Senate advances bill penalizing Tennessee judges who obstruct ICE

Lawmakers in the Tennessee Senate voted to advance a bill that could subject judges who obstruct federal immigration enforcement to discipline, including removal from office.

The legislation (HB1707/SB1952) by Rep. Rick Scarbrough of Oak Ridge and Sen. Paul Rose of Shelby County, both Republicans, does not define what obstruction by a judge could entail.

The proposed legislation was introduced during an ongoing period of heightened Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests at courthouses across the nation — including in Tennessee — after the Trump administration last year eased restrictions on the presence of ICE agents in so-called “protected areas” including courts, schools and churches. 

The ICE actions in Tennessee have included mass arrests of individuals showing up to traffic court or other misdemeanor court appearance dates. The civil arrests, for alleged immigration violations rather than criminal conduct, have raised alarms among civil liberties and immigrant advocates.

ICE’s latest focus in Tennessee: traffic court

In a joint letter sent Wednesday to presiding judges of Tennessee’s thirty-two judicial districts, the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition and ACLU Tennessee urged the judges to “adopt district-wide policies that prevent civil immigration arrests at courthouses, and inside courtrooms, and affirm the judiciary’s commitment to equal and meaningful access to justice for all.”

It is not known whether the ICE arrests in Tennessee courts in recent months have been with the knowledge or approval of judges, and there are no publicly reported instances of Tennessee judges seeking to prevent immigration enforcement mass arrests or otherwise interfere with ICE activities. 

During the Senate Judiciary hearing Wednesday, a paralegal and Spanish-language interpreter for defense attorneys testified against the legislation, saying that courthouse arrests by ICE in Tennessee “have created absolute chaos, and many immigrants are already choosing not to come to their court dates.”

Shelby Webb, the interpreter, said proposed legislation penalizing judges who work to maintain order in their courtrooms and ensure due process “is not a constructive solution at all.”

“If this bill is enacted, defendants will not appear, witnesses to crimes will not testify, victims may not report crimes at all,” she said. “The fear that’s being created by these arrests will poison the community’s trust in our justice system for decades, and a community that doesn’t trust its justice system undermines public safety in our state and weakens the integrity of our justice system as a whole.”

Tennessee House approves bill to discipline judges who obstruct ICE

The bill reads that a  judge who “obstructs lawful operations by the United States Department of Homeland Security or federal immigration authorities acting in the enforcement of federal immigration law may be referred to the board of judicial conduct for proceedings.”

The findings of those proceedings, the legislation says, could be cause for removal from office under the Tennessee Constitution as well as lesser discipline including a formal reprimand or suspension from office.

Charlie Baldwin, representing the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts, told lawmakers that there is an existing mechanism to report judges who obstruct the law. The Administrative Office of the Courts, he noted, has not taken a position on the legislation.

“The judiciary itself is neutral on this bill, but I will say I think it already is something that if a judge is actively obstructing the feds, it’s something that can already go to the Board of Judicial Conduct, and I think it’s it’s also a crime in itself, but we are neutral on it,” he said.

Rose, the bill’s co-sponsor, said the goal of the legislation was to make penalties for the obstruction of ICE faced by Tennessee judges more explicit.

“It seems to me that it does make it more explicit,” Rose said. 

The legislation, approved by a 7-2 vote Wednesday with the Judiciary’s only two Democratic members dissenting, will next head to the Senate floor for a full vote.