Opinion: Get ICE out of the Franklin County Municipal Courthouse

It’s 8:00 a.m. on a Monday and families are filing through the metal detectors at the Franklin County Municipal Courthouse.

Once clear of security, people spread out into the building, rushing through hallways and crowding into packed courtrooms where they will appear before judges for all kinds of reasons. Maybe they are a witness in an active case, or perhaps they are paying for driving infractions or applying for a marriage license. But before they know what’s happening, they could be grabbed by a masked federal agent who is roaming the courthouse halls in search of their next victim.

Columbus was hit hard just a few days before families gathered to celebrate the holidays in December when at least 100 masked ICE agents descended on our city for a week of terror and abductions, grabbing our neighbors and friends. Our community was shaken to the core as we saw alerts of agents apprehending people outside of schools, showing up at work sites, and roaming our streets. 

We also saw the best of our city as neighbors quickly banded together to patrol the streets with whistles, brightly colored vests, and Know Your Rights cards. Teachers and school staff spoke up and demanded that our schools be safe spaces for students. Faith leaders trained their employees and parishioners on what to do during an ICE raid. Our Mayor and City Council President said that local police would not work with ICE, and that our city would continue to stand for diversity, remaining a welcoming place for immigrants. 

We continue to see everyday people stepping up and doing everything within their power to ensure that our communities are safe: forming community patrols, hosting trainings, creating mutual aid networks, and checking in with their neighbors.

It’s now been a month since this massive raid hit our city, and there’s still one institution from which we haven’t heard: our judges in the Franklin County Municipal Courts.

Their silence is deafening. And emails and calls have to this point been met by nothing but crickets. To all of the judges in Franklin County Municipal Courts, now is the time to act. We can’t sit around waiting for another surge of federal agents to swarm our courts, looking to meet their daily quotas in what should be a safe space for our community. As one example of what is possible, look to the Franklin County Common Pleas Court, which last year said it would not allow ICE into its courtrooms absent a judicial warrant. 

We are calling on our judges and the Franklin County Municipal Court to immediately adopt similarly clear and protective policies that would prohibit ICE agents from conducting arrests or raids in our courthouses without a judicial warrant or a court order. 

Courthouses should be safe and accessible for all, and our community deserves better than waiting for justice from those entrusted with dispensing it. 

Liliana Baiman is an organizer with 614 ICE Watch and Defend and Recruit. She is based in Columbus, Ohio.