Sacramento lawmaker asks feds about courthouse closure, immigrant detentions
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Assemblymember Krell requested DOJ records on courthouse lockdown and ICE actions.
- ICE agents detained 12 individuals at Sacramento courthouse, prompting protests.
- Federal Protective Service restricted access; DOJ has 20 days to release documents.
Sacramento Assemblymember Maggy Krell is seeking more information about why public access to the John E. Moss Federal Building in downtown Sacramento was restricted Friday, and what Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were doing inside the courthouse.
In a letter invoking the Freedom of Information Act, Krell cited a Sacramento Bee story Friday detailing a lockdown of the federal building and the detention of people by immigration agents.
“As a California State Assemblymember representing Sacramento, I am deeply concerned by this breach of public access, transparency, and due process,” Krell wrote. “I request all records that explain how and why this occurred.”
The Saturday letter was addressed to an immigration review office within the U.S. Department of Justice.
Last week, The Bee and attorneys for immigrants witnessed authorities dressed in plain clothes detain 12 people inside and around the federal building. The situation mirrored others across the country where ICE agents have been documented arresting immigrants after their court hearings.
On Thursday, demonstrators assembled outside the immigration court to protest the detentions. The next day, a Bee reporter, as well as immigration lawyers and volunteer observers, were unable to enter the Capitol Mall facility. The court’s administrator told attorneys it was the decision of the Federal Protective Service, a law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The department did not respond to The Bee’s request for comment Friday.
Among other things, Krell asked for any communications between government officials and building staff about restricting access to the courthouse and the “deployment or presence of ICE agents within or around the courtroom.”
Under federal law, the Department of Justice has 20 business days to respond to a public records request.
Krell spoke during the “No Kings” rally Saturday at the state Capitol about her experience helping a mother and son who were separated during the first Trump administration’s deportation efforts but now live together in the U.S.
“I’m terrified that everything they’ve fought for over the last seven years, everything they’ve earned, can be taken from them in an instant by this administration, like he’s done to so many other families,” she said.
