Two top Massachusetts judges are blasting ICE for scooping up and deporting illegal immigrants while local court cases are still pending in the latest escalation in tensions between federal immigration authorities and officials in the Bay State, the Boston Herald reports. “It is an affront to justice,” Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph Gants and Trial Court Chief Justice Paula Carey wrote in a letter they sent to acting ICE Field Office Director Todd Lyons on Thursday. They also made the letter public.
The judges cited a new case in which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stepped in and deported an illegal immigrant before his criminal cases wrapped up, and said ICE didn’t let the courts or prosecutors know that would be happening. “We reiterate our request for written confirmation that ICE will cease its practice of removing state criminal defendants pending trial without advance notice to the court and the relevant district attorney,” the letter states. The case in question is that of Anibal Maldonado, who was charged with trafficking cocaine, and ICE picked him up from a courthouse lockup after a hearing in December. The courts also attached a previous letter from October, when Gants and Carey took issue with what the courts have totaled up to be 15 instances of ICE deporting illegal immigrants around Massachusetts before their local cases were resolved.