{"id":172385,"date":"2026-04-22T01:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/172385\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T01:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:25:07","slug":"immigration-advocates-call-for-philly-court-protections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/172385\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigration advocates call for Philly court protections"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 After a Philadelphia man was stopped while leaving the Criminal Justice Center on Monday and pushed into the back of a waiting ICE vehicle, advocates have again called on the city to do more to protect immigrant rights.<\/p>\n

Lenore Ramos, an organizer with immigration advocacy group Juntos, said ICE agents seized a man as he left court. The man\u2019s partner tried to intervene.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe held him,\u201d Ramos said. \u201cThey kissed, and then they took him away.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was one of several stories advocates shared outside the Criminal Justice Center during a press conference, where they stressed they believe authorities can do more to protect immigrants around the courthouse. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs he was walking away, ICE approached him \u2026 and there was a car ready as well to, sort of, kidnap him,\u201d Ramos added. \u201cShe managed to get in front of them, and she held on to him. It was an incredible and bittersweet thing to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lilah Thompson, who heads the Defender Association of Philadelphia\u2019s Immigration Law Practice, said her team has been tracking the issue since 2023. \u201cIn 2023, there were 13 CJC-based ICE arrests. In 2024, there were only two that we were able to confirm. In 2025, from January to April, there were 48 and just since January 2026, there have been 17 confirmed ICE arrests,\u201d she detailed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of folks are arrested in or on the sidewalk as they’re exiting the CJC and it’s essentially like an ambush. Just like one of the stories that we described, six [or] seven agents will ambush an individual and arrest them. They immediately handcuff their hands, place them in a black van and transport them off the property before we can even oftentimes figure out who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elena Brunner, immigration rights organizer for Asian Americans United, told a recent story of a 75-year-old immigrant who was briefly detained and then released by ICE, after he testified as a victim in a case. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe person that was here does have an application in the court for immigration, was following all of the protocols laid out before them, and was still taken and arrested,\u201d Brunner said.<\/p>\n

Common Pleas Court President Judge Nina Wright Padilla has said the sheriff is in charge of courthouse security. Earlier this year, Sheriff Rochelle Bilal issued a statement<\/a> that her office does not cooperate with ICE and that deputies do not have authority outside city facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the sheriff or the judges or whoever is allegedly in charge of this courthouse to stand up for the people who are coming here for their due process. I think the demand is that people’s due process is respected and protected, which right now it is not,\u201d said Ramos.<\/p>\n

Thompson believes that more can be done. \u201cThe sheriff’s office and the courts can take action to clarify their policies and strengthen their policies by allowing transparency, having people who are making these arrests be uniformed [and] having them have judicial warrants if they’re going to be arresting people,\u201d she said, \u201chaving sidewalks that are safe zones for people to not be arrested in the vicinity of the courthouse, so that they can properly access justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both the Philadelphia Sheriff\u2019s and President Judge\u2019s offices, as well as ICE, have not answered calls for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 After a Philadelphia man was stopped while leaving the Criminal Justice Center on Monday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[51419,2443,741,5202,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-172385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-criminal-justice-center","tag-ice","tag-immigration","tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}