Let's Get Real: What Can We Do About ICE?

I was block-walking this past Saturday and had a conversation with a woman who asked me: “What can we do about ICE?”  She was not the first person to ask me this question.  Now, as someone who is running for judge of a misdemeanor criminal court, a court that normally deals with cases such as Driving While Intoxicated, Assault, Theft, and the like, this isn’t a question that I ever expected to be asked, certainly not on multiple occasions.  

But, then again, when I filed to run for office, I never expected to spend a Friday evening at a candlelight vigil for a mother of three and poet who was shot in the face by federal immigration enforcement officers.  I never expected, a few weeks later, to receive a telephone call from a colleague asking me if I would make myself available to represent people who might be arrested at a local anti-ICE protest.  I never expected one of my clients, who has DACA status, to call me because he was afraid to attend his court date at the Hays County Government Center, afraid because he feared he might be detained by ICE while trying to go to and from court.

What can a county court-at-law judge do about ICE?  Directly, not much.  A county court-at-law judge presides over state criminal misdemeanor cases.  ICE cases themselves go through the federal immigration system.  Unless someone who comes into contact with ICE, or an ICE agent himself,  is charged with a state crime, they will never be in front of a Texas county court-at-law.

Can a county court-at-law judge prevent ICE agents from coming into his courtroom?  Perhaps.  The law is not clear.  Normally, the public has a constitutional right to be in a Texas courtroom while a criminal case is going on, which would include ICE agents.  Levine v. U.S., 362 U.S. 610.  However, the public’s right to access a criminal hearing is not absolute.  See Hernandez v. State, 914 S.W.2d 219 (Tex.App. – El Paso, 1996).  Reasonable limitations on public attendance in court may be imposed where they are necessary to protect an important state interest that outweighs the right to a public trial.  If a judge deems that the presence of ICE agents in their courtroom is likely to be disruptive to conducting the court’s business, then you can make an argument that ICE agents can be barred.  However, this has never been litigated in Texas, and, hopefully, will never have to be.  

Even though a county court-at-law is not likely to come into direct contact with ICE, a county court-at-law can have a huge impact on someone’s immigration status.  Even convictions and probations in misdemeanor cases can have major immigration consequences for someone, including deportation.  Because Hays County is so close to the Mexican border, and because Hays County is located in the midst of the tech industry, as well as two major universities, a great number of our neighbors are immigrants, both legal and otherwise.  This is why I have advocated for giving more information to defendants with potential immigration problems about the possible consequences of their cases.  It’s why I have also pledged to use the resources of the court to provide continuing education to lawyers practicing before Hays County Court-at-Law No. 2 regarding the immigration consequences of criminal cases.  

The current ICE campaign, though, is ultimately not just about immigration.  It’s also a campaign of intimidation and terror.  It’s a campaign designed to make people afraid – afraid to vote, afraid to protest, or like my client, afraid to assert their rights in a court of law.  While courts certainly have an impact on immigration issues, a campaign like the one being carried out by ICE won’t be stopped by the courts.  It will be stopped by ordinary citizens stepping up and refusing to be intimidated and refusing to let their neighbors be harassed.  

What can we do about ICE?  We can vote.  We can let our elected officials know how we feel. We can support the ACLU, MALDEF and the NAACP legal defense fund.  We can get directly involved by supporting and volunteering for local organizations such as Mano Amiga and Step Up San Marcos, who are organizing protests against ICE raids in Hays County.  

What we can’t do is wait for someone else to stand up for us.  Our campaign’s slogan is “Let’s Get Real.”  Well, guys, things have gotten awfully real.  It’s time for all of us to get real and stand up.