Immigration advocates are upset after they say ICE agents were profiling people at the Milford courthouse on Thursday.
The Milford Superior Courthouse continues to be a controversial place for ICE enforcement activity.
Immigration advocates are again pushing for that to change after another incident there Thursday.
NBC Connecticut was shown cell phone video of an interaction between a New Haven woman and what appeared to be ICE agents inside the court house Thursday morning.
In the video, you can see two men questioning the woman, Anna Lucero. One starts putting her in cuffs, he stops when she eventually shows the men her ID.
Lucero said she was at court with other advocates to accompany an immigrant friend who had not yet shown up for court.
She and other activists at court said the men were racial profiling.
“Listen, I know you are doing your job, but listen this is not the place to do your job. In this place people are trying to prove their innocence and if you try to stop the process that’s not going to help anybody. It’s not going to help the judicial process,” said John Lugo with Unidad Latina en Accion.
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In a statement, a spokesperson for ICE confirms while ICE “did engage in enforcement activities in the vicinity of the Milford, CT courthouse today, as a practice they do not publicly discuss details of specific law enforcement activities.”
ICE agents are allowed in courthouses, but immigration advocates we’ve spoken to locally like Lucero are pushing for a policy that would stop this.
Protests have been held at the Milford courthouse after a New Haven high schooler was detained while going to court in September.
He’s still in custody, as a judge in Boston decides if he will be deported.
This conflict between ICE and immigration advocates puts judicial marshals in a tricky situation.
NBC Connecticut spoke with Connecticut Judicial Branch officials who said they are complying with the Trust Act and working to keep all patrons safe.
But because of safety concerns between protestors and ICE, on November 1 Connecticut’s chief justice wrote to Attorney General Barr asking for courthouses to be a “sensitive location,” like a hospital where ICE enforcement cannot take place.
