Just steps outside the courtroom where Judge Joseph Y. Park was presiding over asylum cases on Friday morning, an ICE officer grabbed a Colombian man and slammed him against the wall, an eyewitness said and multiple sources confirmed to Mission Local. Other ICE agents moved in to handcuff the man, who had just finished his asylum hearing, when suddenly the arrest was called off – ICE had the wrong person.
After the incident, the man walked free to his awaiting family and the ICE agents remained outside of the courtroom where they apprehended a different Colombian asylum-seeker, whom they had intended to arrest. Around half a dozen agents stood, some in ski masks covering their faces, one wearing a black surgical mask and the rest wearing no masks at all.
Only an hour before, the Colombian asylum-seekers were two of around 20 immigrants who went before Judge Park for his 8:30 a.m. hearings.
One young woman sat with an elderly man wearing a Marines hat, who had accompanied her to court. She passed a letter from her 10-year-old to the clerk for the judge to read. The letter was covered with hand-drawn smiley faces.
With each case, the judge scheduled follow-up court hearings but, in three of them, including the Colombian ICE had meant to arrest, the Department of Homeland Security moved to dismiss the asylum case, expediting the asylum-seeker’s removal.
One of the others, a man who appeared to be in his late 50s, pleaded his case but to no avail.
“I need more time. I am afraid to return to Venezuela,” he told the courtroom before detailing harrowing experiences in his home country. The man appeared without a lawyer and said he was on the waiting list for a pro-bono attorney.
Despite his testimony, DHS dismissed his case. The attorney of the day quickly consulted with him before he exited the courtroom and ICE officials put him in handcuffs.
The third arrest occurred in a similar fashion. The asylum-seeker told Park that he didn’t want his case to be dismissed. But, like the others, it was, despite Park scheduling his next hearing to review evidence for his asylum case. Shortly after, the man exited the courtroom with the attorney of the day and ICE handcuffed him in the hallway.