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3/27/2025
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Op-Ed: Keep ICE out of RI Courthouses
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By Sen. Meghan E. Kallman and Rep. José F. Batista
As a matter of justice, your immigration status shouldn’t determine whether you can seek protection or bear witness in our courts. As a matter of practicality, our judicial system relies on all Rhode Islanders having free and fair access to the courts — whether as defendants, plaintiffs or witnesses — without fear of detention and deportation.
But in Rhode Island neither of these principles can be taken for granted. Federal immigration agents can make dramatic intrusions into local courts, picking up anyone who is simply attending court proceedings for detention and potential deportation. In fact, they already have.
And this meddling in local court proceedings makes us all less safe. In fact, this rising tide of immigration enforcement taking place at or near courthouses can only guarantee one outcome: the deterring of residents from accessing essential court services, undermining the safety of the entire community.
If this is allowed to continue, the fear of ICE hanging over our courts will deprive Rhode Islanders of the justice they would otherwise receive, and that they certainly deserve. Those with uncertain immigration status will avoid obtaining or enforcing restraining orders, or fear appearing in Family Court. Witnesses will also be afraid to come forward, harming public safety by letting criminals continue, unreported. Defendants will be deprived of their liberty and their right to the presumption of innocence, which is a cornerstone of our justice system.
In many cases, those deported may lose any chance to ever return legally to the United States because they face unresolved criminal charges — charges that were unresolved because ICE interrupted their day in court. Most heart-breaking of all, families with mixed-immigration statuses may be permanently sundered, with no legal hope of reunion.
Our courts also cannot operate fairly and efficiently while ICE is allowed free access to detain anyone who frequents them. Police, prosecutors and defense attorneys will lose the countless hours they have invested in these cases if key participants are disappeared from the courthouse steps. Judges will have to leave cases open and unresolved, leaving victims and their families deprived of justice.
Anyone who is not a U.S. citizen, including permanent residents who may have green-cards, be married to a U.S. citizen or have children who are U.S. citizens, is currently at risk of detention and potential deportation. We don’t have to look far to see stories of exactly this happening.
Our state and the nation had enjoyed a reprieve from this practice since April 2021, when the Biden administration set guidelines barring ICE from making arrests at courthouses. Under the new administration, these protections are gone. And the spate of recent arrests, prolonged detentions in miserable conditions, and traumatic family separations have been carried out with little mercy or accountability.
That is why we have introduced legislation (2025-S 0291, 2025-H 6121) to forbid the civil arrest of any person in Rhode Island who is attending court on their own behalf or on behalf of a family member. Violators would be in contempt of court and face false imprisonment charges and victims of these arrests would be entitled to sue for relief. The Attorney General’s office could also bring suit on behalf of the victim or, if requested, the court itself.
The bill would provide exceptions for crimes witnessed directly by a law enforcement officer or for an outstanding arrest warrant. What it wouldn’t allow is the disruption — sometimes permanently — of Rhode Island judicial proceedings by federal immigration agents.
Rhode Islanders have the right to their day in court, whether as defendants, plaintiffs, witnesses or victims seeking justice, without fear of detention and deportation. And Rhode Island has the right to conduct its legal proceedings without interference from immigration officials.
Equal justice before our laws requires equal access to our courts. It is time for Rhode Island to act to limit federal overreach and end the chilling effect that has already taken hold of our state’s justice system.
Senator Meghan E. Kallman is a Democrat who represents District 15 in Pawtucket and Providence. Representative José F. Batista is a Democrat who represents District 12 in Providence.
For more information, contact:
Tristan Grau, Publicist
State House Room B20
Providence, RI 02903
401.222.4935
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