It’s a shame that ICE agents scooped up a wanted illegal criminal immigrant before he returned to a Boston judge’s courtroom the other day.

Otherwise, Boston Municipal Court Judge Mark Summerville could have let him escape out the back door of the courthouse to avoid waiting ICE agents the way it has been done before.

Instead, the woke district court judge found ICE agent Brian Sullivan in contempt for interfering with the court proceedings and dismissed charges against the illegal immigrant.

That’s the way things work in progressive Massachusetts.

It began when Sullivan grabbed illegal immigrant Dominican national Wilson Martell-LeBron, also known as Juan Carlos Baez, outside the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse a week ago where he was standing trial on state forgery charges.

The 49-year-old Dominican reportedly had been convicted of drug trafficking in Essex and Middlesex counties in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in prison. The Essex County conviction was overturned in 2017, but the Middlesex sentence remained. He was released from state prison in 2020.

Judge Summerville accused Sullivan of violating Marell-Lebron’s rights to due process and a fair trial. He referred his contempt ruling to Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden.

Hayden, siding with the judge, said ICE operations in Boston have had “a chilling effect on some of on some of the most vulnerable in our communities due to fear of ICE. This harms public safety.”

Hayden did not mention chill effect on innocent victims, like child rape and murder, committed by criminal illegal immigrants.

Leah Foley, the tough talking and tough acting U.S. Attorney, shot back by saying that Hayden’s dislike of ICE agents doing their job “is not a basis for criminal charges” against Sullivan.

She also warned Hayden that it is “a felony offense to assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate or interfere with an immigration officer’s efforts to duly execute the immigration laws of the United States.”

“Any attempt or threat to interfere with the lawful actions of federal government agents will not be tolerated,” Foley said.

Foley issued a similar warning to Judge Summerville, a Gov. Bill Weld appointee. “There is simply no legal basis for you to hold federal officers in criminal contempt for carrying out their sworn duties.”

The Summerville case brings back memories to 2019 when Newton District Court Judge Shelley Joseph, another woke Democrat, earlier allowed a wanted illegal immigrant flee out the back of the courthouse to evade ICE agents seeking his detention who waited out front.

Joseph was indicted in 2019 on federal charges of conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct justice by then U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling, a Trump appointee, for allowing the twice deported illegal immigrant wanted on drug charges to escape.

She was suspended with pay pending the outcome of the charges.

Gov. Maura Healey, then attorney general, called the indictment “a radical and politically motivated attack on our state and the independence of our courts.” She was joined by then Suffolk County District Attorney Rachel Rollins and Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan.

No sooner did Joe Biden defeat Donald Trump for president in 2020 than Lelling was replaced by Rachael Rollins, who was later forced to resign over her own problems.

In the interim, the U.S, Justice department named Rhode Island Democrat U.S. Attorney Zachery Cunha to “review” the case, which was code to ditch it.

Which is what Cunha recommended. The charges were dropped, Joseph was reinstated, and the illegal immigrant walked. It was a victory for progressives and illegal immigrants.

But with Trump back in power, the victory is proving to be transitory.

Not a single immigrant has fled out the back door of a Massachusetts courthouse since Trump was elected. The back doors seem to be bolted shut.

With ICE around, they’re lucky to make it to the courthouse at all.

Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas can be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonerald.com

This family photo provided by attorney’s shows Wilson Martell-Lebron. (Family photo/Erkan & Sullivan, PC via AP)
Judge Shelley Joseph (AP file)