A retired Colorado Supreme Court justice joined dozens of other former judges from across the nation to demand that federal immigration enforcement officers stop arresting immigrants at courthouses.
Former Chief Justice Michael Bender joined 67 other former judges from 23 states in the letter published Wednesday that said the courthouse arrests were making immigrants afraid to testify in criminal procedures and disrupting the judicial system.
“Together, we have presided over thousands of cases in trial and appellate courts,” according to the letter. “We know that judges simply cannot do their jobs — and our justice system cannot function effectively – if victims, defendants, witnesses and family members do not feel secure in accessing the courthouse.”
The letter specifically cites when Denver City Attorney Kristin Bronson dropped the prosecution of several domestic violence cases in 2017 because the victims, who were immigrants, refused to testify because they feared running into officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in court.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and more than a dozen high-ranking city officials sent a letter last year to the ICE office in Centennial criticizing immigration officers’ actions after they made arrests at the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse and near a high school. The next month ICE officers arrested another man at the courthouse.
ICE agents have arrested immigrants appearing in court to dispute a traffic ticket, those who are victims of a crime and parents in family court. The courthouse arrests dissuade immigrants from appearing in court, even if it’s for their own protection, according to the letter. The arrests have also caused courthouse fights and makes it difficult for court employees to work.
ICE officials rewrote policy concerning courthouse arrests in January, but the judges don’t believe it went far enough.
The new policy bars officers from arresting immigrants visiting the courthouse as family members or witnesses in many cases, but not all. The judges said such “fine-line distinctions” will not be enough to calm immigrants’ fears and called for a complete ban on arrests in courts, like the policy that forbids the agency from conducting law enforcement activities in churches, schools and hospitals.
“Following nearly two years of high-profile ICE courthouse activity, only unequivocal guarantees and protections will restore the public’s confidence that it can safely pursue justice in our nation’s courts,” the letter states.