On a recent August morning, a man stepped out of his court hearing at the federal courthouse in downtown Dallas. It’s unknown what happened in the courtroom, or why he was there – but a video shows what happened next.
The man is approached by two plain-clothes immigration officers wearing baseball caps and face coverings. They detain him, and, as he starts to struggle, three more officers rush in, lifting the man off the ground and carrying him through the hallway. They then take him behind two swinging double doors that close with a rush behind him. The whole thing happens within seconds.
Noemi Rios, who filmed the video and shared it with KERA, said arrests like these are an almost daily occurrence. She’s been coming to the federal courthouse for months to document them, ever since this spring, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement began taking people into custody straight out of their hearings – something advocates say hadn’t happened in the past. It’s part of the Trump administration’s effort to ramp up deportations.
“Folks are showing up doing the right thing, showing up for their court hearing only to be apprehended in the hallways, and no notifications to their families of what's happening to them,” she said.
KERA reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to ask about the man and what the agency’s arrest policy is, but didn’t hear back.
Rios started a group, Vecinos Unidos DFW, or neighbors united, to keep an eye on the courts and what’s happening behind closed doors. She partners with churches and other places of worship to train other volunteers to be court observers – how they should identify themselves to judges, where they can take photos and videos, and how to handle interactions with ICE officers.
In a recent training at the Royal Lane Baptist Church in North Dallas, she explained to a group of about 40 people that this work is scary but needed. Volunteers play three crucial roles, she said: They monitor interactions between migrants and ICE officers, document court proceedings and generally, provide support.
“I do call out the risk level volunteers so that they can choose a role that they feel comfortable with,” she said. “We want people to feel safe and go in numbers.”
ICE agents in the courts know her by name. “ICE will be perturbed, ICE will approach you, they will take a photograph of your face,” she told the group.
Mara Richards Bim is a justice and advocacy fellow at the church. She’s also part of a coalition of faith leaders who have been having weekly vigils outside the Dallas ICE enforcement field office. It‘s where she and Rios met and how the trainings came about.
“I think it is also an opportunity for people who have that kind of privilege to really use it in a way that protects other people and other people who really need protecting right now,” Bim said.
Victor – who asked that KERA not use his full name – has been volunteering with Rios’ group for a few weeks.
“A lot of people do not even know that this is currently going on,” he said. His own parents came to the U.S without legal status, he said. “I feel like it's very important that we should shed light on what's going on inside the courtrooms.”
She said the most she and other volunteers can do is to document, educate, and grow the pipeline of court observers.
“I think at the bare minimum by achieving bigger numbers is these things aren't happening in secret,” she said, “and so things aren't swept under the rug.”
Priscilla Rice is KERA’s communities reporter. Got a tip? Email her at price@kera.org.
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