Posted on 02/22/2017 5:53:59 PM PST by Republic Rocker
[Updated Wednesday, February 22, 2017 | 7:50 a.m.] In an unusual incident which has prompted concern among area lawyers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested a man federal officials said was a previously deported Mexican national with a prior felony conviction for drug trafficking at the Pasadena Courthouse on Tuesday.
According to Virginia Kice, Western Regional Communications Director/Spokesperson for ICE, Enforcement and Removal Operations officers arrested the unidentified man at the courthouse after earlier efforts to locate him at a residence or place of employment proved unsuccessful.
The man’s attorney, Los Angeles criminal lawyer Octavio Chaidez, said the immigration agents were clearly waiting for his client, whom Bar association rules prevent him from naming, to exit the courtroom after a morning hearing. According to Chaidez, the agents recognized the client on sight.
Chaidez said his client had been in court for a parole status hearing, which had seemed to be routine.
Chaidez said that in his 15 years of practicing law, he has never before seen or even heard of immigration agents waiting outside a court hearing to confront and arrest a subject.
“I’ve spoken to some of my colleagues and I haven’t had one that I’ve spoken to, say that this has ever occurred inside of a courthouse,” Chaidez said Tuesday evening. “Some of them have been practicing 30 years and just this morning when I spoke to them they said, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this.’”
According to Department of Homeland Security Executive Order No. 13768 entitled “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States,” which was coincidentally released Tuesday morning, “DHS will not exempt classes or categories of removal aliens from potential enforcement. All of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to enforcement proceedings, up to and including removal from the United States. The guidance makes clear, however, that ICE should prioritize several categories of removable aliens who have committed crimes, beginning with those convicted of a criminal offense.”
Kice told Pasadena Now that “determinations about where and how ICE enforcement personnel affect both administrative and criminal arrests are made on a case-by-case basis, taking into account all aspects of the situation, including the prospective target’s criminal history; safety considerations; and any sensitivities involving the arrest location.”
Chaidez said that he believes that if ICE is going stake out court hearings in order to locate and confront targeted individuals, that “people are going to stop attending court proceedings.”
Following the incident, Chaidez said he prepared a factual statement of the incident and sent it out to other local attorneys.
“If they have a client who comes to them and says, ‘Hey, this been occurring,’ then they are now informed and they can counsel their client appropriately,” he explained.
Chaidez noted that he also received phone calls from some of the lawyers who received his email, who told him of their concerns for their clients.
“Whether they be the accused, whether they be a witness, whether be a victim,” Chaidez said, they will “not go anywhere near a courthouse” if they think that ICE could waiting for them there.
Waiting for some local cops to try to stop ICE while performing their jobs.We’ll see some real fireworks then.
Staking out the courtrooms because that is where the CRIMINALS are. We don’t want ‘em. Follow the laws or go home and be a criminal in your own home. Get out. It is a privilege to live here. We obey the laws. YOU obey the laws. AND we know where to find you — the courthouse and the jails. It is absolutely ok to look where we know they are.
Bill Clinton had armed soldiers arresting kids
The winning never stops!
MORE WINNING!!
Target-rich environment?
What is the world coming to when a criminal has to worry about being arrested at the courthouse!
Whoa! A likely reduction in this lawyer's/lier's income. He needs to find a new ambulance to chase.
Okay. The courts won’t be jammed up with illegals then, will they? That will be a plus. ICE will just have to nab them somewhere else.
I would like a job with ICE.
Get use to it Illegals. You don’t belong here. Hey ICE you might go to Walmart. Every 3rd person there can’t speak English.
“In an unusual incident which has prompted concern among area lawyers”
This is so obvious. The lawyers are concerned because their client/fee just got deported.
Look on the bright side . . . at least he had a lawyer handy.
I hope the ambulance chasing gimmegration lawyer didn’t get paid in advance, either.
I would volunteer.
They’ll march, cry and scream and threaten to secede — the usual nonevent. We’ll ignore them.
.... HA .... Crafty people those ICE Agents!!!
Didn’t they break the law by being here?
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