Two disturbing videos filmed outside a Denver courthouse show ICE agents behaving more like state-sanctioned thugs than employees of a federal law enforcement agency—but then again, this is ICE—violently arresting one undocumented man and refusing to show an attorney the arrest warrant for another. State and local leaders, including Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, had already slammed ICE’s tactic of arresting immigrants at courthouses, saying that the practice tramples on public trust of the justice system, will lead to less immigrants pursuing legal recourse against aggressors, and ultimately disrupts court activities. But as the videos show, public safety be damned, ICE has been continuing on with arrests anyway:
In the first series of videos, filmed in late April, an unidentified man is shown struggling with a group of ICE agents inside the front entrance to the courthouse. (According to Denverite.com, the undocumented immigrant had been at the Lindsey-Flanigan building to address charges stemming from a minor traffic infraction.) As he’s being arrested, the man can be seen crying out in pain and surprise while his girlfriend, who is filming the scene, protests to the officers.
According to Denverite, the man has reportedly been transferred to a detention facility in Texas.
Video of a second arrest which took place on May 5 shows Meyer Law Office client Antonio Garcia being handcuffed and lead into a waiting ICE vehicle. While the agents do identify themselves as working for ICE, and claim to have a warrant, they refuse to show their paperwork to Matthew Keller, identified by Denverite as Garcia’s attorney, who is filming the arrest.
According to ICE, the man in the first set of videos has two misdemeanor convictions, and the man in the second has two DUI convictions. Both men showed up to court as they should, so that the justice system can fulfill its role. The overall issue here, as the Meyer Law Office noted in their response to the videos, is that ICE agents are endangering communities by persisting with courthouse operations and “flagrantly disregarding the letter that Denver public officials sent last month asking ICE to stop conducting courthouse arrests”:
That letter, sent to ICE Acting Field Office Director Jeffrey Lynch on April 6, was signed by 18 city officials, including Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, District Attorney Beth McCann, and numerous members of the city council. In it, the signatories state that “the practice [of making courthouse immigration arrests] has and will increasingly lead to an environment of fear for victims and witnesses.”
“Already,” the letter continues, “we have victims of domestic violence refusing to come to court for fear of immigration consequences which results in violent criminals being released into the community.”
ICE’s actions could have widespread repercussions going far beyond the individuals they are targeting for arrest. It’s why in a Washington Post op-ed last month, California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye publicly called on Jeff Sessions and Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly “to treat courthouses as ‘sensitive’ areas—as they do schools, churches and hospitals. My request is that they respect the safety needs of the state court system and those who access it.”
“When we have ICE showing up and conducting courthouse arrests, brutalizing people on video in full public view, it drives everyone away from trusting local government,” said Hans Meyer, Meyer Law Office principal. “ICE’s actions in our city sow terror in our immigrant communities, and it’s incumbent on us as the city and county of Denver to do something about it. And that needs to happen now.”