ICE cannot be allowed to make arrests in Sacramento Immigration Court | Opinion

This week, I volunteered at the immigration court in Sacramento, providing legal assistance to non-citizens appearing for their hearings in court. The individuals and families present had fled persecution and were seeking asylum in the United States. Their anxiety is high as they are navigating a complicated legal system without an attorney and frequently still enduring the effects of past trauma in addition to the new challenges of surviving in the U.S.

This already high anxiety was heightened in the last several weeks as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been arresting people attending their routine court appearances in Sacramento.

These individuals were simply pursuing their claim for asylum and complying with the requirement to appear in court for their preliminary hearings. Their arrests have caused significant and unnecessary suffering to the individuals arrested and to family members who have witnessed their loved ones arrested by immigration officers and whisked away to an unknown detention facility outside of Sacramento.

Meanwhile, immigrants who have upcoming court hearings scheduled are now terrified to come to court.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement that the Biden Administration had illegally paroled these families into the U.S. and that they were simply correcting this error. This explanation is not only wrong on the law, it is cruel in practice. The federal immigration law specially allows for parole, which allows a non-citizen to enter the U.S. for a temporary period and for a specific purpose for urgent humanitarian reasons. These might include people who are fleeing persecution and seeking asylum.

Parole has been used by the federal government since the 1950s.

While in court, I spoke with a mother and father who were potential targets for arrest, not because of any criminal activity, but because they had been in the U.S. for less than two years. They had four young children at home and one child in the hospital. Given the possibility that they would be arrested and detained without being able to contact their children, I asked them for an emergency contact number in case one or both of them were detained. I could only imagine the fear that those parents must have felt.

In a twist that serves to keep us confused, nobody was arrested in court that afternoon. No immigration officers were waiting in the halls to make any arrests. We do not know why this occurred, as arrests have been happening in court almost every day. It could simply be that there was not enough space available in the government jails that day as detention numbers increase.

In addition to the added stress and fear for these families who legally entered the U.S. and are now facing arrest and detention, the ICE arrests have caused people not to show up for their court hearings. More than 25% of the people with hearings did not show up to court for the hearings I observed.

Immigrants who do not appear in court are routinely ordered removed in their absence. While we do not know for sure why they did not show up in court, this is an unusually high number. Asylum seekers nearly always come to court regardless to present their case. Fear of being arrested in court may have ultimately led to them not going to court and having an opportunity to present their case. Now, they will likely have an administrative warrant for their arrest, and they will be deported once they are found.

It is critical that ICE not be allowed to make arrests in Immigration Court. These arrests are an attack on fair hearings, which our justice is based on and which is enshrined in our constitution and laws.