ICE raids in our courts must stop now

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OPINION – Since January, ICE agents have arrested at least 22 people at California state courthouses in Fresno – with no regard for due process or dignity. These individuals were not fugitives. Some were awaiting trial and had not been convicted of any crime.

All of them were exercising their right to appear in court.

These raids sabotage the integrity of our courts and undermine our democracy. People miss hearings, delay trials, or plead to charges they would otherwise fight, just to avoid an encounter with ICE and deportation without due process. This shuts down access to courts for an entire class of people. Having access to a judicial system is an integral part of a working democracy. Thus, for many in our community a fundamental pillar of democracy has been removed.

California has tried to resist this intrusion. Our state’s laws and courts have repeatedly said that local law enforcement and courts must not cooperate with immigration enforcement. But ICE has proven willing to bypass those guardrails with brute force. Local law enforcement has turned a blind eye to ICE intrusions.

ICE agents in state courts are an affront to the rule of law. Beyond threatening safety and trust, these raids highlight a deeper moral failure in how our immigration system—and too often, our public discourse—treats people with past criminal convictions.

Even among those who condemn ICE’s presence in state courts, it’s become common to distinguish between “good” immigrants and “bad” ones. Immigrants with no criminal record are seen as deserving of protection, while those with prior convictions are cast aside – as though any contact with the criminal legal system forever forfeits a person’s humanity or right to remain.

Such a belief is to ignore how the war on drugs and the continuing scourge of mass incarceration has created a legal system that is deeply flawed. Communities of color, including immigrant communities, are disproportionately targeted, surveilled, arrested, and prosecuted for crimes that white people commit at similar or higher rates. From widespread stop-and-frisks to massive over policing, the U.S. legal system has created criminal records for generations of people of color, particularly in low-income communities.

To then turn around and say those records justify permanent banishment from the country only deepens the harm.

Consider this: many of the people being picked up by ICE throughout the state because of their contact with the criminal legal system are longtime residents with deep ties to their families and communities. Many of their convictions are years, even decades, old. And many of those convictions are not grounds for removal under federal immigration law. But ICE doesn’t care. Their tactics are aggressive, their targets broad, and their discretion virtually unchecked.

If we continue to draw a line between “innocent” immigrants and “criminal” ones, we cede ground to a system that was never just to begin with. We validate the idea that deportation is a fair consequence in the criminal legal system. We ignore the racial and economic disparities that drive that system. And we forget that redemption, rehabilitation, and belonging are core American values.

The answer is recognizing that every immigrant, every person in our society, deserves due process, dignity, and the opportunity to stay rooted in their community.

When we accept deportation as a natural extension of a criminal conviction, we are punishing entire communities, turning courtrooms into trapdoors, and undermining the very idea of justice.

Public defenders, immigrant rights organizations, and community members have been sounding the alarm for years: ICE’s presence in our courts is a threat to public safety and the very foundation of equal justice. It’s time we listen—and act—not only to stop these raids, but to challenge the false hierarchy of human worth they represent.

Kate Chatfield is the Executive Director of the California Public Defenders Association. Brendon Woods is the Public Defender of Alameda County.