Latest ICE Arrest In Brooklyn Courthouse Protested By NYC Lawyers

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Brooklyn defense attorneys protested after the latest immigration arrest at the borough's criminal court on Tuesday. Legal Aid Society lawyers staged a walk out after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Genaro Rojas-Hernandez inside, according to attorneys and court officials.

Plainclothes ICE officers arrested Rojas-Hernandez after he appeared before a judge in a misdemeanor domestic violence court, lawyers and a court official said. The NYPD had arrested Rojas-Hernandez, a Mexican immigrant, on Nov. 6.

Court records show he was charged with 10 crimes, including misdemeanor assault, but four had been dismissed. He was previously arrested in August but has no prior criminal convictions.

Protesters marched outside the courthouse Tuesday afternoon chanting "ICE-free NYC" and "Hell no, ICE must go." About 100 people, including attorneys from Brooklyn Defender Services, joined Legal Aid in a march to the Brooklyn district attorney's office.

Legal Aid attorneys said court officers helped ICE with the arrest, even shoving away Rojas-Hernandez's attorney, Rebecca Kavanagh, as she tried to brief her client on his rights. ICE arrested another client of Kavanagh's in court two weeks ago.

The judge told Kavanagh ICE agents were there to arrest Rojas-Hernandez and told her to speak with him privately outside the courtroom, she said in a series of tweets describing her account of the arrest.

Rojas-Hernandez "was encountered by" immigration officers outside the courtroom, ICE spokeswoman Rachael Yong Yow said. It was there that the officers "pounced" on Rojas-Hernandez before Kavanagh could advise him of his rights, Kavanagh said.

A court officer pushed her to keep her from following the ICE agents into a restricted area, she said.

"I was caught up in middle & kept saying I am trying to speak to my client, judge told me to speak to my client," Kavanagh said on Twitter.

Kavanagh went back in the courtroom and told the judge ICE had taken her client, she said. She got to talk with Rojas-Hernandez — with ICE agents and another lawyer present — after the judge told officers to hold him, she said.

"He told me they already asked him questions and did not tell him they were from ICE," Kavanagh tweeted. "He was terrified."

Yong Yow denied that, saying the ICE officers properly identified themselves to court staff and Rojas-Hernandez. They let Rojas-Hernandez finish his court hearing before arresting him, Yong Yow said. He is currently in ICE custody waiting to appear before an immigration judge.

Rojas-Hernandez was arrested on an ICE administrative warrant, which the agency issues for immigrants that could be deported. Judges do not sign such warrants.

Defense attorneys want court officers to stop helping with ICE arrests, which they say make defendants fearful to show up in court. ICE arrests in New York City's courthouses have skyrocketed this year under President Donald Trump.

"This court should be a safe place for them to exercise their due process rights to respond to the allegations against them," Adrienne Wells, a Legal Aid defense attorney who attended Tuesday's protest, said in a phone interview.

The Office of Court Administration, the state agency that oversees the courthouses, allows ICE agents to arrest immigrants inside courts so long as they tell court officers why they're there. Officers don't try to help or hinder ICE arrests, the agency says.

Defense attorneys are often kept in the dark about ICE arrests, lawyers say, as the OCA policy doesn't require anyone to tell attorneys when their clients are about to be arrested. The state's chief judge, Janet DiFiore, controls court policy.

Lucian Chalfen, an OCA spokesman, said ICE officers properly notified court officers when they came to court Tuesday. He blamed the Legal Aid attorneys for causing a scene by "purposely interfering in an arrest situation."

"When law enforcement is in the process of making an arrest – interfering endangers all involved," Chalfen said in an email.

Kavanagh said neither she nor her fellow lawyers interfered with the arrest. "I was trying to speak to my client, protect his legal rights & follow the judge's direction," she tweeted.

ICE only arrests people in courthouses when officers have "exhausted other options," Yong Yow said. It's easier to track down immigration fugitives at courthouses and safer to arrest them there because they're screened before entering, ICE says.

"The agency complies fully with all prevailing jurisdictional court policies and makes efforts to exhaust all other avenues before effecting a courthouse arrest," Yong Yow said in a statement.

Police arrested Rojas-Hernandez earlier this month after he allegedly assaulted a woman at a Midwood restaurant, violating a previous order of protection, according to a criminal complaint in his case.

Rojas-Hernandez is fighting the charges and refuses to take a plea deal, Kavanagh said on Twitter.

Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said ICE arresting Rojas-Hernandez in court "denied due process for both victim and defendant" in the case.

"Such actions deter victims from reporting abuse and threaten public safety," Gonzalez said in a statement. "I join our public defenders in calling on ICE to reconsider their misguided policy and stop conducting enforcement raids in courthouses."

Defense attorneys say Gonzalez should have prosecutors support defense lawyers when they ask judges to set bail for immigrant defendants. That would put them in local custody, preventing ICE from arresting them and ensuring they can show up for court dates without fear of arrest, Wells said.

(Lead image: Protesters march outside the Kings County Criminal Court building after an immigration arrest Monday. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Defender Services via Twitter)