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| December 7, Brooklyn Borough Hall protest. (Screen shot from NY1 video.) |
On November 14, as Ishmael García Velásquez showed up in
Brooklyn Criminal Court, as he had on seven previous occasions, for a hearing
on misdemeanor charges. When the hearing was once again adjourned, I.C.E.
agents grabbed García Velásquez, dragged him into a private elevator and with
the aid of court officers whisked him out of the building. His lawyer, Rebecca
Kavanagh, said her client had no record and no previous removal record and was
only there because was insisting on his innocence. The lawyer was able to tweet
a picture of the arrest to warn others, but two more were arrested in court the
same day (Village Voice, 16 November).
Two weeks later, on November 28, Genaro Rojas Hernández
was in court on charges of violating a restraining order. After Kavanagh was appointed
as his attorney by the court, a judge asked them to step into the hallway where
Rojas was pounced on and arrested by I.C.E. agents, who shoved his lawyer out
of the way. This time, incensed public defenders with the Legal Aid Society
stormed out of the courthouse and organized a picket line of up to 100
attorneys and supporters outside the building. Impromptu signs demanded “ICE
Out” and “ICE, Go Back to Where You Came From” (Village Voice and New York
Post, 28 November).
Fed up with the sinister actions of the I.C.E. cops who
are scaring immigrants away from the courts, the Legal Aid lawyers’ union
United Auto Workers Local 2325, called a protest on the steps of Brooklyn
Borough Hall on December 7. Scores of immigrant rights, legal and religious groups
and leftist and community activists joined the sizeable crowd of some 200
people.
Supporters of Class Struggle Education Workers,
Revolutionary Internationalist Youth and the Internationalist Group came with
signs calling for “Workers Action to Stop Deportations,” “I.C.E. Jails Out of
NYC” and “Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants.” Also present were
supporters of the Democratic Socialists of America and Refuse Fascism.
Luis Mancheno, from the Bronx Defenders told the crowd, “I.C.E.
agents lurk in the halls of justice to snatch immigrants away from their right
to have their day in court…. Mothers are afraid of fighting for the custody of
their children.” Amanda Jack from the Brooklyn Defenders denounced the I.C.E.
for “terrorizing the courts” (RT, 7 December). The Association of Legal Aid
Attorneys is calling on the Office of Court Administration and Chief Judge
Janet DiFiore to prohibit I.C.E. from entering the courthouses and to stop
coordination with the feds.
However, the courts no less than the immigration cops are
part and parcel of the apparatus of state repression that serves to enforce the
racist injustice that is and always has been a mainstay of American capitalism.
OCA officials defend the “right” of the I.C.E. agents to make arrests in the
courts, and accuse the Legal Aid attorneys of trying to obstruct “justice.” It
will take an independent mobilization of working people, immigrants, African
American, Asian and Latino activists and all defenders of democratic rights to
stop the I.C.E. marauders.
Rapid response networks and immigrant defense groups which
have been springing up at schools, hospitals and on the City University of New
York campuses are important. Class Struggle Education Workers and CUNY
Internationalist Clubs have undertaken such initiatives. What’s needed is to bring
out the power of labor, from such unions as the UFT, PSC and hospital workers
DC 37 and 1199 who work with immigrant students and their families to stop the
I.C.E. with mass action. The action by the dedicated attorneys of Legal Aid is
an important first step. ■
Class Struggle Education Workers (CSEW) is part of the fight for a revitalization and transformation of the labor movement into an instrument for the emancipation of the working class and the oppressed rather than, as it is at present, an instrument for the disciplining of labor in the interests of capital. See the CSEW program here.
Class Struggle Education Workers (CSEW) is part of the fight for a revitalization and transformation of the labor movement into an instrument for the emancipation of the working class and the oppressed rather than, as it is at present, an instrument for the disciplining of labor in the interests of capital. See the CSEW program here.