Ruben Gaona-Cornejo of Santa Rosa was leaving Judge Charles Breyer’s federal courtroom on June 6 after being released pending appeal of his immigration case when a phalanx of U.S. marshals detained him in the hallway.
The incident around 10 a.m. was just one of a slew of arrests of immigrants in and outside of San Francisco courtrooms in recent weeks. But attorneys said it was significant because it marked the first time marshals acted on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement inside San Francisco’s federal courthouse under powers granted in an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in February.
“People thought this type of thing would not happen,” said Gaona-Cornejo’s attorney Eric Guzman, who witnessed his client’s detention. “It was chilling. … People are not gonna want to go to court.”
The U.S. Marshals Service did not respond to a request for comment. The U.S. attorneys office declined to comment, but a prosecutor there noted in court moments before the arrest of Goana-Cornejo, 35, that she was aware of the ICE warrant.
“They are under pressure to do this stuff now under the new administration,” private defense attorney Dena Marie Young said. “It does appear to be the new normal.”
The U.S. Marshals Service is the country’s oldest law enforcement agency and acts as federal court security while enforcing judicial orders and the nation’s laws. Though the agency has a history of independence, it is part of the U.S. Justice Department. Since Trump took office in his second term, he has weaponized the Marshals Service against his enemies in a blatant politicization of the agency, according to the nonprofit watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
‘They have their marching orders, and their marching orders are very different from what we’ve seen in the past.’
Attorney Brian Berson
While the Marshals Service has in the past detained people already in custody on behalf of ICE, the arrest of a man in the courthouse after a judge ruled he was not a flight risk or a danger to the community — and has a pending criminal case — is out of the norm, say attorneys.
“There have been detainers, but going into the courthouse and arresting them there has not been the way of it,” said one defense attorney who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.
Defense attorney Brian Berson said that in his four decades practicing in federal court, he has never seen such brazen actions by the Marshals Service.
“I have never had a client arrested by the marshals for an ICE warrant,” he said. “They have their marching orders, and their marching orders are very different from what we’ve seen in the past.”
Normally, if a client is out on bail in a criminal case, immigration authorities wait for the case to conclude, then, separately, ICE takes action, he said. The exception is when a client is already in custody, and ICE picks them up from detention.
Attorney Charles Woodson said the June 6 action is unprecedented, shocking, and sows mistrust of the government.
“We are telling people to comply with our system while at the same time using the very system to arrest them,” he said. “What’s the point of complying if the government is playing both sides?”
‘An American’
Gaona-Cornejo is a Sonoma County construction worker who came to the United States legally when he was 3 and had a green card until a decade ago, according to his attorney. In 2014, he pleaded guilty to domestic violence and drug possession charges, which led to his deportation. But his attorney at the time was required to inform him of immigration implications and failed to do so, according to Guzman, who has since had both charges — the basis for the deportation — vacated.
“Mr. Gaona came to this country legally when he was a small child and grew up here and is, in every way, in my opinion, an American,” Guzman said.
Goana-Cornejo was in court on June 6 fighting his deportation after returning illegally to the U.S. in 2017 to care for his two daughters. While he was convicted for illegal reentry and sentenced to time served, Judge Breyer let him remain out of custody pending his appeal of the court’s ruling. Goana-Cornejo is the sole caregiver of his daughters, U.S. citizens ages 13 and 15, who were in court with their father Friday.
Goana-Cornejo has lived up to the conditions of his release and was neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk, Breyer said.
The marshals’ action seems to be based on the February executive order that gave federal law enforcement agencies immigration enforcement powers. The expanded powers are part of a national trend of law enforcement on all levels participating in immigration enforcement as ICE ramps up its activity with new, bolder tactics.
Federal defense attorneys raised the issue at a June 6 training session that included the U.S. Marshals Service for the Northern District. According to two people at that session, the chief deputy U.S. marshal for the Northern District, Mark Kolc, said that his agents would detain people only with a valid warrant and that ICE is not allowed to make arrests or operate in the courthouse.
While he did not say explicitly whether there were new policies for marshals, the executive order and subsequent Justice Department directives appear to allow such actions.
“If your client is in the custody of the USMS and there is an ICE detainer, and they are sentenced … the USMS is required to notify ICE and not release the person except to ICE custody,” the head of the federal defense attorney panel, Diana Weiss, wrote in a February email about the new policy.
Following that order, the Judicial Conference of the United States, the national policymaking body for the federal courts, met with the U.S. Marshals Service on Feb. 21 to find out if they would use their new authority.
“This new authority ‘permits the USMS to hold, detain, and arrest aliens as immigration officers,’” a Feb. 26 conference memo advised, warning that the arrest and detention of defendants released on bail raises “questions that would seem nationwide in scope.”