograph — of the three-year-old boy on the beach, dead. That’s what it is.’’ The New York Times
Mexican Government Dispatches Armed Forces to Catch Migrants
The Mexican government says it deployed almost 15,000 soldiers and National Guard along its northern border to deter migrants from traveling into the United States. Mexico has not traditionally used its armed forces to apprehend migrants traveling to the U.S., but it is trying to curb the flow under threat of tariffs on its exports by the Trump administration. An additional 6,500 members of Mexico’s security forces were sent to the southern border with Guatemala. Mexico agreed June 7 to dramatically reduce the number of migrants who reach the U.S. border within 45 days. Reuters
Conservative Student Organization Praises GEO Group After Receiving Donation
Right-wing student organization Turning Point USA received a $50,000 donation from the foundation arm of GEO Group, the country’s largest private prison operator. Shortly after receiving the donation, TPUSA leaders started churning out social media content praising ICE and GEO group. On Sept. 7, 2018, TPUSA’s communications director Candace Owens tweeted that she toured an ICE detention facility in Broward County, Florida. After leaving the building she said “this place is nicer than where I went to the public school system,” and that it was like “an elementary school.” Sludge
Anti-Immigration Rhetoric is Impacting People’s Health in California
The rise of anti-immigration rhetoric following the 2016 presidential election may be taking a toll on California’s Latinx youth, according to a study from the University of California, Berkeley. The study tracked the mental and physical health of U.S.-born children of Mexican and Central American immigrants before and after the election, tracking their sleep quality and their level of anxiety about U.S. immigration policies. Nearly half of the youth said they were worried about the impacts of U.S. immigration policy on their families. Anxiety symptoms increased the more individuals were more worried about immigration policies. University of California, Berkeley
White House Threatens to Veto Border Spending Bill, Acting ICE Director Pushes Back Against Inspector General
The White House is threatening to veto a $4.5 billion bill from the House that is aimed at improving detention conditions at the U.S. southern border, saying the measure would hamper border security efforts. The bill still passed the House later that day. In a letter released on Monday, White House officials told lawmakers they objected to the fact that the bill lacked money for beds for ICE detention and said it had no money to heighten border security.
孰真孰假？对特朗普关于移民的言论的事实核查
Some Democrats have been pressing House leaders to add provisions to the bill that would strengthen protections for migrant children. The Senate also planned to vote on similar legislation, but critics say that version of the bill doesn’t include strong enough protections for migrant children. “Right now, the goal is really to stop — one death is just too much,” said Rep. Adriano Espaillat, (D-N.Y.) as he left the meeting.
It’s true that border facilities are overburdened by the number of children the federal government is detaining. Last week, outgoing Acting CBP Commissioner John Sanders said some stations are holding 15,000 people, triple the maximum capacity of 4,000. Several Democrats said language they sought about better protections for migrant children could end up in a separate bill. Over the weekend, Trump tweeted that he would give Congress two weeks to solve “the asylum and loopholes problems,” and “If not, deportations start!” Associated Press
Acting ICE director Mark Morgan said he doesn’t agree with the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, who said that four detention facilities had “egregious violations” of detention standards. “I just don’t agree that it’s egregious conditions, like a systemic problem,” he told CBS News. “Are there issues that we can improve and get better? Absolutely,” he added. “That’s why I welcome the [inspector general]…but to say that it’s a systemic, egregious problem across the board, that’s just not true and the facts don’t support that,” Morgan said. Morgan is set to leave his job at ICE and replace CBP commissioner John Sanders. CBS News
CBP’s Acting Commissioner John Sanders is resigning effective July 5, Reuters
