New York courts set rules for arrests on ice in state courthouses: NPR

The New York Court Administration Office released Wednesday new rules restricting the ability of federal immigration officials to arrest immigrants in state courthouses without a warrant.

The rules constitute the latest development of the ongoing controversy over the presence of immigration and customs enforcement officers in state courthouses and local courts to stop immigrants who appear in unrelated cases.

The directive requires ICE agents to present a warrant or order from a federal court to a judge or a New York lawyer prior to arrest.

"This rule change is a big win for thousands of immigrants and their families in the state of New York who will no longer be ducks sitting in the courtroom," said Terry. Lawson, director of the Bronx Legal Services Family and Immigration Unit, Bronx of Legal Services NYC in a statement. "We can now inform the women, men, and children we represent that ICE can not arrest them in New York State courts without a warrant, signed by a judge, with their names."

ICE agents often rely on administrative warrants issued by the agency rather than court-ordered warrants.

Under the Trump administration, the number of ICE immigrants arrests in New York 's courthouses has risen sharply. In 2016, there were 11 arrests. Last year, there were 178 arrests, according to a report from the Immigrant Defense Project. The majority of the arrest reports came from New York.

According to the report, the functioning of ICE courts will deter non-citizens from reporting crimes, including domestic violence and human trafficking, and seek civil remedies, such as in disputes between tenants and landlords.

"Judges can not do their job unless people come to court," Chief Justice Lawrence Marks was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by e-mail.

At the end of last year, dozens of former federal and federal judges asked ICE to consider courthouses as "sensitive places" that are generally prohibited to immigration officers.

In January, ICE published a memo stating that "the agent and the agents will carry out coercive actions in a discreet manner in order to minimize their impact on the judicial proceedings". But, he adds, "arrests in the courts are often made necessary by the refusal of the courts to cooperate with ICE for the transfer of custody of foreigners from their prisons and prisons".