Federal immigration officials took a man facing charges related to a domestic dispute into custody hours after his trial began in Clark County Superior Court this week, in a move some observers say may be unprecedented in Washington state.
Video of the Jan. 12 arrest shows five masked ICE officers handcuffing 26-year-old Brayan David Morales Bermudez on the sidewalk outside the Clark County courthouse.
The arrest puts an immediate halt to the trial just as it was getting underway, and strains public resources already invested in the case, Clark County Superior Court Judge Camara Banfield told OPB.
Clark County Superior Court in Vancouver, Wash., June 29, 2024.
Anna Lueck / OPB
It also violates historic precedent under which immigration officials avoided enforcing orders in courthouses out of respect for the criminal justice system that seeks to hold criminals accountable and to get justice for defendants.
The case also calls to mind a Wisconsin case in which immigration officials attempted to arrest a man on trial. That case got national attention when the judge helped a defendant avoid arrest. The judge was found guilty by a federal jury of obstructing immigration agents last month.
“It’s rare enough that I personally have never observed that, and I’ve spent a lot of time in courthouses,” University of Washington Professor of Law Jeff Feldman told OPB when informed about the arrest. “I can’t even tell you about any instance in which that occurred in somebody else’s case — but I heard about it anecdotally.”
U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement officials did not respond to a request to comment on the arrest. His criminal defense attorney did not respond to OPB for comment.
The Biden administration generally restricted federal immigration enforcement actions in what it considered “protected areas” — including courthouses, schools, churches and hospitals. That 2021 policy was rescinded at the start of Donald Trump’s second term.
Morales Bermudez is from Guatemala and was seeking asylum in the U.S. after refusing to join violent gangs that threatened to kill him, his girlfriend, Haley Dodd, told OPB.
Dodd said she is trying to get Morales Bermudez released from the Northwest Immigration Detention Center in Tacoma where he is being held.
“He’s scared. He’s very worried,” Dodd said by phone from Tacoma. “We’re trying to see if we can get his court resolved in Vancouver right now.”
ICE agents have targeted people visiting courthouses to conduct personal business in the past, said Georgina Olazcon Mozo, the director of the University of Washington’s Immigration Law Clinic.
“It happened a lot where people were showing up to pay their tickets, where people are showing up because they were survivors of domestic violence and wanted to get protection from the court in the form of a restraining order,” she said. “Whatever the issue was.”
Washington has a state court policy that individuals should not be the subject of civil arrest without a judicial arrest warrant or judicial order while traveling within a mile of court. The policy is designed to prevent people from avoiding court hearings.
“Everyone has their right to come before the court and have their cases adjudicated without interference and without fear,” said Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Richard Okrent, from north of Seattle.
Banfield, the Clark County judge set to hear the Morales Bermudez case, said the arrest raises multiple concerns — some that harken to her work before she became a judge.
“As a prosecutor, we were very mindful of the fact that the victims also have a right to have their day in court, and we would be very concerned if somebody was not able to make it to court for some reason or had fear of making it to court,” she said.
Interrupting a trial that was already underway also affected limited resources in Clark County’s justice system and the lives of dozens of potential jurors.
“Forty-six people in my courtroom took off work or time from their family to come in and do their civic duty,” she said. “Many of them didn’t want to be there because that’s a hardship.”
A court-appointed defense attorney had been selected for Morales Bermudez, and the prosecutor’s office had investigated the case, all at the expense of taxpayers, Banfield said.
Until his arrest, Morales Bermudez had not been late to a single court hearing, Banfield said. His case will be reviewed after 30 days. If he does not make an appearance, she said, the state will likely ask for a warrant in an effort to get him back from federal jurisdiction to complete the trial.
