A Boston judge has slammed an ICE agent and held him in contempt after he detained a suspected illegal immigrant while the man was on trial for an unrelated matter.
Brian Sullivan was waiting in plain clothes outside the courthouse last week and pounced on Wilson Martell-Lebron as he left the first day of his trial.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent hauled Martell-Lebron off to a detention facility without allowing him to defend himself against his charge of lying on a license application form.
The department alleges Martell-Lebron is also known as Juan Carlos Baez, a 49-year-old Dominican national who has been residing in the United States illegally since 2000.
They allege he had prior drug trafficking convictions, Newsweek reported.
But Sullivan himself was hauled before Judge Mark Summerville on Tuesday, who said Martell-Lebron had been denied his right to a fair trial and due process when he was taken into custody.
‘It’s a case of violating a defendant’s right to present at trial and confront witnesses against him,’ the furious judge said.
‘It couldn’t be more serious… Brian Sullivan and other agents of ICE conspired in a premeditated manner to take the defendant into custody, but not just that, to not return him to court for his trial.’
A Boston judge has slammed an ICE agent and held him in contempt after he detained a suspected illegal immigrant while the man was on trial for an unrelated matter
The department alleges Martell-Lebron is also known as Juan Carlos Baez, a 49-year-old Dominican national who has been residing in the United States illegally since 2000
One of Martell-Lebron’s lawyers described the arrest as ‘reprehensible.’
‘Law enforcement agents have a job to see justice is done. Prosecutors have a job to see justice is done.
‘There is no greater injustice in my mind than the government arresting someone, without identifying themselves, and preventing them from exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right to a jury trial.’
ICE agents hunted down Martell-Lebron without identifying themselves, put him into a pickup truck and sped away.
The trial had just begun with opening statements and the first witnesses.
Sullivan said Martell-Lebron, who is from the Dominican Republic and living with family in Massachusetts, is now at the Plymouth detention facility for allegedly being an undocumented immigrant.
Summerville dismissed the charge against Martell-Lebron of making false statements on his driver’s license application because he was no longer available to defend it.
He then filed the contempt charge against Sullivan. The contempt case has been referred to the Suffolk district attorney’s office and a spokesman there said they were looking into it.
Brian Sullivan was waiting in plain clothes outside the courthouse last week, and pounced on Wilson Martell-Lebron as he left the first day of his trial. He was driven to a detention facility in an SUV (left)
In a statement, state police said they acted appropriately after learning of the plans of ICE.
‘As in any situation where a member becomes aware of federal immigration enforcement, the Troopers responded appropriately by neither assisting nor obstructing the federal action,’ the statement said.
James Borghesani, a spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said ‘we were dismayed and surprised when our prosecution of Wilson Martell-Lebron was interrupted by ICE apprehending him in the middle of his trial.’
‘Any claim that we were aware of an attempt to prevent Mr Martell-Lebron from exercising his right to a trial is false.’
‘It was our intention to try Mr. Martell-Lebron and hold him accountable for the crimes alleged in the complaint. Federal authorities should not have detained him and interfered with our efforts to hold him accountable.’
The move by ICE is the latest effort to target the sanctuary city over its handling of immigration.
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan vowed to ‘bring hell to Boston’ and accused the city of failing to cooperate to get people charged with violent crimes deported.
He revealed last month ‘nine child rapists that were in jail in Massachusetts’ were released before ICE could detain them.
In Massachusetts, along with other sanctuary states across the nation, authorities are not permitted to let ICE officials know when a prisoner who is illegally in America is being released from custody.
Trump signed an executive order that federal funding could not be used to facilitate any sanctuary policies that would ‘seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation.’
Homan savaged sanctuary cities for standing in the way of Trump’s grand plan, insisting: ‘They would rather release these animals back into the community rather than honor ICE detainers or notify ICE when they are scheduled to be release.
‘Releasing public safety threats back into the public, rather than working with ICE at the jails, puts the public at great risk.’
ICE earlier this month conducted a state-wide raid which resulted in the arrests of 370 illegal migrants – some of whom had been previously released on bail despite their immigration status.
Homan revealed at the time that many of the arrested individuals were ‘significant criminals.’
Mayor Michelle Wu, a Democrat up for re-election this year, said she wants Boston be a welcoming place for immigrants and that city policies limit cooperation with ICE.
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan revealed last month he counted ‘nine child rapists that were in jail in Massachusetts’ who were released before ICE could detain them
Guatemalan national Stivenson Omar Perez-Ajtzalan, 19, was caught by ICE in January. He had been charged with aggravated child rape and also released on a $7,500 bond
Immigration officers were a growing presence at courthouses during Trump’s first term, prompting some pushback from judges and other local officials.
Trump has gone further in his second term by repealing a policy in place since 2011 to generally avoid schools, places of worship and hospitals.
Under current policy, immigration officials can make arrests ‘in or near courthouses when they have credible information that leads them to believe the targeted alien(s) is or will be present’ and as long as they are not prohibited by state or local law.
During the two-day hearing, Sullivan said that the lead prosecution witnessed confirmed that both the Massachusetts State police and prosecutors were aware of ICE plans to arrest Martell-Lebron.
