Oregon Chief Justice Goes To War With ICE. ICE Fires Back.

On Thursday, an Oregon judge ruled that agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could not make arrests inside or in the close vicinity of Oregon’s state courthouses unless the agents got a warrant from a judge.

Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Martha Walters wrote in a news release, according to Oregon Live:

Adopting this rule protects the integrity of the state judicial process and will allow state courts to fully hold accountable people accused of a crime. Arrests in courthouses have interfered with judicial proceedings and removed criminal defendants before they have been sentenced or completed their sentences. We are adopting this rule to maintain the integrity of our courts and provide access to justice – not to advance or oppose any political or policy agenda.

The Astorian reported that Tanya Roman, a spokeswoman for ICE, fired back in a statement:

ICE ERO officers have been provided broad at-large arrest authority by Congress and may lawfully arrest removable aliens in courthouses, which is often necessitated by local policies that prevent law enforcement from cooperating with ICE efforts to arrange for safe and orderly transfer of custody in the setting of a state or county prison or jail and put political rhetoric before public safety.

It is ironic that elected officials want to see policies in place to keep ICE out of courthouses, while caring little for laws enacted by Congress to keep criminal aliens out of our country. Despite any attempts to prevent ICE officers from doing their jobs, ICE will continue to carry out its mission to uphold public safety and enforce immigration law, and consider carefully whether to refer those who obstruct our lawful enforcement efforts for criminal prosecution.

Katherine McDowell, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, claimed, “Legal observers have repeatedly witnessed ICE officers profile, stalk and violently arrest community members in Oregon courthouses. The courthouse rule stops these frightening practices and ensures that everyone can seek justice in our courts.”

As Daniel Horowitz noted in Conservative Review:

By definition, when ICE grabs illegal alien criminals at courthouses, there is no involvement of state officials. ICE is no longer asking state officials to get involved in immigration at all or even hold the alien for them. Yet Oregon’s liberal state officials want to prohibit the feds from doing one of the core federal jobs.

What will ultimately happen is that more recidivist criminals of foreign countries are going to remain in the communities where local law enforcement police on daily basis. So what began as an argument to preserve resources of local law enforcement will now end with local law enforcement needlessly having to deal with other countries’ criminals constantly reoffending along with American ones.

In July, ICE was forced to arrest Fabian Alberto Zamora-Rodriguez, an illegal alien charged with multiple child sex offenses, at a courthouse in Astoria, Oregon, because local police would not cooperate. The courthouse was the last line of defense between ensuring that other countries’ sex offenders are removed and having a dangerous child predator released back into the community.