Feds, California Sup. Ct. Chief Justice Square Off Over ICE Courthouse Arrests

Los Angeles Times, Mar. 31, 2017 - "The Trump administration on Friday fired back at California's top judge, disputing her characterization this month that federal immigration agents were "stalking" courthouses to make arrests.  In a letter to Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, leaders of Trump's Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security objected to her description of federal agents' conduct. ... Cantil-Sakauye, a former prosecutor who rose through the judicial ranks as an appointee of Republican governors, said through a spokesman that she appreciated the Trump administration's "admission that they are in state courthouses making federal arrests."  "Making arrests at courthouses, in my view, undermines public safety because victims and witnesses will fear coming to courthouses to help enforce the law," she said Friday.  Cantil-Sakauye had asked the Trump administration on March 16 to stop immigration agents from seeking immigrants at the state's courthouses.  “Courthouses should not be used as bait in the necessary enforcement of our country’s immigration laws,” she wrote in a letter to Sessions and Kelly.  Her letter did not say which courthouses had been the location of such “stalking,” but judges and lawyers in Southern California have complained of seeing immigration agents posted near courts.  She said she feared the practice would erode public trust in the state courts."