In search of justice

A coalition of groups rallied at the Orange County Courthouse Wednesday to protest the arrest and detainment of Rita "Fany" Cote, 23, an immigrant from Honduras.
The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the detention of Cote, said attorney Glenn Katon.

According to Katon, Cote was arrested on Feb. 16 after her sister placed a 9-1-1 call to report a domestic assault by her boyfriend. Police arrived at the Cote home and asked everyone for identification.
After running the names through a database, they found that Cote had a pending removal order from immigration. Police said Cote had entered the country with her parents illegally when she was 15.
Police arrested her and brought her to the Lake County jail. She was held for eight days without being charged before she was transferred to an immigration detention center, Katon said.
UCF alumnus and ACLU staff associate Matt De Vlieger was at the rally Wednesday.

"Justice is something that's very important to me, and police acted unjustly," De Vlieger said. "They arrested a woman who is nonviolent. The only thing she did wrong once police arrived at the scene was cooperate with them."

The ACLU has filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus, which would allow Cote to be brought to court to determine if she should be released from custody.
Katon said he could count eight ways in which police violated the law in the manner in which they arrested and detained Cote. He said that local police do not have the authority to arrest immigrants and that federal law has the exclusive jurisdiction to do so, per U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

According to the ICE Web site, state law enforcement is not allowed to act as federal law enforcement in matters of immigration unless officers complete a four-week training course before they for certification to do so. Lake County is not on ICE's list of certified partners.
John Barry, Cote's immigration attorney, said the domestic abuse, in which the man was reportedly choking Cote's sister, should have been dealt with rather than Cote's citizenship.

"Unfortunately the police decided to let go of the batterer in spite of incredible evidence that a battery had taken place — a choking, a near choking to death — and they decided to become deputized local ICE agents and take it upon themselves to apply federal immigration law," he said. "And as a result, her 14th amendment equal protection rights have been violated. This is not a controversial case; it's an example of abuse of police power."
Barry said he is currently working to change Cote's citizenship status.

Rita Cote's husband, Robert Cote, and their three children demonstrated outside the courthouse to tell their story.

"Obviously, we're torn apart," he said. "You know they didn't arrest a criminal, what they arrested was a mother of three children and the love of my life, my wife."

Robert Cote said that he and his wife had sought to gain citizenship status for her but could not afford it.
"It was financially impossible to raise three children and come up with two thousand dollars to do the immigration process," he said. "This process is very expensive."
The rally of about 15 people drew both supporters of the Cote family and immigrants' rights activists.
Roberto Cancel, who is studying nonprofit management at UCF, is a coordinator for Democracia USA. His organization typically focuses on civic engagement, such as voting registration, he said, but it has moved onto other issues.

Cancel was there protesting the partnership that allows local law enforcement to detain immigrants.

Other groups present were the Farmworker Association of Florida and the Florida Immigrant Coalition.

Cote is in custody in a detention center in Palm Beach, said ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez in an e-mail.