In the back and forth between California’s Chief Justice and the U.S. Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security about courthouse immigration arrests by federal agents, 12 district attorneys and city attorneys from around the state have weighed in on the Chief’s side, in a letter to those federal officials. So has former Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grodin, in letters to the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times.
Saying that “[n]o one should fear that their immigration status prevents them from seeking justice,” the prosecutors echoed the Chief Justice in writing that courthouse arrests “deter residents concerned about their immigration status from appearing in court — including as crime victims and witnesses — jeopardizing effective prosecution of criminals who may then re-offend.”
Justice Grodin says that the Chief Justice “deserves praise, not admonishment” for “seeking to protect the California justice system from the intimidating and chilling presence of federal immigration agents in and around local courthouses in order to arrest undocumented immigrants,” and he claims that the feds’ dismissive response to the Chief’s letter is “disrespectful of [her] office and position.”