Bill to prevent arrests on courthouse grounds advances; sets up state conflict with federal immigration law
Article publisher:
Complete Colorado
Article date:
14 February 2020
Article category:
Colorado News
Medium
Article Body:
A bill to prohibit “civil arrest” in or around courthouses passed state Senate review and is now headed to the House Judiciary Committee on February 25.
Senate Bill 20-083 by Sen. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver and Rep. Leslie Herod, D-Denver purports to immunize anyone “present at a courthouse or on its environs from civil arrest,” and gives judges the authority to issue a “writ of protection” that would, among other scenarios, prohibit Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests of illegal aliens....
ICE issued Directive Number 11072.1 to its employees on January 10, 2018 that sets policy “regarding civil immigration enforcement actions inside federal, state, and local courthouses.”
“Federal, state, and local law enforcement officials routinely engage in enforcement activity in courthouses throughout the country because many individuals appearing in courthouses for one matter are wanted for unrelated criminal or civil violations,” says the policy. “ICE’s enforcement activities in these same courthouses are wholly consistent with longstanding law enforcement practices, nationwide. And, courthouse arrests are often necessitated by the unwillingness of jurisdictions to cooperate with ICE in the transfer of custody of aliens from their prisons and jails.”...