A 76-year-old Indonesian man went to Philly court as a witness. He ended up in ICE custody.

ICE agents descended on an elderly Indonesian father and his son outside the Philadelphia courthouse earlier this month, taking both into custody in an incident that advocates say underscores the lack of local protection for immigrants.

They say seeking justice at the courthouse now carries potentially life-altering consequences for migrants amid an ICE focus on the property.

The 76-year-old father faced no criminal charges at court that day. He had gone to the Criminal Justice Center as a complaining witness after he said his 47-year-old son assaulted him, leaving him with a black eye and a cut on his chin.

The father decided not to continue pursuing charges, and went to court with his son that day, April 7, hoping to end the legal proceedings.

Today the younger man remains in immigration detention more than two weeks after being arrested by ICE. The father was released by the agency not long after being taken into custody.

Groups including No ICE Philly, which has repeatedly called on Sheriff Rochelle Bilal to ban ICE officers from the courthouse, say the case exemplifies how immigrant witnesses, complainants, and family members are put at risk of deportation by participating in the administration of justice.

“How can we call ourselves a ‘welcoming city’ when people have to choose between taking part in a legal process and getting home safe?” asked No ICE Philly organizer Aniqa Raihan, who called the situation “another example of how ICE’s presence at the courthouse erodes justice for all of us.”

She and Vivian Chang, executive director of Asian Americans United, the advocacy group, called upon city and court leaders to restrict ICE activity at the Criminal Justice Center, where dozens of immigrants have been arrested during the last 15 months.

“It is a stain on the soul of Philadelphia that a 76-year-old man was brutalized by ICE for going to court,” Chang said. “The safety of immigrants and all Philadelphians is under attack.”

ICE officials did not respond to a request for comment.

The incident first came to light during an April 13 City Council hearing, as experts and community members shared views on “ICE Out” legislation that proposes to limit agency operations in Philadelphia.

Attorney Lilah Thompson, of the Defenders Association of Philadelphia, told Council that ICE had arrested five people outside the courthouse in the previous week, including “a 76-year-old complaining witness” whom she did not identify.

Older age is no protection from immigration enforcement.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has broad authority to arrest noncitizens whom it suspects of violating immigration laws. At the same time, the agency has discretion over whom it decides to take into custody.

In this case, the men’s specific immigration status is unknown.

“You have a vulnerable victim who is reaching out for help, and is unlikely to reach out for help again,” Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said of the case. “ICE has been an unmitigated disaster for a normally functioning court system that exists to protect safety and to protect people’s rights.”

Sinta Penyami Storms, director of Gapura, a South-Philadelphia-based Indonesian community organization, said she was attempting to gather information on the matter. The family asked not to be identified amid their upset over the son’s detention, she said.

It’s disconcerting, she said, that father and son were taken into ICE custody at the courthouse, that “they’re doing something that’s not immigration related, and they’re still detained.”

The estimated 2,000 Indonesian Americans in Philadelphia, the 10th-largest community in the nation, have faced fresh pressure since President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January 2025.

That has included the October arrest and Christmas night deportation of a longtime Philadelphia resident who was arrested at a routine immigration appointment. The man, Rian Andrianzah, walked into a Philadelphia office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services expecting to be fingerprinted and sent home, but instead was taken into custody and placed in detention.

Many of the people who go to the courthouse each day are not criminal defendants, but rather witnesses, victims, friends, or family members of those who have business before the court or who have been charged with crimes. That some have been targeted and arrested by ICE, immigration attorneys and government officials say, is causing witnesses and victims to stay away from court and hindering the administration of justice.

Much of the activist anger over the arrests has been directed at Sheriff Bilal. No ICE Philly and others say that by not barring ICE ― as judges and lawmakers have done in some other jurisdictions ― she has helped enable the arrest of more than 100 immigrants who were trailed out of the building and arrested on the sidewalk.

The sheriff has said her office does not cooperate with ICE, does not assist in ICE operations, and does not share information with the agency. In January, however, the First Judicial District that oversees the Philadelphia courts said authority for managing ICE’s presence at the Criminal Justice Center rested with the sheriff.

The sheriff’s office declined to comment on Wednesday.

Immigrant advocates say the First Judicial District also must act, specifically to extend physical protections beyond the courthouse and onto its environs. At a rally and news conference on Tuesday, they said the Judicial District leadership has declined to update policies that could potentially stop people from being arrested when they set foot outside the building.

Arrests have increased since January 2025, when the Trump administration ended Biden-era restrictions on immigration enforcement at courthouses.

Attorney Thompson, chief of the Immigration Law Practice at the Defender Association of Philadelphia, told City Council that the organization knew of at least 47 arrests at the Criminal Justice Center since January 2025. Another occurred at Family Court and two at the Traffic Division, she said.

She described ICE agents “loitering” at courthouse entrances, in the lobby, and in hallways and courtrooms, always dressed in plain clothes and without visible badges or identification.

Most of those arrested, she said, were at the preliminary stages of their court hearings on misdemeanors or other minor offenses. Many would have their cases dismissed if they appeared, she said, but “our clients are afraid to go to court. Witnesses are afraid to go to court. … We need to stop any collaboration with ICE.”

Staff writer Anna Orso contributed to this article.