On a raw November day in East Boston, just five days before Thanksgiving, a shirtless man lay facedown on the cold pavement of the district courthouse alley.
Alejandro Orrego Agudelo, 27, screamed, “Help me, please,” as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent knelt on his back.
Around him, more than 50 neighbors pressed up against a Boston police line — phones raised and recording — while the city officers barked at the bystanders to get out of the way.
It took two ICE agents to haul Orrego Agudelo — by his torso and one leg — into a waiting black Dodge Charger, which then backed out of the alley and sped down Meridian Street.
Members of a neighborhood watchdog group say this is one violent example of the dozens of detainments that have happened inside and out of the East Boston District Courthouse since March, and of the nearly 400 that have happened at courthouses across the state.
The incident echoes the case of Wilson Martell-Lebron, a man on jury trial in March at Boston Municipal Court for charges that he provided false information on a license application. He was arrested by plainclothes ICE agents and driven off in an unmarked SUV on the first day of his trial on March 27.
ICE did not respond to requests for comment on this article.
Since federal officials announced they’d ramp up deportations at the end of February this year, the neighborhood group said each week it has monitored how ICE agents enter the East Boston courthouse in plainclothes, view the small courthouse’s daily list, then wait inside the courtroom for a defendant to get through their proceedings.
Agents will begin the process of detainment either inside the courthouse hallways or as soon as the defendant leaves, according to Josh Lown, a member of the neighborhood group.
The watchdog group does not interfere with ICE agents and believes in peaceful documentation, according to Lown and group members. They say no bystanders were violent toward ICE agents on Nov. 21, a position corroborated by an eight-minute video that captures most of the incident.
Orrego Agudelo’s criminal defense lawyer, Alexander Shapoval, said he’s not sure whether his client will make his next court date in January.
“If he’s not brought back to this Boston court, then it presents a problem. And… is a violation of his right to speedy trial. That is very concerning,” said Shapoval, who had represented his client inside the courthouse just minutes before he was detained.
Here’s what happened in East Boston five days before Thanksgiving — and what the community is doing about it.
What happened on Nov. 21.
The issues for Orrego Agudelo began the night before he appeared on Nov. 20, when a neighbor moved Orrego Agudelo’s moped to park his car, according to a Boston police report on his arrest. In response, Orrego Agudelo is accused of kicking the neighbor’s Kia Sorento, leaving a dented crack in the bumper, the report read.
When Boston police officers arrived just after 8 a.m. the next morning on Nov. 21, they say he poked one officer in the chest and resisted being handcuffed, flailing, kicking and yelling as they tried to restrain him.
Orrego Agudelo was charged with vandalizing property, resisting arrest and assault and battery on a police officer. Boston police reports list Orrego Agudelo’s place of birth as Colombia and his current residence as East Boston.
He was brought to the East Boston courthouse for his arraignment at 9 a.m. on Nov. 21, during which a judge ordered his release on personal recognizance.
But even before Orrego Agudelo could step outside the courthouse, he was met by ICE agents, according to his criminal lawyer Shapoval.
“He never walked out of the courthouse. [Court personnel] did not tell me anything, I was just as surprised as anyone else,” Shapoval said, adding that ICE activity at courthouses in the state has appeared “secretive” and “un-American,” especially given agents’ unmarked uniforms.
“He was supposed to come out … the next thing I heard, there’s screams outside,” he said.
Neighborhood watchdog group members say they did not witness how Orrego Agudelo ended up on the ground and shirtless outside in the courthouse’s sallyport, but that when they arrived, he was facedown on the pavement with an ICE agent’s knee in his back and yelling for help.
Shapoval stated that when he went to see what was going on for himself, he saw Orrego Agudelo on the ground “outside, screaming” and things were “really bad.”
Orrego Agudelo’s next court date is scheduled for Jan. 13. Shapoval said he spoke with Orrego Agudelo last week from an ICE detention center in Plymouth, but has not received any communication from ICE or other departments of the federal government on his client’s status.
In Orrego Agudelo’s immigration case, a habeas corpus petition was filed on Nov. 26, court records show. Orrego Agudelo and his listed immigration attorney, Christopher Walsh, have until Dec. 19 to explain why the petition should be upheld.
Walsh did not immediately respond to MassLive for comment.
Coordination between ICE and Boston court workers?
Neighborhood watchdog group members believe there’s been some kind of coordination between East Boston courthouse personnel and ICE agents, for assistance in detaining clients — especially away from public eye into the alley next to the courthouse, the sallyport entry used by law enforcement to bring defendants to and from the court house with two entry and exit points.
The Massachusetts Trial Courts confirmed there was an incident outside of the East Boston courthouse and that the incident “violates the policy” for court personnel “to neither assist nor impede ICE.”
However, the court did not clarify whether the violation consisted of to helping or hindering ICE agents.
All Trial Court employees are expected to follow the Trial Court Policy and Procedures Regarding Courthouse Interactions with the Department of Homeland Security, according to state Trial Courts spokesperson Jennifer Donahue.
There are “measures … being taken to address” the aforementioned violation during an incident outside the courthouse, during which court personnel had violated “the policy to neither assist nor impede ICE,” the statement continued.
“The Trial Court Security Department conducts regular ongoing trainings that include education about the Trial Court Policy and Procedures Regarding Courthouse Interactions with the Department of Homeland Security,” the Trial Courts’ statement read.
“Since the incident in East Boston, the Security Department has held additional meetings with Chief Court Officers and Court Officers across the state to reinforce the policy.”
The Boston Police Department said it responded to the East Boston District Court at 71 Meridian Way on Nov. 21, to “investigate a person.” That call grew more urgent while officers were en route, the department said. A 911 call claimed a “large crowd gathered, creating a dangerous situation” that had “escalated to an officer-in-trouble (OT) status.”
“At no time did the Boston Officers assist with the arrest of the individual; the only assistance offered was crowd control and to provide a safe environment,” a Boston police report on the department response to the incident read.
What’s next?
East Boston watchdog group members have been adamant in efforts to make the community aware. They continue to document ICE agents’ activity at the courthouse weekly, attempt to connect families with resources and have put up signs that read, “See ICE? Call LUCE,” with the number 617-370-5023 listed.
These signs are periodically ripped down, the group members added.
On Friday afternoon, the group plans to host a vigil from 3 p.m. until 5 p.m. outside East Boston District Court to “decry the ongoing crisis of ICE abductions occurring within the courthouse, throughout our neighborhood and across Massachusetts.”
Faith leaders, community members and local organization leaders will come together “to honor our community members who have been kidnapped by ICE and separated from their loved ones during the holidays.”
Speakers will talk about the impact of detainments and deportations, all to “affirm that East Boston is a place of safety, dignity and belonging for everyone.”
“We don’t want to see ICE in court — preferably, we’d like to see them out of the neighborhood … but at the very least, we need them out of courts. Everybody should feel safe in the neighborhood,” Lown said.
“We want officials to step up instead of talking the game … to show up to court and see what’s going on, to talk to court officials and put some pressure on them to stop collaborating, to stop letting ICE take up residence inside the courthouse and inflict terror upon our neighborhood,” he continued.
“We want all that to end, and we want something to happen about it.”