SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Legal Aid Society attorneys staged a protest after one of their undocumented clients was arrested by federal immigration agents while leaving a New York City courthouse. (Photo: The Bronx Defenders/Twitter)
'Fed Up' With ICE Targeting of Courthouses, NYC Public Defenders Stage Mass Walkout
"The presence of ICE officers in our courthouses and the perception that no immigrant is safe to seek their day in court, is threatening to upend our entire legal process."
Feb 09, 2018
More than 100 public defenders walked out and staged a protest at the Bronx Criminal Court in New York City after an undocumented client was detained by federal immigration agents as he left the courthouse, giving credence to advocates' claims that fear of deportation keeps victims and witnesses from participating in the legal system.
"As public defenders responsible for providing critical legal representation to hundreds of thousands of people across our city each year, we have watched Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials turn New York City's courthouses into immigration enforcement zones," the Legal Aid Society said. "The presence of ICE officers in our courthouses and the perception that no immigrant is safe to seek their day in court, is threatening to upend our entire legal process and the principles upon which it stands."
The legal services nonprofit shared videos from outside the courthouse on Thursday:
Casey Dalporto, a Legal Aid Society staff attorney, told the New York Law Journal that undocumented clients are "terrified to come to court," and public defenders--who held a similar protest outside a Brooklyn courthouse in November--are "just fed up" with the ICE arrests.
"It sends a chilling message to the entire immigrant community in the Bronx, and for the client it obviously strips them of all of their due process rights," Dalporto said. "We want to send a clear message to ICE that we want them out of our place of work."
The client detained by federal agents in the Bronx is 27-year-old Aboubacar Dembele, who came to the United States from the Ivory Coast at age 3. Zaquera Laniere, his wife and a U.S. citizen, told WNYC that they were surrounded by federal immigration agents the moment they left the courthouse.
"It was like eight of them stepped in front of us. It's like an ambush," Laniere said. "You finish one case. You're walking out freely. But as soon as you step outside you're going right back into handcuffs."
She added that agents mentioned his recently denied application for Deferred Action for Childhood (DACA), a program that is under attack from the Trump administration because it provides protection from deportation to undocumented people who entered the country as children.
Laniere said the agents told her husband: "We got to take you in. Your DACA got denied."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
More than 100 public defenders walked out and staged a protest at the Bronx Criminal Court in New York City after an undocumented client was detained by federal immigration agents as he left the courthouse, giving credence to advocates' claims that fear of deportation keeps victims and witnesses from participating in the legal system.
"As public defenders responsible for providing critical legal representation to hundreds of thousands of people across our city each year, we have watched Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials turn New York City's courthouses into immigration enforcement zones," the Legal Aid Society said. "The presence of ICE officers in our courthouses and the perception that no immigrant is safe to seek their day in court, is threatening to upend our entire legal process and the principles upon which it stands."
The legal services nonprofit shared videos from outside the courthouse on Thursday:
Casey Dalporto, a Legal Aid Society staff attorney, told the New York Law Journal that undocumented clients are "terrified to come to court," and public defenders--who held a similar protest outside a Brooklyn courthouse in November--are "just fed up" with the ICE arrests.
"It sends a chilling message to the entire immigrant community in the Bronx, and for the client it obviously strips them of all of their due process rights," Dalporto said. "We want to send a clear message to ICE that we want them out of our place of work."
The client detained by federal agents in the Bronx is 27-year-old Aboubacar Dembele, who came to the United States from the Ivory Coast at age 3. Zaquera Laniere, his wife and a U.S. citizen, told WNYC that they were surrounded by federal immigration agents the moment they left the courthouse.
"It was like eight of them stepped in front of us. It's like an ambush," Laniere said. "You finish one case. You're walking out freely. But as soon as you step outside you're going right back into handcuffs."
She added that agents mentioned his recently denied application for Deferred Action for Childhood (DACA), a program that is under attack from the Trump administration because it provides protection from deportation to undocumented people who entered the country as children.
Laniere said the agents told her husband: "We got to take you in. Your DACA got denied."
More than 100 public defenders walked out and staged a protest at the Bronx Criminal Court in New York City after an undocumented client was detained by federal immigration agents as he left the courthouse, giving credence to advocates' claims that fear of deportation keeps victims and witnesses from participating in the legal system.
"As public defenders responsible for providing critical legal representation to hundreds of thousands of people across our city each year, we have watched Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials turn New York City's courthouses into immigration enforcement zones," the Legal Aid Society said. "The presence of ICE officers in our courthouses and the perception that no immigrant is safe to seek their day in court, is threatening to upend our entire legal process and the principles upon which it stands."
The legal services nonprofit shared videos from outside the courthouse on Thursday:
Casey Dalporto, a Legal Aid Society staff attorney, told the New York Law Journal that undocumented clients are "terrified to come to court," and public defenders--who held a similar protest outside a Brooklyn courthouse in November--are "just fed up" with the ICE arrests.
"It sends a chilling message to the entire immigrant community in the Bronx, and for the client it obviously strips them of all of their due process rights," Dalporto said. "We want to send a clear message to ICE that we want them out of our place of work."
The client detained by federal agents in the Bronx is 27-year-old Aboubacar Dembele, who came to the United States from the Ivory Coast at age 3. Zaquera Laniere, his wife and a U.S. citizen, told WNYC that they were surrounded by federal immigration agents the moment they left the courthouse.
"It was like eight of them stepped in front of us. It's like an ambush," Laniere said. "You finish one case. You're walking out freely. But as soon as you step outside you're going right back into handcuffs."
She added that agents mentioned his recently denied application for Deferred Action for Childhood (DACA), a program that is under attack from the Trump administration because it provides protection from deportation to undocumented people who entered the country as children.
Laniere said the agents told her husband: "We got to take you in. Your DACA got denied."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.