Hundreds of attorneys employed by the Legal Aid Society and The Bronx Defenders walked out today after a Legal Aid client was detained by Immigration & Customs Enforcement in the Bronx Hall of Justice. The attorneys are demanding that Chief Judge Janet DiFiore ban ICE from carrying out administrative warrants on NY court property. But Lucian Chalfen, director of public information for the Office of Court Administration, responded that DiFiore cannot do that.

“As we’ve said before, what these attorneys are asking us to do, which they are fully aware is illegal, is to shut down a public building to law enforcement. We cannot do this and will not do this. There isn’t one state court system in the country that bars law enforcement from courthouses as they’re asking.”