Washington, Aug 26 (IANS) The US Justice Department has sued an Ohio municipal court over a new rule that bars federal authorities from arresting immigrants at or near its courthouse, escalating the Trump administration’s confrontation with local institutions seeking to restrict immigration enforcement.
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday against the Franklin County Municipal Court in Columbus, its administrative and presiding judge, and the court’s director of security.
The Justice Department is challenging Rule 2.10, which it says seeks to prevent federal officials from detaining immigrants at or around the courthouse.
The rule also threatens criminal and civil penalties for violations, according to the department’s statement.
The department described the measure as an unlawful attempt by a local court to regulate the activities of the federal government.
It also argued that the rule threatened the safety and effectiveness of federal law-enforcement operations.
Federal authorities maintain that making arrests at or near courthouses can reduce the danger to officers, the public and those being detained because visitors generally undergo security screening before entering the buildings.
Such arrests also reduce the risk that a person will flee, the department said.
“Today the Department sued yet another local entity that seeks to thwart the will of Congress by regulating when and where Federal law enforcement does its job, all in the name of protecting criminal aliens who violate our Nation’s laws,” Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr said.
“No more. This Department of Justice will not sit idly by while state and local government seek to undermine federal immigration enforcement,” he said.
The lawsuit contends that the rule conflicts with federal authority over immigration enforcement and interferes with the work of officers responsible for detaining and removing immigrants.
“This type of rule obstructs federal law enforcement and facilitates evasion of federal law by dangerous criminal aliens, despite Congress’s direction that federal agents detain and remove them,” Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said.
Shumate said federal agents had routinely conducted arrests safely at courthouses across the country, including at the Franklin County Municipal Court.
“The Department of Justice is committed to protecting that important federal prerogative,” he said.
The Justice Department did not identify individual immigrants whose arrests had allegedly been prevented by the rule. Its statement also did not provide a response from the municipal court or the officials named in the lawsuit.
Attorney General Todd Blanche has directed the Civil Division to identify state and local laws, policies and practices that the administration believes facilitate violations of federal law or obstruct lawful federal operations.
The Ohio complaint is the latest in a series of lawsuits brought by the department against local or state policies that it says interfere with immigration enforcement.
Similar legal actions have targeted policies in New York, Virginia, Connecticut, New Jersey and California, as well as Milwaukee and Philadelphia, according to the department.
--IANS
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