Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker says Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents aren’t collaborating with local law enforcement and court officials.
“[ICE] is not cooperating with us,” he said. “I’ve had some tough conversations with some of the people in charge, and I believe they think they’re on a mandate and they’re not going to listen to anybody.”
Tucker spoke at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead recently about issues of legal and undocumented immigration, including immigrants not reporting crimes in fear of deportation and the interruption of due process.
ICE has picked up dozens of people in Essex County since January, with several sweeps in Lawrence in particular. The sweeps have thrown the justice system into disarray, he said.
“We are having tremendous difficulties trying to get these people back,” Tucker said. “It’s justice. If somebody has committed a crime, the victim also has rights as well. They also deserve to be in court as well as the defendant. And frankly, our system doesn’t work unless we have both sides of the equation that are available to go through the process.”
He added, “Judges are struggling as well. If you’re sitting as a judge and you’ve got a defendant that has not appeared, not of his own volition — but because he’s in ICE custody, they’re asking, ‘do we default this person?’ and it’s a real open question right now.”
Tucker also spent time explaining the legal distinctions between a criminal warrant and a civil detainer for an individual in the country without documentation. Federal officials armed with a civil detainer have no more rights than any other citizen.
“I think sometimes we feel that because there’s some type of federal badge, that somehow they’re this omnipotent authority that can do whatever they want- that’s not true,” he said. “It’s different if they had a criminal warrant, which they can obviously do much more with.”
An environment of fear within the immigrant community is also disrupting the regular functions of justice because ordinary people are being victimized and they’re afraid to come to the police, Tucker said.
“There’s been at least three cases that have been personally brought to my attention, where three women in separate cases that had been victims of domestic abuse, were afraid to come forward because they were undocumented,” he said.
“One of those cases turned into a homicide. We know already that domestic violence is in the shadows, and I worry very deeply about what goes on behind closed doors.”
Tucker’s office has the authority to sign a “U-visa” that allows victims or witnesses of qualifying crimes and their family members to live and work in the U.S. for up to four years while the case is handled. In the last 13 months, Tucker has approved 69 U-visas.
Despite such measures, Essex County courts have seen individuals taken into federal custody without getting their day in court.
A most egregious case involved a Lynn English High School junior who got into a very minor squabble with her brother. She was arrested for domestic assault of the most minor kind for pushing their youngest sibling, Tucker said.
“This young woman was fingerprinted, and that data goes on file and is sent out to the FBI in West Virginia where there’s a giant computer that ICE monitors every day. My office was in the process of diverting that young lady so she didn’t get arraigned and wouldn’t have a record, and [ICE] physically took her away from us. She spent five days in custody in Cumberland, Maine, away from her family,” he said.
“Everybody can have their thoughts about immigration, but this country is not any more safe because a Lynn English High School junior was taken into custody.”
Michael McHugh can be contacted at mmchugh@northofboston.com or at 781-799-5202