Chico criminal defense attorney Kevin Sears remembers that day in late July in Butte County Superior Court when he heard what he describes as “awful screaming” outside the courtroom.
The bailiff told him that agents from Immigration, Customs & Enforcement (ICE) were outside. “I just about fainted,” Sears said. “I just had no clue they were there. It was the first time they had come.”
Sears acts as public defender for Butte County DUI cases, so on any given day he may have up to 50 clients in court. When he learned what was happening outside the courtroom, he thought immediately of one client in particular who had been anxious about ICE courthouse arrests around the state.