Samantha French was at the Maywood Courthouse in Cook County, Ill., when she noticed a group of men in plainclothes who seemed like they were looking for someone.

"I saw their attention peak when they saw someone walking toward them, and one of them very aggressively went toward this man and grabbed his wrist," says French, an assistant public defender in the county.

The man's lawyer, Rick Sotorrio, told NPR his client was facing misdemeanor charges for a domestic disturbance in the Chicago suburbs.

"His wife is there, his two kids are there, and as we're starting to leave down the hallway from the actual courtroom, there's like five or six guys standing there," Sotorrio says. "I said, 'What's going on?' And [an officer] goes, 'I work for Homeland Security. We have a warrant for his arr

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