ICE action around Connecticut courts sparks concern

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DANBURY — The arrest of a Danbury man by U.S. immigration agents on his scheduled court date last week has led some observers to wonder whether courthouses have become target enforcement areas since President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

ICE arrested Julio Virgilio Paida-Morquencho, 22, a citizen of Ecuador, on Monday. The agency later said he was considered a fugitive after failing to leave the United States as ordered by a federal immigration judge in 2013.

It was the latest incident in what Susan Storey, the state’s chief public defender, sees as a disturbing pattern. She noted that similar incidents have occurred in Norwich, Middletown and New London, and that immigration agents interviewed more than 20 inmates on March 20 when they were brought to the Bridgeport Correctional Center.

“I am getting reports from different public defender offices around the state, since ICE seems more emboldened to detain clients who are known to be coming to court or in scheduled programs that have been court-ordered,” Storey said. “People are just disappearing and it’s very concerning.”

She said these people include those charged with less serious crimes, not just those charged with or convicted of serious felonies.

“I’m very concerned about children going home and not knowing where their parents are,” she said.

Targeting these defendants, even those who have committed violent crimes, can have unintended and detrimental consequences, said Mike Lawlor, Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s criminal justice advisor.

“It is not only criminals that come to court,” Lawlor said. “Victims come, witnesses come, and if they are afraid to come then it will make it impossible to convict criminals that victimize immigrants or anybody else where immigrants are the witnesses.

“Obviously ICE has a job to do and they get to do it,” he added. “On the other hand, we have a job to do, and that includes protecting public safety.”

An ICE official confirmed Friday that the agency uses state law enforcement records to locate “aliens for targeted enforcement in federal immigration matters.” However, the official said, the agency does not ask state or local judicial officers to report suspected immigration violations.

ICE spokesman Shawn Neudauer added that current ICE policy directs agency personnel to avoid conducting enforcement activities at “sensitive” locations unless they have prior approval from a supervisor or the circumstances are “exigent.” Sensitive locations include schools, hospitals and places of worship, but not courthouses, correctional facilities or probation offices.

“While ICE does arrest targets at courthouses, generally it’s only after investigating officers have exhausted other options,” Neudauer said.

He said many of those ICE take into custody at or near courthouses are foreign nationals who have prior criminal convictions in the United States.

“Absent a viable address for a residence or place of employment, a courthouse may afford the most likely opportunity to locate a target and take him or her into custody,” Neudauer said. “In such instances, where deportation officers seek to conduct an arrest at a courthouse, every effort is made to take the person into custody in a secure area, out of public view, but this is not always possible.”

According to court documents, Paida-Morquencho faced numerous charges from 2014, including fourth-degree sexual assault and illegal sexual contact with the victim. He had pleaded guilty to risk of injury to a child and was scheduled to appear in court on Monday for sentencing.

Storey has asked the state’s public defenders to contact her every time they become aware of ICE activity.

Karen Martucci, director of external affairs for the state Department of Correction, confirmed Friday about two dozen men at the Bridgeport Correctional Center were interviewed by ICE agents on March 20. Martucci said all the inmates signed consent forms before being interviewed, which is policy at the state-run institution.

She added that ICE has interviewed large groups of inmates during intake, as it did March 20, before Trump became president, but it was not a “consistent” practice, and that it has long been ICE practice to have agents visit the prison two or three times a week.

To help ensure that immigrants’ rights are not violated, Storey’s office created an internal task force, including public defenders, private immigration attorneys and representatives from Yale University, to draft a fact sheet for dissemination to the clients of the 43 public defenders’ offices.

The document was translated into several languages, including Spanish, Haitian Creole, French, Portuguese and Mandarin.

“I think there’s an attitude now ICE can act with impunity,” Storey said. “We’re scared and angry for our clients.”