ICE Arrests At Queens Courthouse Prompt Protests, Lawyers Say

KEW GARDENS, QUEENS -- Immigration officers cuffed two men outside Queens Criminal Courthouse on Tuesday, sending Legal Aid lawyers marching from the building in protest.

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents arrested the two Queens immigrants early that afternoon after one was denied bail for a misdemeanor assault charge and the other pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, said Ioana Calin, a lawyer for the Legal Aid Society, who represented both.

Calin declined to give her clients' names for fear of retaliation against them, but told Patch neither had a criminal record prior to their charges. The two were still making their cases in court when ICE agents appeared outside to arrest them, she said.

Agents' presence alone prompted Legal Aid lawyers to walk out of the building at noon, where they joined activists to line the streets in protest shortly before the men were arrested. They contend the court should be a safe place for people to defend themselves without fear of deportation.

"The whole point of a courthouse - and people coming to court - is justice and due process for all, whether you're a citizen or not," Calin said. "They're preventing the criminal just system from playing out."

The walkout comes after a series of similar protests prompted by ICE arrests at courthouses in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Rayon Smith, a 31-year-old Mexican immigrant living in the Bronx, nearly lost his job on Monday after ICE officers arrested him on charges of being in the U.S. illegally, his lawyer said.

The Legal Aid Society organizes the walkouts as a message to the New York Office of Court Administration to stop allowing ICE agents into its courthouses, Calin said.

"The walkout is our message to the OCA that courthouses should be protected," she said. "We want OCA to close its doors to ICE."

An OCA spokeswoman could not confirm the arrests and ICE spokeswoman did not immediately return requests for comment.

Lead photo courtesy of The Legal Aid Society.