GULAG WATCH: Here’s Some Better News From The USDC in DC! 👍🏼 — O.M.G. et al. v. Wolf et al.

Khorri Atkinson
Khorri Atkinson
Reporter
Law360

https://www.law360.com/immigration/articles/1267946/flores-ruling-extends-to-adults-in-covid-19-detention-fight

 

Flores Ruling Extends To Adults In COVID-19 Detention Fight

By Khorri Atkinson

Law360, Washington (April 27, 2020, 8:50 PM EDT) — A D.C. federal judge ordered the government Monday to apply certain standards laid out in a landmark consent decree that established bedrock standards of care for migrant children in custody to adults held in three residential detention centers in Pennsylvania and Texas amid the coronavirus outbreak.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled during a teleconference hearing that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement must deliver by May 15 an account of what’s being done to expedite the release of adult detainees as well as efforts to ensure those detained at facilities with confirmed COVID-19 cases are being protected.

The decision came amid allegations by immigration advocacy groups that ICE has exhibited indifference to families at high risk of contracting the disease and that no appropriate steps are being taken to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. The Rapid Defense Network, ALDEA — the People’s Justice Center, and the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services last month sued federal immigration authorities, demanding the immediate release of dozens of migrant families at detention centers in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and Dilley and Karnes City, Texas.

In his ruling Monday, Judge Boasberg once again declined to grant immediate release of the asylum-seekers. But the judge applied some conditions in the landmark 1997 federal consent decree known as the Flores settlement agreement, which established bedrock standards of care for migrant children in custody. The decree prohibits the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from detaining migrant children beyond the 20-day limit.

Judge Boasberg expanded that holding to cover their parents, but stopped short of mandating the government to explain why an adult has been in detention for more than 20 days.

The judge noted that while adults are not protected under Flores, the government has been providing some information on adults in detention to U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee of California, who has been overseeing the consent decree as part of a long-running class action.

“I think this is sufficient at this point to ensure the constitutional treatment of” detainees, the judge said of his order during the teleconference session. 

Nonetheless, Judge Boasberg indicated that ICE has been making substantial efforts to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus at the facilities, pointing out that the three centers are at least 16% under capacity. So far, none of the centers have recorded cases of COVID-19, the government told the court.  

“Conditions are definitely improving,” the judge said. “That’s highly significant to me.”

Monday’s order builds upon previous decisions by the judge, who instructed ICE to provide the court with statistics on the number of detained migrants seeking asylum; testing and treatment plans; and compliance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance for congregate settings such as detention centers. 

Vanessa Molina, a U.S. Department of Justice attorney representing ICE, argued against applying Flores in this case. She maintained that it would be improper to demand that the agency explain why adults are in detention for more than 20 days because the consent decree was never meant to include parents or adults. 

Detention is a part of the removal process pending a deportation proceeding, Molina continued, and the plaintiffs have not demonstrated their burden of showing why they should be released. And there’s no finding in this case that ICE had been deliberately indifferent to the medical needs of asylum-seekers with COVID-19 risk factors, she said.

“ICE is authorized to detain the adults pending deportation proceedings,” the government attorney doubled down



Judge Boasberg responded that the government has been producing detention information on minors to the California federal judge and asked, “Why would there be any objections … [to provide similar data to the D.C. district court] for the adults?”

Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP partner Susan Baker Manning, an attorney for the migrant families, conceded to the government’s argument that detention is authorized as part of the deportation process. But the lawyer contended that her clients are being held in unsanitary conditions, that they are not subject to mandatory detention, and that they are not a danger to the community because they have no criminal histories.

Manning had urged Judge Boasberg to include the 20-day condition because it “is a perfect and reasonable benchmark to understand why migrants are being held in facilities where they are at risk of contracting COVID-19.” But the judge declined to do so. 

The judge has set a May 20 teleconference hearing for the parties to discuss the latest developments in the litigation.

The migrants are represented by Susan Baker Manning of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, ManojGovindaiah and Curtis F.J. Doebbler of the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, Amy Maldonado of The Law Office of Amy Maldonado, and Sarah T. Gillman and Gregory P. Copeland of Rapid Defense Network.

The government is represented by Vanessa Molina of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division’s Office of Immigration Litigation and Daniel Franklin Van Horn of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

The case is O.M.G. et al. v. Wolf et al., case number 1:20-cv-00786, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

 

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Thanks to Dan Kowalski over at LexisNexis Immigration Community for sending this!

Sadly, the lack of leadership among all three branches of our Government means that what should be uniform policies applicable throughout the country are instead litigated piecemeal, with differing results. Not surprisingly, as the regime touts draconian immigration “bans and bars” approaches to the coronavirus crisis, it continues to fail on the everyday Xs and Os” of competent government, requiring constant prodding from lawyers, judges, and journalists to get the basics right.

Still, a “W” is a “W” for the “good guys!”

PWS

04-28-20

 

JUDGE BOASBERG ORDERS REGIME TO COUGH UP MORE INFO ON THOSE IN GULAG!

 

Spencer S. Hsu
Spencer S. Hsu
Investigative Reporter
Washington Post

https://apple.news/AAA028OREQ4itWr-VKIpz5A

Spencer S. Hsu reports for WashPost:

U.S. immigration officials must disclose the number of releases they have granted or denied from detention centers in five southern states to migrants considered at higher risk of dying from coronavirus.

The order from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg came during a hearing Thursday – days after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement expanded the categories of detainees who should be considered for release beyond pregnant women and those over age 70.

On Saturday, ICE directed field offices nationwide to reassess custody of anyone over 60, as well as those of any age with chronic illnesses compromising their immune systems.

