Alameda County public defender Brendon Woods is speaking out in response to a recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid inside a courthouse in Oakland.
He says there needs to be protection for clients who are visiting courtrooms in the county.
“ICE raids at our courthouses must stop immediately,” Woods said in a news release issued on Monday. “People who follow a judge’s orders to attend court should not have to fear federal agents kidnapping them and dragging them away to detention centers. Our democracy cannot function if this continues.”
Woods’ statement comes in the wake of a Sept. 15 incident where a public defender client was reportedly taken from a Oakland courthouse by ICE and sent to a detention center. The detainee was on site at Wiley Manuel Courthouse for a routine pretrial hearing, according to the news release.
“After the judge called his case and gave him a new court date, the client exited the courtroom,” according to the news release. “His public defender remained inside the courtroom. Two agents in plain clothes, who said they were from ICE, accosted him in a courthouse hallway and then took him out of the building, where an unmarked vehicle was waiting. ICE eventually took him to a detention facility, where he remains.”
The ICE detention apparently has nothing to do with with the individual’s criminal case, according to the news release.
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No details about the pending criminal case, immigration status or possible reason behind the ICE arrest are being given by the public defender’s office. The only thing that the office is pointing out is that the detainee “does not appear to have any criminal convictions.”
“Everyone — our clients, victims, witnesses, staff, lawyers — deserves to participate without fear,” Wood says. “Our justice system loses legitimacy when people do not feel safe entering a courthouse.
“We cannot allow a racist, authoritarian regime to interfere with our local courts like this. It’s time to pick a side. Either you allow this to happen to members of our community or you take action to prevent it.”
Woods is calling on officials — including sheriff, district attorney and presiding judge — to work to make the courts a safe place for all attendees. Suggestions to do so include posting signage at courthouses requiring ICE agents to identify themselves upon entry and asking agencies to prohibit employees from sharing information about court appointments with ICE.
“No one should be punished for obeying a court’s request for a personal appearance,” said deputy public defender Raha Jorjani, who supervises the public defender’s immigration unit. “By appearing before the criminal court, our client was obeying the rules. This is about more than one arrest. It’s about whether we are building a system rooted in justice — or one rooted in fear.”