“Courthouses should not be used as bait in the necessary enforcement of our country’s immigration laws,” she wrote in a letter to Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary John F. 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.
“Enforcement policies that include stalking courthouses and arresting undocumented immigrants, the vast majority of whom pose no risk to public safety, are neither safe nor fair,” wrote Cantil-Sakauye, who was appointed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and is considered one of the more conservative justices on the state’s high court.
