The Virginia Senate passed legislation on Tuesday that would limit the work of immigration enforcement officials from operating inside courthouses.
“Our courthouses are meant to be the one place in the commonwealth where every person, regardless of their background, can walk through the doors and seek a fair resolution under the law,” Salim said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “It does not prevent lawful arrests. It simply requires that anyone wishing to make any civil arrest inside our courthouses must identify themselves to courthouse staff, state their purpose clearly and present a judicial warrant signed by a judge.”
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Saddam Salim, D-Fairfax, passed the Senate on a 21-18 party-line vote.
The legislation will now be taken up in the House of Delegates, where Democrats have similar versions.
Context:
Miriam Fisher, an immigration attorney in Virginia, said the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives states authority over their own institutions, like state courthouses.
Federal law enforcement officers conducted immigration arrests in Chesterfield County last summer.
Chesterfield Sheriff Karl Leonard said at the time that he did not have the authority to stop the federal officers from operating in the courthouse.
Fisher pointed to the anti-commandeering doctrine, which prohibits the federal government from forcing state legislatures or executive officials to implement, administer or enforce federal regulatory programs.
“Under the Supremacy Clause, where a state law and a federal law conflict, the federal law generally wins. However, there is no federal law that explicitly authorizes civil immigration arrests at places like state courthouses, so a state law limiting that doesn’t create a conflict,” Fisher said.
New York state passed a law that prohibits immigration arrests in state and local courthouses. That law was upheld against a challenge from the Trump administration in November, with a federal judge in the Northern District of New York ruling that a common-law privilege against civil courthouse arrests exists.
“That law was upheld by a federal district court judge in New York last year, so there is legal precedent for state-level restrictions,” Fisher said.
“This would likely only apply to civil immigration arrests without a judicial warrant,” she continued.
The House version of this legislation is continuing to advance and will be taken up this week.