Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero today issued this statement:
I am deeply concerned about reports of multiple federal immigration enforcement actions at California courthouses and their potential chilling effect — as I would be regarding any barrier to access to the courts. As we continue to gather information about recent events at courthouses across the state, I use this opportunity to reiterate that California’s courts are, and must continue to be, open and accessible to all. Making courthouses a focus of immigration enforcement hinders, rather than helps, the administration of justice by deterring witnesses and victims from coming forward and discouraging individuals from asserting their rights. We will continue to monitor this situation and work to ensure that courts are able to fulfill their essential role in the lives of all Californians.
A month ago, the Chief Justice did not respond specifically to a Los Angeles Times report of arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents of people leaving a Los Angeles courthouse. At the time, a California Courts spokesperson said there was “nothing new to add to what the Chief stated in her [State of the Judiciary Address (see here)].”
During a meeting with the media two months before her speech, the Chief Justice said “we would take action” if there are “any attempts . . . to prevent people from accessing the court,” including attempts by federal immigration agents, and she stated her intent to thwart actions that would “disrupt” the public’s right to physically attend judicial proceedings. She added, “I am responsible for the administration of the courts and insuring that the public has the ability — whether you’re a witness, a victim, [or] one of the parties — to be able to freely go into court.”
Guerrero’s predecessor as Chief Justice, Tani Cantil-Sakauye, took a more aggressive stance during the first Trump administration. Among many other public statements, Cantil-Sakauye wrote to the U.S. Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security accusing immigration agents of “stalking undocumented immigrants in our courthouses to make arrests” and asserting that the courts “should not be used as bait.” Courthouse immigration arrests “not only compromise our core value of fairness,” the letter stated, “but they undermine the judiciary’s ability to provide equal access to justice.” (See also here, here, here, here, and here.)
Related:
“Trump administration lifts courthouse raid ban, testing California’s sanctuary law”
