After a Boston judge and court officer were indicted for helping a man evade arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, prosecutors in Massachusetts filed a lawsuit to stop ICE from making courthouse arrests.
District attorneys from two Massachusetts counties have joined with nonprofit groups in a lawsuit against the federal government filed Monday.
“Entire communities now view the Massachusetts courts as places where they cannot go, for any reason, greatly impeding access to justice and undermining the administration of justice in these communities,” the lawsuit reads.
The complaint alleges that over the past couple of years the ability of prosecutors and public defenders to do their jobs has been hampered by an increasing presence of ICE in courthouses. The lawsuit claims prosecutors and defense attorneys depend on witnesses, who might be in the U.S. illegally, “to carry out investigations, prosecutions, and criminal defense.”
“Criminal defendants refuse to appear, defaulting rather than risk civil arrest, detention, and removal by ICE,” the lawsuit states.
Last week, Massachusetts Judge Shelley Joseph, 51, and former trial court officer Wesley MacGregor, 56, were indicted in Boston federal court on obstruction of justice charges for allegedly colluding to help a twice-deported illegal immigrant evade arrest. The two stand accused of helping the unnamed defendant sneak out the back of the courthouse through a rear sally-port exit in order to avoid being arrested by the ICE officer waiting in the lobby of the courthouse.
In response to the indictments, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey called the move a “radical and politically motivated attack on our state and the independence of our courts.”
“It is a bedrock principle of our constitutional system that federal prosecutors should not recklessly interfere with the operation of state courts and their administration of justice,” she said in a statement last week.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said that people who work in the justice system can’t just “pick and choose” the laws they want to follow.
“This case is about the rule of law,” Lelling said. “The allegations in today’s indictment involve obstruction by a sitting judge, that is intentional interference with the enforcement of federal law, and that is a crime.”
