ICE Has Begun Making Arrests At The Fresno Superior Court

One way to get around the sanctuary cities policies.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials this week went inside a Sacramento courtroom to make an arrest, attorneys said Friday.

ICE agents have been making arrests inside the Fresno County courthouse for about a month and recently made an appearance at the Tulare County Superior Court, but Wednesday’s arrest might be the first inside a courtroom in California.

“This will turn the judicial system on its head,” Sacramento attorney Charles Pacheco said.

Pacheco said Wednesday’s arrest happened as a Sacramento Superior Court arraignment for his client, Yovanny Ontiveros-Cebreros, was concluding. Pacheco said ICE agents placed his client in handcuffs.

Pacheco said he asked Superior Court Judge Lawrence Brown to step in, and Brown placed Ontiveros-Cebreros in the area behind the bar that’s designated for defendants who are in custody before proceeding to hear another 10 cases.

After Brown concluded hearing his other cases, he went into his chambers and then came back to the bench and said ICE had a warrant for Ontiveros-Cebreros’ arrest, Pacheco said. Brown was “puzzled,” Pacheco said.

“The judge was weak — he had no control of his courtroom, and allowed the federal government to come into his court,” Pacheco said. “He (Brown) just wanted to neutralize the situation, so he could figure out what was going on, and then he felt that it was justified that the (ICE) guy said there was a warrant for illegal re-entry.”

A Sacramento court official declined to comment, saying no one from the court was involved in the arrest, and referred questions to ICE.

ICE spokesman Richard A. Rocha said the agency “made a criminal arrest at the Sacramento Superior Courthouse on Wednesday pursuant to a criminal arrest warrant issue by a federal magistrate judge.”

“As this is an ongoing federal criminal case, no additional information is available at this time,” he said.

Pacheco said no one saw the warrant on Wednesday in court.

Katherine Carlson, an attorney with the Sacramento Public Defender’s Office, said she witnessed Wednesday’s arrest. She said ICE agents were being “obstructionists.”

Ontiveros-Cebreros had been released on $115,000 bail Tuesday, and on Wednesday he entered a not-guilty plea to two felony charges. One charge was for possession of a controlled substance and the second charge was for possession of a controlled substance for sale.

Pacheco said ICE agents are obtaining information on people who post bail and then show up to court to detain them.

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