Courthouse Immigration Arrest Leads to Courthouse Protest

"The debate over whether New York's courthouses should limit cooperation with federal immigration agents escalated Tuesday, when dozens of public defenders walked outside of Brooklyn criminal court to protest an immigrant's arrest inside the building.

Genaro Rojas-Hernandez was charged earlier this month with punching a woman in violation of a court order. He was waiting in the eighth floor hallway of the Brooklyn courthouse for a hearing on Tuesday when he was apprehended by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Legal Aid lawyer Jane Sampeur said she witnessed the incident. The defendant was represented by another Legal Aid attorney.

"I saw his attorney continuously saying 'I want to speak to my client, I want to speak to my client, the judge told me I can speak to my client,'" Sampeur described. "And then he was brought back into a restricted area behind the court..."

Continue reading