Fernando Arteaga appeared last week in Immigration Court as part of a lengthy battle to stay in the United States. But just before the hearing began, immigration officers removed him from the courtroom, arrested him and took him into custody.
Several hours later, agents deported him to Mexico -- even though his court case was still underway.
Arteaga, 44, is among a small number of immigrants picked up in recent weeks by immigration agents at the downtown Los Angeles courthouse. All of the people arrested there had been previously deported and all had criminal records, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice.
Immigration agents are reinstating previous orders of deportation, Kice said, which "enables the nation's immigration judges to focus on the cases of those aliens who have not had their day in court."
"People arrested for being in the United States illegally have access to due process," she said. "However, those who exercise their rights, then willfully ignore the immigration judge's decision or willfully reenter the United States after being previously removed . . . must understand there are consequences for those actions."
The arrests have angered immigration attorneys, who argue that once an immigrant is in court, the judge should make the final decision -- not the immigration agency.
Immigration agents have a choice when they encounter someone with a previous deportation order: They can either reinstate the order or issue a charging document and start a new court case, said Stacy Tolchin, a Los Angeles immigration attorney. If they choose to send the illegal immigrant to court, she said, case precedent holds that the previous order can't be reinstated until the judge terminates the case.
"Once they start that case, only the immigration judge can end it," said Tolchin, of the law firm Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, LLP. "It is really up to the judge's authority."
Retired Los Angeles immigration judge Gilbert T. Gembacz said immigration agents are "asserting power and authority they do not have" by arresting immigrants in the courthouse before proceedings are completed.
"They are acting in a way that demonstrates contempt toward the Immigration Court," he said. "They are acting like immigration judges have no purpose."
