Congress erupts over FBI arrest of Wisconsin judge

[wnylib]

55. I think that you might be misunderstanding the legal situation of this case.

First, state and municipal courts are not obligated to assist ICE. They are not part of the federal system.

Second, each jurisdiction in the country has its own laws regarding where ICE is permitted to pick up people for any immigration violations. Most of them forbid ICE from picking up immigrants inside a courtroom. The reason for that is that it can interfere with court actions in process, e.g. when the immigrant is testifying as a witness to a crime. Judges must be permitted to carry out their duties and the legal processes within their courts, without outside disruption and obstruction during a hearing or trial. So, it was ICE that was breaking the law, not the court justice.

Third, there are places within a courthouse building where ICE can pick up immigrants for detention -- OUTSIDE of the courtroom, e.g. in the hall, in another room of the courthouse, so long as they are not disrupting or obstructing the court's ability to carry out justice. So, for example, if an immigrant is waiting outside the courtroom to be called as the state's witness to a crime and ICE picks up him/her and removes them, the trial is jeopardized without the ability to get the witness' testimony. That puts the community at risk if it results in a criminal not being convicted.

Fourth, the justice in this case did NOT hide the immigrant from ICE. She showed him another door to exit from the courtroom into another room within the courthouse. The immigrant was picked up by ICE outside of the courtroom instead of inside of it, so there was no justification for arresting the justice.

The federal government is overriding the state and local court systems, thereby obstructing state and local laws. This is just practice to get Americans accustomed to people being picked up anywhere at any time for any reason -- without a hearing, representation, or notification of friends or relatives. The general public is being conditioned to think, "Oh, it's an illegal immigrant, so they don't have rights." But, in fact, according to the Constitution, they do have rights. They have the right to a hearing to have their case heard and the right to contact an attorney to represent them. There are groups of immigration attorneys, usually associate with churches, who will take pro bono cases to help immigrants navigate the legal system.

Once Americans get accustomed to the idea of "the other" being disappeared without notice or rights, the next move on this slippery slope is to target American citizens in the same way -- for political reasons, racial or ethnic reasons, or to silence members of the press.

""First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I did nothing.
Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did nothing...
...then they came for me, but there was no one left to help me."

Push back and keep on pushing. Don't let us slide down this slippery slope.