ICE’s latest focus in Tennessee: traffic court

Five people were detained after appearing in Robertson County General Sessions “trooper docket” for traffic violations by masked and uniformed officers. (Photo John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

SPRINGFIELD, Tenn. — Yariel Cogco accompanied his mother into the Robertson County courthouse Wednesday morning to take care of a traffic ticket. An hour later, the 19-year-old college student stood on the sidewalk outside alone, blinking back tears.

“They took my mom,” he said.

Yanim Lopez, Cogco’s mother, was one of five people detained at the courthouse after answering a summons to appear at the regular Wednesday General Sessions Court “trooper docket” reserved for traffic offenses.

All five appeared before a judge and paid their fines before being ushered into a private room, out of view. 

They reemerged about 15 minutes later, led single-file out the building’s front door by masked individuals in plain clothes who ignored a reporter’s question asking which agency employed them. All five, including Cogco’s mom, were restrained in leg shackles and handcuffs secured to chains around their waists. They were placed in a waiting white van. 

Lopez is now in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, she told her son in a phone call on her way to a Knoxville detention center later in the day. She said she was asked if she would voluntarily agree to be “self-deported” to Mexico, but refused. On Saturday, Lopez was transferred to a Louisiana detention facility after being denied the right to post bond, Cogco said.

“I want to bawl my eyes out, but I’ve got to stay calm for my little sister,” who is 12, Cogco said at the courthouse. 

Lopez, 38, was in the process of obtaining a “U visa” reserved for domestic violence and other crime victims when she received a citation for driving without a license, he said. Originally from Mexico, Lopez has lived in the United States since she was six-years-old, he said.

Immigrants without legal status are ineligible to obtain a valid Tennessee drivers’ license.

In Robertson County, similar scenes of mass arrests have taken place on four or five different occasions in recent weeks immediately following the Wednesday trooper dockets, according to Roger Neil, the county’s public defender.

The practice has troubled local immigrant advocates and attorneys, who report witnessing similar arrests after misdemeanor traffic court appearances inside the Wilson County Courthouse in October. 

“All Tennesseans should be able to expect to be treated fairly when they show up to traffic court,” said Spring Miller, attorney for the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition.

“It is shameful that our local public spaces are being commandeered in service of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda, and in the long run it will make us all less safe.”

Heightened immigration enforcement in courthouses

The Trump administration in January ended a policy limiting immigration arrests in state and county courts.

In May, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons issued a memo citing advantages of making arrests inside civil and criminal court buildings that have already screened for weapons. 

Since then, reports of immigration detentions in courthouses around the country have increased, even as some Democratic-led states have challenged them. 

Deportations of immigrants without legal status whose only offenses are traffic related have surged during the second Trump administration, according to the Marshall Project. The news organization reported the monthly number of people deported whose most serious offense was a traffic violation more than tripled in the first six months of this year. 

Whether federal immigration enforcement officials were alerted ahead of time to the immigration status of those scheduled to appear on the Robertson County traffic docket is unknown. 

A Robertson County clerk said she had received no requests from ICE about individuals scheduled to be in court. 

In Wilson County, the court clerk’s office sends daily docket lists to multiple agencies, including ICE, a practice that has been in place for several years, according to Kim Stewart, executive chief deputy.

‘Left this in God’s hands’

Cogco and his mother nearly left after seeing a white van parked near the court’s entrance when they arrived for the 9 a.m. hearing.

“We saw the van, and we were thinking of turning around. But if nothing happened, then she gets a warrant for arrest,” he said. 

“We were worried, but we just went ahead and left this in God’s hands to make sure she’s alright.”

Cogco’s mother, who cleans homes for a living, had been ticketed for driving without a license on her way home to Nashville from visiting relatives in Robertson County, he said.

Inside the courtroom, Robertson County General Sessions Judge Joel Perry called up individuals one by one to answer for traffic violations that included speeding more than 20 miles over the limit, using a cell phone while driving and driving without a license.

Lopez pleaded guilty to the driving-without-a-license violation, receiving the same penalty Perry meted out repeatedly that morning: a $50 fine, $10 in court fees, online traffic school and eight hours of community service on the county’s “trash van.”

“Take a seat in the front,” he instructed Lopez, directing her to sit beside others who had also just pleaded guilty to traffic violations.

Less than an hour into the hearing, with Lopez and four others who would soon be detained seated in front of the courtroom, Perry called a recess and left the room. 

A uniformed officer stepped into the courtroom and called out the names of Lopez and others seated beside her. The group was then escorted out to a pay window to pay their fines.

Perry did not respond to a message left with his office last week seeking information about his role in Wednesday’s detentions.

Lopez followed the court deputy to a payment window in the court’s hallway. After paying her fine, Lopez was escorted by an officer to another room, out of public view.

Cogco caught a brief glimpse of what happened next. 

“They took her to the room, and I couldn’t understand,” he said. “But then I saw that they had the handcuffs, and that’s when I knew.”

“All she said was ‘just to take care of my sister, let my family know, and just take care of my little sister,’” Cogco said. 

Lopez was last in the line of five detainees escorted in a line out the entrance door of the Robertson County courthouse about 15 minutes later in leg restraints and handcuffs, escorted by five plain-clothed individuals wearing neck masks hiked up to cover their nose and mouths.

Asked where their detainees were being taken, one masked woman responded “Homeland Security in Nashville. You can follow us if you want.”

‘It’s only me and my sisters’

Aurora Leao, 46, in court for a ticket for driving without a license, also emerged in the line of chained and shackled detainees brought to the white van.

Elizabeth Leao, her 21-year-old daughter, could barely speak between heaving sobs as she stood in the courthouse parking lot, trying to reach family members on her phone. 

“Oh God,” she said, sobbing uncontrollably.

“I wasn’t even expecting this,” she said. “I really thought that nothing was going to happen. It’s only me and my sisters.”

Aurora Leao, originally from Mexico, has lived in the United States for 22 years, her daughter said. She phoned her daughter later on Wednesday to say she was detained in Knoxville, Elizabeth Leao said.

“I’m not sure how long they’ll have her there before possibly being transferred to Louisiana,” Elizabeth Leao wrote via text Thursday. “I’m trying to find an attorney but it (is) hard to know which one to go with and if I should wait for her to be transferred and get a hearing there,” 

A spokesperson for ICE on Thursday declined to answer questions about the Robertson County courthouse arrests, citing “operational security.”

“As part of its routine operations, ICE arrests aliens who commit crimes and other individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws,” Angelina Vicknair, the spokesperson, wrote in an emailed response.

“All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States, regardless of nationality,” she wrote.

All five of the individuals detained, including Leao and Lopez, had entered guilty pleas to driving offenses before being detained, adding a criminal mark to their record just before their immigration arrests.

Driving without a license is a misdemeanor criminal offense. So, too, are most traffic offenses in Tennessee, unlike most other states that classify traffic offenses as civil infractions, said Jerry Gonzalez, a Nashville criminal defense attorney unconnected to the Robertson County Court detentions last week.

“After they plead guilty to a traffic offense, the government can legitimately say they are ‘criminals’” he said.