U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested four people Monday at the Douglas County Courthouse in downtown Omaha.
All four people detained were attending court appearances. Three faced charges of driving under the influence, and the fourth person faced charges related to a hit-and-run and driving under a suspended license, said Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson.
One of the men detained was awaiting his court appearance when ICE agents approached and arrested him, according to the man’s attorney, Robert Larsen. The officer informed Larsen he was with ICE and the detainees would be taken to a processing center near Abbott Drive and Avenue H.
“It was fairly shocking,” Larsen said. “I had never seen this happen before. I mean, it was in the back of my mind, wondering if something like this would ever happen in Douglas County.”
Larsen searched his client’s name in the federal ICE detainee database around noon Monday. The site stated he was in McCook, the location of an ICE detention Center.
“We didn’t even get to have his hearing for the thing he was there for. They literally took him when I was not looking. If I’d wandered into the lobby like 15 or 20 seconds after I did, he probably would have already gone out the door.”
Sheriff Hanson said another individual was detained by ICE at the courthouse last week. He said DCSO deputies aren’t directly involved in immigration enforcement.
“The role of the sheriff’s office in that case, we’re statutorily obligated to maintain the peace at the courthouse,” Hanson said.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to an email seeking comment Monday afternoon.
The detainments come amid nationwide protests over the death of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who was shot by federal immigration agents on a Minneapolis street Saturday morning. Hundreds of people lined one of Omaha’s busiest intersections Sunday to protest ICE patrols.