“What I’m looking for is, is it in fact happening on the ground?” Boasberg told lawyers for ICE at an emergency hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington in a lawsuit brought by immigrant advocates seeking release of asylum seekers detained in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.

Boasberg, who ordered the numbers released by April 30, said ICE’s shift may “go a long way” toward releasing the most vulnerable detainees.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Simon said ICE will determine if it can release the information. He said ICE also retains full discretion over the outcome of reviews, saying “none of the [listed] factors are determinative” of release, with public safety a high priority.

. . . .

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Read the rest of the article at the above link.

Unfortunately, April 30 might be too late for some of those held in the Gulag.

The “ICE guidance” sounds like the normal DHS bureaucratic doublespeak that promotes arbitrariness and allows individual offices to do whatever they feel like doing, while providing a “smokescreen” of reasonable action. Hopefully, Judge Boasberg won’t be fooled.

PWS

04-09-20

GULAG WATCH: DC FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS DHS TO DO BETTER ON DETAINED FAMILIES: “I will order that in a week [April 6], the government has got to come back to me and give me answers about the capacity of these centers, videotapes of living conditions and steps taken toward release.”

Spencer S. Hsu
Spencer S. Hsu
Investigative Reporter
Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/us-judge-widens-order-urging-ice-release-of-migrant-families-with-young-children-in-coronavirus-outbreak/2020/03/30/8226ed06-7296-11ea-85cb-8670579b863d_story.html

Spencer Hsu reports for WashPost:

A federal judge in Washington pressed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release migrants held in family detention centers, citing the imminent risk of coronavirus outbreaks in confinement and their rapid spread to surrounding communities.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of Washington, D.C., stopped short of ordering the immediate release of about 1,350 members of migrant families detained at three centers in Pennsylvania and Texas as part of a lawsuit advocates recently filed. But during a hearing on Monday, the judge directed U.S. immigration authorities to report on their efforts to release families in custody by next week.

“I will order that in a week [April 6], the government has got to come back to me and give me answers about the capacity of these centers, videotapes of living conditions and steps taken toward release,” Boasberg said after a 45-minute hearing.

“Circumstances are changing rapidly, and if there are cases in these centers or there are other problems that are not compliant, I will revisit” the petitioners emergency release request, the judge added.

Boasberg’s order expands on a similar one U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee issued Saturday in Los Angeles related to an emergency hearing seeking the release of 6,900 detained children. Gee had ordered that federal agencies operating detention facilities for migrant children report their efforts to release children in custody by April 6. Boasberg widened the order to cover their parents.

[[Coronavirus could pose serious concern in ICE jails, immigration courts]]

Boasberg also directed U.S. immigration authorities to comply with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for congregate housing and the Constitution’s guarantee that prisoners be held in safe and sanitary conditions.

[[Sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter to track the outbreak. All stories linked in the newsletter are free to access.]]

Boasberg entered his order in a lawsuit filed March 21 by three groups helping migrant families seeking asylum and being held at three centers in Berks County, Pa.; Dilley, Tex.; and Karnes City, Tex., under the Trump administration’s family detention policy.

Lawyers for the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, the Rapid Defense Network, and ALDEA — the People’s Justice Center argued that their clients are “trapped and at risk of serious, irreparable harm” in situations they called “a tinderbox.”

The suit alleged that groups of about 60, 500 and 800 detained mothers, fathers and children live, eat and sleep in close quarters at the three facilities and cannot meet hygiene and “social distancing” standards recommended to prevent the spread of the virus.

The complaint asserts that up to 100 people sit “elbow to elbow” in lunchrooms at tables of 10; soap is limited; access to hand sanitizer is limited or nonexistent; and cleaning of centers is typically done by volunteer detainees who are paid $1 a day and not provided hand sanitizer or masks.

“Families in [detention centers] are scared and concerned for their lives,” the complaint alleged. “It is almost certain to expect COVID-19 to infect and spread rapidly in family residential centers, especially when people cannot engage in proper hygiene or isolate themselves from infected or asymptomatic residents or staff.”

The suit said authorities have begun to release some families that include pregnant women or people with asthma from the Karnes and Dilley facilities.

. . . .

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Read the complete story at the link.

It’s clear that DHS has neither the desire nor the ability to comply with CDC guidelines. Delay could be deadly. Indeed, that Judge Boasberg had to order the DHS to do what it should be doing anyway and what it has falsely claimed it was doing actually demonstrates why the whole system should long ago have been removed from the regime’s control

The good news is that in this case the regime’s immigration kakistocracy is finally getting some much-needed “adult supervision” from Judge Boasberg. Let’s hope he can save some lives from a system designed and operated to demean, dehumanize, and endanger as part of an unconstitutional “deterrence” strategy.

But, at some point, both our society and our justice system will have to stop the ongoing “willful blindness” and deal directly with the unconstitutionality, intentional cruelty, immorality, and wastefulness of falsely classifying gratuitous “cruel and unusual punishment” of families and children seeking asylum as “civil detention.” It’s no such thing; it must be outlawed and abolished except in the extremely limited circumstances where it is actually required to protect the public or insure appearance. 

And, under our Constitution, it should never be imposed without an individualized order from an independent Federal Judge. Today’s “New American Gulag” is an unconstitutional national disgrace which has been “weaponized,” with disturbingly little actual supervision by the Article III Judiciary, by a regime interested only in furthering a White Nationalist agenda of gratuitous cruelty and oppression of “the other” (primarily, other humans of color)!

PWS

 

03-31-20