by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
26 FEDERAL PLAZA, Aug 8 – There are a dozen ICE officers with masks over their faces in front of Courtroom 1237 in 26 Federal Plaza. In the hall outside the media is allowed to stand, waiting.
On the morning of August 8, Inner City Press was there when a Latinos family came out of the courtroom. A woman was crying, asking "porque?" as she was comforted and taken down a short hallway away from the click of the cameras.
"Did they grab somebody?" a journalist asked, without answer.
ICE officer told journalists and photographers to stand to the side as the family passed: a man pushing a stroller, a toddler in a blue Oxford cloth shirt, and the crying woman.
"Please get against the wall," one of the ICE agents told reporters.
"Can't you give them some privacy?" asked another, adding, "Of course not."
[Later an ICE agent asked a reporter about his boots, items from Uniqlo. They had more in common then they'd thought.]
There are no overflow courtrooms, allowing the Press to observe the cases, and little transparency.
The judges in the courtrooms in 1237 appear to be named Sponzo, Harbeck, Sagesse and Nasser - no first names on the sign.
Instead, a sign says "A message to illegal aliens: A warning to self-deport."
More on X for Subscribers here and Substack here
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