Surprise: NICE Still Arresting People In Illinois Near Courthouses Despite State Law

It’s almost like state laws do not apply to federal law enforcement operations like this

Immigration arrests near county courthouses still persist, despite state law

Lucia Vasquez-Gonzalez thought she was doing the right thing when she went to court in March.

Vasquez-Gonzalez migrated to the U.S. in search of a better life but did not have legal permission to live here. In January, she was charged with one count of misdemeanor domestic battery in a confrontation with her roommate, according to court records, but she appeared before a judge hoping to take care of the matter responsibly — despite the risk posed by continuing immigration activity around Cook County courthouses.

After leaving court, though, Vasquez-Gonzalez said she was stopped by immigration agents a couple of blocks from the building and pulled out of her car.

“I was in complete shock because I didn’t know what was happening,” Vasquez-Gonzalez told the Tribune in Spanish. “I was like, ‘Why are they arresting me if I didn’t do anything bad? … And then they said, ‘No, it is because you missed the first rule of immigration, which was don’t get into any problems.’

Yeah, you’re here illegally, you assaulted your roommate, and now you have to pay that piper. Wild how all the illegals want to come to the U.S., which Democrats tell us is a horrible country, eh? Why do they not go to other countries?

In December, Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law a ban on federal agents making certain arrests near courthouses and easing a path for individuals to sue if they think their rights were violated during civil immigration arrests.

The Court Access, Safety and Participation Act, which is being challenged by the Trump administration, followed an order issued by Cook County’s chief judge at the time, Tim Evans, similarly barring civil immigration enforcement around county courthouses.

Despite the measures, though, the presence of immigration agents around Cook County courthouses is stubbornly persistent, according to a Tribune review of a tracker maintained by the Cook County public defender’s office.

Since the beginning of the year, immigration agents have been in or around county courthouses at least 50 times through June 9 — a rate of more than twice per week.

“What they are doing is interfering with the operation of state courts,” said Jonathan Manes, senior counsel for the MacArthur Justice Center’s Illinois office. “They are making it very difficult for people to access justice here in Illinois.”

What Illinois is doing is refusing to hand over illegal aliens to federal law enforcement. And, there’s not an f’ing thing Illinois can do about NICE coming around and arresting illegals.