The Courthouse Trap: How ICE Operations Impacted New York's Courts in 2018
In 2018, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) substantially expanded arrest and surveillance operations in New York’s courts, continuing a disturbing trend that began with the inauguration of President Donald Trump. ICE operations increased not only in absolute number but grew in brutality and geographic scope. Agents, disguised in plainclothes, used intrusive surveillance and violent force to execute arrests. They also reached into many new areas of the state, conducting arrests in several upstate counties that were previously untouched. And ICE agents pursued New Yorkers in a broader range of courts—conducting operations in civil and criminal courts and in courts designed to be rehabilitative instead of punitive. All of these changes underline ICE’s increasing reliance on the state’s court system as a place to trap and detain immigrant New Yorkers.
Immigrant Defense Project. (2019). The Courthouse Trap: How ICE Operations Impacted New York's Courts in 2018. Retrieved from https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/TheCourthouseTrap.pdf