At least 39 people have been arrested after attending hearings in Sacramento immigration court since late May, some pulled weeping from family members and some violently thrown against walls by masked agents who did not identify themselves, a court filing obtained by The Sacramento Bee says.
The arrests began on May 27 with the detention of four immigrants who were seized in front of their families, and have led to a dramatic drop in the number of people attending their scheduled hearings in the Sacramento court, Nicole Zanardi, legal director of the California Immigration Project, said in a declaration filed in federal court Sept. 18.
Many of those arrested had already received authorization to work in the United States, had no criminal histories and had asylum cases pending, the declaration said.
“ICE’s arrests can be quite violent,” Zanardi said in the declaration, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose agents conduct the arrests at the John Moss Federal Building downtown. “ICE officers regularly throw people up against the wall while arresting them.”…