State senator challenges Ohio court rule barring ICE arrests

By Nick Evans
Ohio Capital Journal

In March, Franklin County, Ohio judges passed a pair of local rules barring immigration arrests at the county courthouse. A new measure in the state Senate aims to invalidate such restrictions statewide.

After President Trump took office, his administration quickly issued guidance giving Immigration and Customs Enforcement the greenlight to make arrests in or near courthouses.

In the months since, there have been several highly publicized arrests at courthouses around the country. In one instance FBI agents even arrested a Wisconsin judge, alleging she obstructed an immigration arrest. Judge Hannah Dugan has filed a motion in federal court to have her charges dismissed.

Franklin County’s rules prohibit any civil arrest without a judicial warrant in the courthouse itself or on the sidewalk and entryways. ICE agents typically use an administrative warrant signed by an agency official rather than a judge.

The rules also prohibit the execution of a judicial warrant in a courtroom unless the judge agrees to allow it in writing, and restricts court staff from requesting or sharing information about a person’s immigration status.

In a press release, the court emphasized its responsibility to ensure due process for the public at large.

“That mission is jeopardized when victims, witnesses, and defendants are afraid to come to the courthouse to testify and participate in ongoing cases, fearing civil arrest and deportation from courthouse grounds,” the release stated.

People deciding not to show up, the court argued, undermines the fairness of trials “for citizens and non-citizens alike.”

State Sen. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson, believes the court overstepped its authority. Her proposal “specifies that persons who are unlawfully present in the United States are not privileged from arrest.”

State law already bars civil, but not criminal, arrest in several circumstances. You can’t get arrested going to the polls on Election Day, on the Fourth of July, on Sundays generally, or at a place of worship on the traditional day of worship.

The same privileges apply to court. The parties to a case, witnesses, jurors, and court officials, can’t be arrested for civil violations at, or on the way to and from court — a point cited in the local rules. But Roegner’s proposal would remove those privileges for undocumented individuals, and she said it was “drafted in response” to Franklin County’s changes.

“Senate Bill 172 would provide much needed support for federal immigration authorities,” she argued, “by requiring state and local public offices and public officials to allow the arrest or detention of any person who is suspected of being in the United States illegally for that person’s removal or for other immigration related purposes.”

The proposal also prohibits any public office in Ohio from enforcing rules that bar cooperation with immigration authorities.

State Sen. Terry Johnson, R-McDermott, quipped that it’s “amazing thing that we would even have to do this.”  But the scope of Roegner’s proposal gave others pause, particularly in the context of the Trump administration’s recent track record with immigration enforcement.

Up until the first Trump administration, immigration authorities generally avoided places like courts, schools, hospitals and churches. But in 2018, an ICE directive laid out a policy that increased courthouse arrests substantially.

Trump campaigned for his second term promising mass deportations, and his administration has tried to fast-track those removals at the expense of due process. Last week a federal judge in Boston ruled a deportation flight to South Sudan violated his previous court order.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the administration could not deport a group of more than 170 Venezuelans with just 24 hours’ notice. In its ruling, the court pointed to a different, highly publicized case in which Kilmar Abrego Garcia was accidentally deported to El Salvador.

“Had the detainees been removed from the United States to the custody of a foreign sovereign,” the majority wrote, “the government may have argued, as it has previously argued, that no U.S. court had jurisdiction to order relief.”

State Sen. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, said he understood Roegner’s concern about illegal immigrants who have committed crimes. But he expressed doubts about giving free rein to officers seeking someone only suspected of being in the U.S. unlawfully.

“With some of the stories that have come out about immigrants who have been wrongfully detained or even wrongfully renditioned out of the country, I was just curious what your thoughts are on protections for legal residents — legal immigrants — who may feel concerned that they could be wrongfully targeted in this?” he asked.

Roegner said the U.S. is a country of immigrants and pointed to her own mother immigrating to the country from Finland. But she insisted “we’re also a country of laws,” and if someone is here legally “they would really have nothing to fear.”

“So yeah, will mistakes happen? Probably, yes, they happen all the time,” Roegner said. “But they can be cleared. They can say, ‘yep, no, I’m a legal immigrant, and here’s my paperwork,’ and they can prove that they’re here rightfully.”