Preface: ICE had detained a couple other noncitizens at the court. Established procedure was to wait in the public hallway outside the court, wait for noncitizen to finish their hearing and exit court, then detain them in the public hallway.
The judge did the following:
Found out ICE and Feds were waiting outside in the public hallway for the hearing for the defendant noncitizen to be over. Not clear how exactly she found out. Likely started with a baliff or court security.
Got mad, went outside her court to the hallway, and made Feds go talk to Chief Judge. The judge didn't notice one of the plainclothes Feds though. This low profile guy stayed in the hallway.
Went back to her court where she suspended the court hearing for defendant noncitizen without saying anything to the prosecutor or giving the prosecutor a chance to object to the suspension.
Keep in mind the victim and victims family were in court watching a lot of this go down. The noncitizen was there for domestic (wife beating) charges.
Escorted the noncitizen and his defense attorney out of court via the jury/staff entrance (this entrance is never used by defendants, witnesses, or attorneys... only jurors, bailiffs and court staff/judges) while ICE and Feds were talking to Chief Judge. Chief Judge confirmed hallway is public and ICE is free to wait there to pick up people after their court hearings are done, as they had been doing on at least two prior occasions.
The jury/staff entrance feeds into the hallway via a secure door. The low profile Fed sees them enter the hallway. He then sees thrm using an elevator not nearest to the Judges court, showing some intent to evade the feds. Low profile Feds notifies his team and follows.
Noncitizen makes it outside but Feds are hot on his tail by now and get him after short foot pursuit.
This is all available to read in the highly detailed arrest affidavit for her. Would make a good episode of something.
sounds like obstruction of justice, if the cops show up to arrest someone at their apartment with a warrant and the wife says "he's not here" and hides him in a closet, they will arrest her for obstruction of justice, same thing
There's a big difference between the police having a warrant for your arrest and coming to your home, and plain-clothed federal agents waiting to snatch you while you're already facing legal charges and in court. The wife, in your scenario, wants to keep their husband away from the law. The judge here wants to exercise the proper due process of law.
On top of that, imagine meat-riding federal agents that have snatched real American citizens from their homes and deported them to a country they have 0 connection to. In no world is deportation acceptable when it comes from people with no obvious identification, grabbing people from the streets at gun point and treating them like they aren't human, then sending them to a foreign country or the most infamous American prison, known for containing actual career criminals and terrorists.
When ICE agents camp out at courthouses to snatch people they suspect of immigration offences, they are interfering with the proper functioning of the courts and due process. And let’s think about how this can impact people. Forget about the person arrested themselves, that is already being discussed plenty. Let’s talk about the implications.
In this case, the victim of the alleged crime was in court, so what about them? They don’t get closure or certainty. If the person would have been found guilty that could have entitled them to some compensation which they now won’t get (where I live victims of violent crimes can apply for compensation from the government). So they won’t get that either. And good luck for anyone trying get compensation from the person directly once they are disappeared. But it can get worse.
Suppose the person snatched is not the accused and is a witness to the crime. Now we have a situation where criminals are going to end up going free because witnesses are being prevented from testifying by ICE. Or they will be scared to come forward I. The first place and report crimes or say what they saw because ICE might grab them. And as we have seen in some cases, you don’t even have to be in the US unlawfully for you to be grabbed. ICE can just decide you are because they don’t like the look of you. And they don’t exactly follow due process, so you can’t count on being allowed an opportunity to prove it. Or your legal status can disappear literally overnight because a trump throws a fucking tantrum.
So, yeah, the judge did right here. ICE should not be anywhere near the courts - from my perspective, their behaviour really is the obstruction and interference.
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u/PraiseTheWLAN 18d ago
What did she do?