Immigrants arrested by plain-clothes ICE agents outside Brooklyn courthouse
By
Mark Witkowski
25 September 2017
Plainclothes agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took four men into custody outside Brooklyn Criminal Court on September 13. Three of the four men had no prior criminal record despite accusations by ICE that they were gang affiliated. All four men are undocumented Mexican nationals. Sergio Perez, Juan Villa, Fredy Rosas and Eduardo Romero had been arrested on misdemeanor trespass charges. Only Romero had a prior record, a misdemeanor charge for which he did community service.
The men were appearing to answer charges of trespassing in late July after police responded to a noise complaint of a gathering taking place at a construction site in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood.
The District Attorney’s office was alerted that ICE officials had been spotted on the eighth floor of the courthouse and sent a criminal court supervisor to inform them that they needed to disclose if they were planning to make arrests. The DA’s office reported that ICE agents refused to identify themselves and one officer outright denied being an ICE agent.
The blatantly anti-democratic act of arresting immigrants who are attending court hearings for minor violations, such as traffic infractions, acts as a mechanism for justifying the crackdown on immigrants as failure to present for court is grounds for deportation. It also discourages immigrants from appearing as criminal witnesses.
In an attempt to limit public outrage, ICE spokeswoman Rachel Yong Yow, announced that the four men admitted to having been gang members or affiliates. Emphasis should be placed on the “or affiliates.” As part of the Secure Communities initiative enacted under George W. Bush and…