A volunteer court observer will not be prosecuted after being briefly detained and cited at the Denver Immigration Court in June.
The volunteer court observer, who hasn’t been publicly identified, was detained at the Byron Rogers Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse for “attempting to bear witness to the anti-immigrant tactics of the current administration,” according to a press release from the Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The person was detained while Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were arresting a man outside immigration court. The ACLU announced on Nov. 25 that the charges were dropped, but it has declined to name the person or say what charge or charges they faced.
The observer was with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a group that stations volunteer observers at immigration courts to support immigrants going to their court appointments. The AFSC has had observers at local courts since May 27.
On the day the observer was arrested, a small crowd had gathered at the courthouse off Stout Street in downtown Denver after ICE agents were spotted there. Court officials locked the doors to the building, barring observers and other members of the public from getting inside.
Bryan Tholtkamp, a Denver community member, said volunteers tried to walk into the courthouse and were immediately told by a security guard that the building was closed.
“We made it probably five steps in before he started getting in our face a little bit more and then telling us that the building is closed. We asked, ‘Isn't this a public building? Aren't we allowed to be here?’ (He) started getting more aggravated, more guards started coming up,” Tholtkomp told Denverite that day. “So at that point we left.”
The Colorado ACLU chapter claims the Denver Immigration Court regularly impedes public access to court proceedings. On July 3, ACLU of Colorado sent a letter to the court about its concerns.
The Denver Immigration Court and the Denver ICE Field Office did not immediately respond to Denverite’s requests for comment. The ACLU also didn’t immediately respond to a request for more information.
“Immigration courts across the country have become sites of lawlessness, fear, and physical violence,” said Emma Mclean-Riggs, ACLU of Colorado senior staff attorney, in the organization’s press release.
“Immigration agents are grabbing people attending their court hearings in hallways and bathrooms, taking them from their families. Court staff have harassed legal observers, lawfully present to observe public proceedings,” Mclean-Riggs said. “The public must continue to be able to, at the very least, bear witness to the government’s conduct.”
