The Byron Rogers Federal Building at 1961 Stout Street in downtown Denver houses numerous federal agencies including the immigration court. Every day, non-citizens, their family members, and their lawyers are ordered to come to court to attend their removal hearings. If they fail to show up, or even if they show up late, they can be ordered removed from the country in their absence.
When they come to the federal building, these individuals
have to go through airport-like screening, remove metal objects and shoes, and
go through a scanner before entering the immigration court. The legitimate purpose of this screening is
to protect the public and the federal building from those who mean to do us harm.
On Wednesday, April 16, 2014, however, these traditional
security measures kicked into hypermode.
About a dozen large, uniformed, and well-armed men descended upon the Byron Rogers
Federal Building. Their mission?---Operation Shield. If this sounds like something out of a Marvel
Comic Book, think again. These men were
not superheroes. They were Federal
Protective Services officers.
Operation Shield is an operation of the Department of Homeland Security designed to
protect federal buildings against acts of terrorism. Yet, these men were not responding to an
actual threat of terrorism, nor even an implied act of terrorism. Instead, they were there to check for the
identification of every individual entering the federal building. If individuals could not or would not present
identification, these individuals had to subject themselves to criminal background
checks in order to enter the building.
I
know what you are thinking. Why is it
unreasonable to request the identification of individuals entering a federal
building? In the abstract, such a
request seems reasonable. However,
non-citizens in removal proceedings do not have the choice of whether or not
they can enter the federal building.
They are ordered to go to court and deported for failure to appear. Additionally, many (most) non-citizens do not
have government issued identification because the REAL ID act passed by
Congress in 2005 prevents states from issuing identification unless the
applicant can demonstrate lawful status.
Thus, if you are a non-citizen entering the federal building, you have
no choice but to submit to a criminal background check in order to even attend
your court ordered hearing.
Such
a requirement is simply not fair. As a
result, Jeff
Joseph, Senior Partner of Joseph Law Firm, P.C. filed
a lawsuit
on behalf of the Colorado
Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and its member
lawyers and clients challenging Operation Shield and the unlawful practice of
ordering people to appear in immigration court and yet denying them entry
unless they subject themselves to background checks. On April 22, 2014
the Denver Post published an article, Denver Immigration Lawyers Sue For Access to Federal Court
Building, regarding the federal lawsuit.
Still
not convinced? Consider this as
well. Immigration Courts, like many
other federal agencies and operations are open to the public. In a free country, why should we have to
present identification to access something that by law is open to the
public? The lead plaintiff in the case,
David Kolko, a prominent Denver immigration
lawyer was in Washington D.C. the week before this incident to lobby
for immigration reform. He visited the
offices of the entire Colorado
congressional delegation, the Supreme Court Building, and the Capitol. Not
once was he asked for ID. Not even one
time. Yet, despite the fact that he is an officer of the court who
regularly appears before the immigration court in Denver, he is mandated to produce ID or agree
to undergo a criminal background check?
Meanwhile,
non-citizens who have no ID, can only access the justice system by voluntarily
relinquishing their privacy to undergo an NCIC check to ascertain a criminal history. And how, exactly, does such a criminal
background check make us any safer from terrorism than we were 5 minutes
earlier before the check was done? There is simply no rational basis for
the ID requirement in the first place.
It inhibits the equal access to justice. No individual should be
denied access to justice or intimidated because he or she tries to access a
public court hearing.
On
April 22, 2014, 6 days after the lawsuit was filed, Jeff
Joseph, on behalf of the plaintiffs, settled
the Temporary Restraining Order when Federal Protective Services agreed to
immediately stop background checks and even ID requirements for anyone
accessing immigration court. The remainder
of the federal case is pending while a more reasonable means of addressing
security issues can be negotiated.
A “SHIELD”
is something that is supposed to protect us from danger, risk or an unpleasant
experience. But a shield is also
something that we can hide behind. Federal
Protective Services cannot and should not be able to hide behind Operation
Shield as an excuse to invade our privacy rights in a free country under the
guise of protecting us from terrorism. It
is simply not okay.
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