AILSA CHANG, HOST:
OK, turning now to immigration. ICE is increasingly arresting people at immigration court as they show up for routine check-ins. But federal agents are also now arresting immigrants at criminal courthouses across the U.S. Some legal experts are concerned that that creates a chilling effect, where people accused of crimes and victims are afraid to show up to court. NPR's Meg Anderson has more.
MEG ANDERSON, BYLINE: Two weeks ago, Samantha French was at the Maywood Courthouse in Cook County, Illinois, when she noticed a group of men in plain clothes.
SAMANTHA FRENCH: And they looked like they were looking for someone.
ANDERSON: French is an assistant public defender in the county.
FRENCH: I saw their attention pique when they saw someone walking toward them. And one of them very aggressively went toward this man and grabbed his wrist.
ANDERSON: She took out her phone and started recording.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Hey.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: That's a lawsuit.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: [inaudible].
FRENCH: The man whose wrist he grabbed onto looked terrified, like he had no idea who these folks were, why they were putting their hands on him and what was going on.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Are you his attorney?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: No.
ANDERSON: The man was in court for misdemeanor charges. French was standing nearby and kept trying to ask questions.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
FRENCH: Did they show you any documentation, any badges that they're officials, that they're allowed to put their hands on people and take them into custody?
ANDERSON: She says they never did. The officers arrested the man. His lawyer says he is now back in Mexico. NPR spoke to more than a dozen defense lawyers and prosecutors in multiple states where criminal court arrests have taken place. Some said they heard about these arrests nearly every day. Others - just a few times since Trump took office again. But they all said the fear of it happening has made people afraid to go to court.
JASON BLANK: Our criminal justice system is based on a premise of trust. Those types of situations don't do anything to support the baseline requirements for a working criminal justice system.
ANDERSON: Jason Blank is a criminal defense lawyer in Florida. He says immigrants convicted of serious crimes, like murder, have always faced the risk of being deported. Lower-level crimes didn't usually affect someone's immigration status. But now...
BLANK: It seems to me that it's a moving goalpost these days.
ANDERSON: One man he represents is a legal permanent resident, but...
BLANK: He has chosen not to be present in person at his hearings, which he otherwise would like to go to just to keep abreast of his case, because he is concerned, as a green card holder, that he could be disappeared.
ANDERSON: Other lawyers told NPR they worry their clients feel pressured to accept plea deals so they don't have to show up to court anymore. And it's not just defendants. Immigrant victims and witnesses are afraid to go to court, too, to testify against someone, for instance, or to get a protective order.
Lazaro Salazar is an immigration lawyer in Fresno County, California. He says he recently advised an undocumented woman who was the victim in a road rage incident.
LAZARO SALAZAR: The aggressor was yelling at her, claiming to call immigration.
ANDERSON: After the man was arrested, police told the woman she might have to testify in court.
SALAZAR: And she simply is deathly afraid of having to testify. She'd rather let the whole thing go and just let bygones be bygones because she wants nothing to do with the situation.
ANDERSON: That worries prosecutors, and judges, too.
JAMIE MOSSER: For my purposes, I want justice to happen.
ANDERSON: Jamie Mosser is the state's attorney in Kane County, Illinois. She says deporting someone charged with a crime can derail a case, and it can have consequences for victims, too.
MOSSER: If somebody commits a crime, I want to be able to prosecute that person in the way that we should. But I also like to see cases get resolved for victims. And if we have delayed justice, then that just negatively affects them.
ANDERSON: Officials with ICE did not respond to a request for comment. The Trump administration is fighting attempts to keep ICE agents away from court proceedings. This June, for instance, the Justice Department sued New York over a law there that restricts ICE from arresting people in or around the state's courthouses.
Meg Anderson, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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