While several U.S. communities have seen Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers waiting to detain defendants outside court hearings, Lake County hasn’t experienced that yet.
A spokesperson for the U.S. department said in a statement that ICE officers are permitted to conduct “civil immigration enforcement in or near courthouses” with credible information.
“The memorandum gives further procedures and responsibilities for ICE officers to conduct civil immigration enforcement actions against targeted aliens discreetly to minimize their impact on court proceedings, avoid unnecessarily alarming the public or disrupting court operations, and avoid enforcement actions in or near courthouses, or areas within courthouses that are wholly dedicated to non-criminal proceedings,” the statement said.
To remove an undocumented immigrant, a judge has to sign off on an order of removal, said Vanessa Cruz Nichols, an assistant professor of political science at Indiana University.
Under President Trump, Cruz Nichols said a new ICE tactic has been to wait outside immigration court hearings to deport people who, in most cases, had their cases dropped — meaning they could remain in the country.
The Indiana Capital Chronicle reported May 30 that federal officials are considering Camp Atterbury in south central Indiana as a temporary holding site for immigrant detainees. No official announcement has yet been made. President Donald Trump has vowed to deport millions of people, staging the “largest deportation operation in American history.”
Stars and Stripes — a news source from the U.S. military — reported Thursday that the National Guard is prepared to provide more than 20,000 troops to “crack down on immigration.”
Army officials say they don’t yet know the role that National Guard members will play, Stars and Stripes reported, but “troop involvement would be legal and in line with training.”
As of Monday, no one in Lake County had been taken by ICE when going to court, Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez said in a statement. Martinez does not know how many people have been detained by ICE or at risk of detention.
“As the elected Lake County Sheriff, I took an oath to enforce the law and I’m committed to collaborating with our federal partners to do so,” Martinez said in a statement. “Those who break the law in Lake County, regardless of immigration status, will be brought to justice. I take the safety of all of our citizens seriously and will continue to work tirelessly to ensure their well-being.”
The goal of waiting outside the hearings, Cruz Nichols said, is to follow Trump’s directive to remove people who have been in the U.S. for about two years with temporary status and told to follow up for routine appointments in immigration court.
“The Trump 2.0 administration doesn’t see any of those cases really being legitimate,” Cruz Nichols said. “These new plans adopted under the Trump administration are quite different and quite a big deviation from what he had in his first administration and what we’ve seen previous presidents do.”
With ICE waiting to arrest and deport people outside of immigration hearings, Cruz Nichols said it will break down trust of authority figures in immigrant communities.
“It makes these routine court hearings very high risk. People will end up avoiding these appointments and hearings as a result if they feel like they are being staked out by ICE agents,” Cruz Nichols said. “People should be able to attend important court cases, advocating for their rights, their due process, without fear of being arrested, detained or deported outside of the court.”
Typically, if police discover that someone they arrested is an undocumented immigrant, then local sheriff officials notify ICE, Cruz Nichols said. Depending on the local county resources and its jail capacity, as well as the crime committed, an undocumented immigrant could be held for weeks or a few days before being released if an ICE agent didn’t come, she said.
Each day, the sheriff’s department provides a list of non-citizen inmates to ICE, who then notifies the department of which inmates they request to be held on a detainer, Martinez said. Then the department receives the detainer, serves it and places a hold in the system.
ICE has 48 hours to take the person into custody or the sheriff’s department will release them after they become eligible for release.
ICE agents could obtain a judicial warrant, which is signed by a judge, listing the person’s name and address, to detain and deport someone, Cruz Nichols said. A judicial warrant allows the ICE agents to enter the address listed on the warrant, which could be the person’s home or workplace.
ICE agents could also obtain an administrative warrant, Cruz Nichols said, but that’s more vague and only lists a person’s name but no specific address to pick them up and it isn’t signed by a judge.
“Those administrative warrants are not sufficient for an ICE agent to use that at like a church or at a public space claiming they can enter those spaces. They can’t do that with an administrative warrant. They could do that if they have a judicial warrant,” Cruz Nichols said.
Many activist organizations have been working with undocumented immigrants to let them know that if ICE doesn’t have a judicial warrant, they don’t have to open the door if agents come knocking, Cruz Nichols said.
An administrative warrant is easier to obtain, Cruz Nichols said, and it’s an intimidation tactic because many undocumented immigrants just see an official piece of paper but don’t know it’s not signed by a judge.
“It’s an easier thing to request from the agency than a specific, targeted, more onerous judicial warrant that provides the address information, provides the signature by the judge,” Cruz Nichols said.