The man has just rejected his immigration affair and his wife and his 8-year-old son dragged behind him when agents surrounded, then handcuffed him outside the courtroom in downtown Los Angeles.
Erick Eduardo Fonseca Solorzano was speechless. His wife trembled with panic. Federal agents explained in Spanish that he would be put in an accelerated procedure.
A few moments earlier Friday, judge Peter A. Kim had rejected a dismissal from his expulsion case. Now, his son looked in disbelief with his eyes wide while the agents quickly gave him in a service elevator – and he had left. The boy was silent, sticky near his mother, tears Welling.
“This child will be traumatized for life,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, managing director and co -founder of immigrant Defenders Law Center, who contacted the family to help them in their case.
A child whose father was owned by ice after a court hearing is on Friday inside the immigration court on rue North Los Angeles.
(CARLIN STIEHL / LOS Angeles Times)
Similar scenes take place across the country because the Ministry of Internal Security asks to reject its own expulsion affairs, after which the agents quickly stop immigrants to pursue accelerated moves, which require any hearing before a judge.
The arrests of the justice palace increase the efforts of the Trump administration to accelerate deportations. Migrants who cannot prove that they have been in the United States for more than two years are eligible to be expelled without a judicial audience. Historically, these accelerated moves were only carried out at the border, but the administration sought to extend their use.
Policies are disputed in court.
“Secretary [Kristi] NOEM reverses the capture and liberation policy of Biden which allowed millions of illegal foreigners not appreciated to unleash themselves in the American streets, “said a senior official of the Ministry of Internal Security.
The official said that most of the immigrants who have illegally entered the United States in the past two years “are subject to accelerated moves.” But he noted that if they had a valid credible fear complaint, as required by the law, they will continue to do immigration.
Toczylowski said it was Foneca Solorzano's first appearance before the court. As many of these have apprehended this week, Fonseca Solorzano arrived in the United States of Honduras via CPB One, a request put in place during the Biden administration which provided asylum seekers A way to legally enter the country after having passed the history check.
Erendira de la Riva, on the left, Sarai de la Riva and Maria Elena de la Riva speak on Friday at the media of the Alvaro de la Riva status, which was detained the night before by Ice and taken to the immigration court on rue North Angeles.
(CARLIN STIEHL / LOS Angeles Times)
More than 900,000 people were authorized in the country on the parole of immigration under the application, from January 2023. The Trump administration transformed the tool into a self-support application.
“We punish people who respect the rules, who do what the government asks them to do,” said Toczylowski.
“I think that this practice certainly seemed to have shaken some of the person's staff, because it is so unusual and because it is such a bad policy to do so, taking into account who it targets and the training effects that it will be, it will scare people to present themselves in court.”
Friday, a journalist attended three arrests in the corridors of the courtyard without window on the eighth floor of the federal building in the city center. An agent in simple clothes in the courtroom came out to report the corridor agents, the one wearing a red flannel shirt, when an immigrant subjected to detention was about to go out.
“No, please,” shouted Gabby Gaitan, while half a dozen agents invaded his boyfriend and handcuffed him. His Manila Document file has spread on the ground. It collapsing on the ground in tears. “Where do they take it?”
Richard Pulido, a 25-year-old Venezuelan, arrived at the border last fall and appeared for the first time, she said. He was afraid to attend the court hearing, but she told him that it would worsen his situation.
Gaitan said Pulido came to the United States last September after fled violence in his country of origin.
An immigrant from Kazakhstan, who asked the judge not to reject his case without success, came out of the courtroom. On a bench opposite the doors, two immigration agents agreed against each other and one mouth: “Let's go”.
They held quickly and called man. They directed it to the side and behind doors that led to a service elevator. He seemed to be defeated, his head bowed, as they trampled, handcuffed him and cut him into the service elevator.
The lawyers, who were at the courthouses of Santa Ana and Los Angeles this week, say that it seems that the effort was very coordinated between internal security lawyers and federal agents. Families and lawyers have described similar accounts Miami,, Seattle,, new York,, San Diego, Chicago And elsewhere.
During the hearing for Pulido, internal security lawyer Carolyn Marie Thompkins explicitly explained why she asked to reject the referral procedure.
“The government intends to continue an accelerated referral to this case,” she said. Pulido seemed confused as for a dismissal would mean and asked for the judge's clarity. Pulido opposed his case.
“I think I can contribute a lot to this country,” he said.
Kim said it was not enough and rejected the case.
People align themselves in the immigration court of North Los Angeles Street before Friday's hearings.
(CARLIN STIEHL / LOS Angeles Times)
The arrests of the Palace of Justice have frustrated the defenders of the rights of immigrants who say that the rules of the game change daily for migrants trying to work within the system.
“The Immigration Court should be a place where people will present their rescue complaints, have them assessed, get a high or down to find out if they can stay and have this done in a way that offers them regular procedure,” said Talia Inlender, assistant director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law School. “It is a sort of torn off at each turn.
“This is another attempt at the Trump administration of Stoke Fear in the community. And that seems specifically targeting people who do the right thing, following exactly what the government has asked them to do,” she said.
