Organizations jump to defend Protect Our Courts Act amid Trump admin challenge
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Public defenders and immigrant groups are calling for a federal court to dismiss a case from the Trump Administration over a law that protects migrants in state courthouses. AP file photo/Yuki Iwamura
By Ryan Schwach
A group of public defender organizations and immigration nonprofits are calling on a federal court to dismiss the Trump administration’s lawsuit challenging a New York State law that protects immigrants when they appear in court.
The organizations said in a brief filed in federal court on Monday that the state’s Protect Our Courts Act safeguards the rights of immigrants attending court hearings. They argued that eliminating it would only strengthen President Donald Trump's deportation efforts and further endanger local immigrant communities.
The Protect Our Courts Act protects immigrants from civil arrests in and around New York State courts and when traveling to and from state courthouses, absent a judicial warrant or court order.
The ongoing suit from Trump’s Department of Justice continues as Trump exerts federal authority in the nation’s capitol and threatens to expand it to cities like New York.
“Immigrants make up an important part of New York’s social fabric, and laws that ensure that they have full access to state services and functions advance public policy goals unrelated to immigration and benefit the entire state,” the brief, filed by the Legal Aid Society, Make the Road New York, Brooklyn Defender Services and a handful of other organizations said.
In June, the Trump administration announced its suit against POCA, as well as two Governor Andrew Cuomo-era executive orders which further prevent civil immigration arrests at other state facilities and deter government employees from sharing information with the federal government.
The federal lawsuit alleges that the laws create “intolerable obstacles,” to Trump’s heavy-handed federal immigration enforcement, which has recently targeted migrants attending mandatory and routine court hearings for arrest, including in New York.
Separately, the Trump DOJ has also targeted New York City over its sanctuary city laws on similar grounds. That lawsuit remains ongoing.
“Through these enactments, New York obstructs federal law enforcement and facilitates the evasion of federal law by dangerous criminals, notwithstanding federal agents’ statutory mandate to detain and remove illegal aliens,” the lawsuit reads.
While most of the enforcement has been carried out at federal courts like the one at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, deportation arrests have been made at state courts as well. The Trump administration appears to want to increase those arrests.
According to the data obtained by the Immigrant Defense Project through a Freedom of Information Law request, ICE officers have entered state courthouses more than 30 times this year, resulting in four arrests – all made with warrants.
During a budget hearing in February, Chief Administrative Judge Joseph Zayas said court brass had met with ICE officials to discuss their protocols and highlight the protections of the Protect Our Courts Act.
President Donald Trump and his administration have challenged New York’s Protect Our Courts Act, which prevents ICE agents from making arrests in state courts without a warrant. AP file photo/Alex Brandon
“I certainly appreciate that we have the Protect Our Courts Act, and that we were prescient enough to see the need for that,” Zayas at the time. “I understand that in some of the meetings that our folks have had with regional ICE officials, that they are aware of that act, as well.”
Zayas said that the protocols were communicated to judges and court employees.
“We’re prepared to do whatever it takes to make sure that the [Protect Our Courts Act] is followed,” he said.
During the hearing, Zayas said he was aware of attempts by ICE to enter courthouses, but to his knowledge, they had only done so with a judicial warrant, which is in line with state law.
“We haven’t had any indication that the ICE officers have done anything other than follow our procedure,” he said. “As soon as these folks come to our courthouse, they are directed to a designated judge who reviews the purported warrant or detainer to determine whether it is a judicial warrant.”
The Office of Court Administration declined to comment on the suit when it began in June.
The Legal Aid Society, along with the other organizations, are seeking to get the POCA suit – which is in the United States Northern District of New York – entirely dismissed.
“New York has a constitutional duty to ensure equal access to justice, and to benefits and services, for all New Yorkers — regardless of immigration status — and that principle was at the heart of both POCA and these executive orders,” said Meghna Philip, director of the special litigation unit at the Legal Aid Society. “The second Trump administration has openly targeted sanctuary jurisdictions. This lawsuit is another example of that political attack, and it should be dismissed.”
POCA came about in 2020 when the Trump administration increased arrests by ICE agents in state courts.
The bill’s text said that the trend had a “damaging impact on all New Yorkers, not just immigrant communities, as the operation of our judicial system and public safety are undermined.”
Monday’s brief said that the broader legal community supported POCA because “civil arrests in or near courthouses undermine the integrity of New York’s justice system.”
“These laws were enacted during the first Trump Administration in direct response to ICE’s predatory presence at New York state courthouses and other state facilities, which spread fear, and denied New Yorkers’ access to the courts, and to state programs, benefits, and services,” said Philip.
Immigration rights groups included in the brief said that protecting immigrants’ ability to access the courts is crucial to protecting their overall rights.
“In our state courts, the stakes are high – judges are determining whether to deprive community members of their liberty, separate them from their families, or strip them of their livelihoods,” said Executive Director of the Immigrant Defense Project Yasmine Farhang. “ICE’s tactic of snatching people in and around state courts was unjust and instilled fear in so many people. The Protect Our Courts Act changed the landscape for the better and we strongly join the call to urge this lawsuit be dismissed.”
Should the Trump administration win its suit, it would likely mean a further crackdown of immigrants within courthouses, which is already happening en masse in federal courthouses.
Last week, the NYCLU sued the Trump administration over its treatment of detained immigrants at 26 Federal Plaza, where ICE has held people in a makeshift detention center.
The lawsuit claims detainees are held often for days on end without access to showers, clean clothes or an attorney.
Late Tuesday, a federal judge granted the NYCLU a temporary restraining order in the case, preventing ICE from holding people in spaces with less than 50 square feet per person. The order would also require ICE to improve access to hygiene, provide sleeping mats, provide access to medical care, and ensure people detained can make free, unmonitored, and confidential calls to their lawyers within 24 hours of being detained, according to the NYCLU.
“Today’s order sends a clear message: ICE cannot hold people in abusive conditions and deny them their Constitutional rights to due process and legal representation,” said Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project. "We’ll continue to fight to ensure that peoples’ rights are upheld at 26 Federal Plaza and beyond.”
