California Chief Justice Steps Up Monitoring of Immigration Arrests at Courthouses

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California Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero said she is taking a more proactive stance to preserve access to the judicial system as the Trump administration continues to make arrests in courthouses.

At a press conference on Thursday, Guerrero — the high court’s first Latina chief — expressed concern over the “chilling effects” of federal immigration enforcement in California courthouses and said the Judicial Council has been closely monitoring the situation.

“The type of immigration enforcement action that we’ve seen instills fear in witnesses, litigants that creates problems for them being able to access the courts,” she said.

Immigration enforcement agencies in general did not make arrests in courthouses during the Biden administration, a policy meant to ensure that people would feel safe participating in the judicial system.

That changed when President Donald Trump took office. The Republican administration has allowed agents to arrest people in and around courthouses.

Guerrero’s office has documented immigration enforcement incidents in 17 courthouses, with the most activity reported by the Superior Court of Shasta County. The data tracking has been informal so far, she said, but the Judicial Council will consider a proposal to formalize it on April 24. That would require courts to regularly submit data to the Judicial Council on civil arrests in and around superior courthouses.

“The proposal will help ensure consistent and coordinated statewide collection and reporting of data to better assess broader implications for access to justice,” wrote the Trial Court Presiding Judges Advisory Committee and Court Executives Advisory Committee in their proposal.

Guerrero said the monitoring is passed onto the attorney general’s office and serves to “be better prepared to take any additional further actions.”

“The president is not going to listen to me if I try to tell him what to do, so what really is the point of that?” she said. “I’m less interested in making statements, trying to tell people what they’re doing wrong, and instead trying to find a way forward so that our courts are informed — that we are available.”

That means looking for ways for state courts to assert their authority, she said. She pointed to remote hearings, educating the branch about its legal authority, and connecting the public with resources so they can pursue additional remedies.

California Democratic senators this month introduced new efforts to bolster protections in courthouse. Sen. Susan Rubio, a Democrat from West Covina, introduced a bill that would allow remote courthouse appearances for the majority of civil or criminal state court hearings, trials or conferences until January 2029. Sen. Eloise Gómez Reyes, a Democrat from San Bernardino, introduced legislation to prevent federal immigration agents from making “unannounced and indiscriminate” arrests in courthouses.

Cayla Mihalovich is a California Local News fellow.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.