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LOS ANGELES - In a nationwide review of legal rights for immigrants in
federal detention, a federal judge has found serious violations of the
government's own standards relating to detention conditions.
U.S. District Court Judge Margaret M. Morrow examined
never-before-released reports regarding conditions at more than 200
immigration detention facilities and found widespread problems,
including lack of access to telephones, attorneys, and legal materials,
faced by thousands of immigrants seeking asylum or pursuing legitimate
claims to legal residency. The court reviewed thousands of pages of
government reports assessing conditions at facilities nationwide, as
well as similar reports by a United Nations office and the American Bar
Association. These reports showed that detained immigrants from all
nations faced similar problems.
"The government's treatment of immigrants betrays its
promise of fairness and due process," said Linton Joaquin of the
National Immigration Law Center, who served as lead counsel in the case.
"The government should not deprive immigrants in detention of basic due
process rights, such as meeting with lawyers, reading law books, and
making phone calls to family members."
The judge's findings came in
a ruling, finalized on
July 26, that upheld a
nationwide injunction to protect Salvadoran
immigrants seeking asylum in the U.S. The National Immigration Law
Center, ACLU of Southern California, and ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project
had opposed the government's request to end the court-ordered
injunction, which requires the government to treat people in immigration
detention fairly.
Judge Morrow ruled that substantial evidence showed "a
significant number of violations of critical provisions of the
injunction dealing with detainees' access to legal materials, telephone
use and attorney visits." The court also found that despite the end of
the civil war in that country, immigrants from El Salvador continue to
have legitimate asylum claims, and that they, like all immigrants, must
be provided basic due process.
The ruling follows recent reports by the
Dept. of Homeland Security inspector
general and the
Government Accountability Office
showing similar problems in immigration detention.
"What's happening to immigrants in detention should
disturb all of us," said ACLU/SC staff attorney Ranjana Natarajan.
"People seeking America's protection from torture and persecution
deserve a fair hearing and respect for their basic rights."
The legal team included Linton Joaquin and Karen Tumlin
from NILC, Ranjana Natarajan and Mark Rosenbaum from the ACLU of
Southern California, and Jennifer Chang, Lucas Guttentag, Judy
Rabinovitz, and Monica Ramirez from the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project
Pro bono assistance was provided by the law firms of
Holland & Knight and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.
(A copy of the modified, consolidated Orantes injunction, issued
Nov. 26, 2007, is available
here.)
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For
more information on this issue, see:
Although NILC and co-counsel in the Orantes case obtained,
through discovery, tens of thousands of pages of
never-before-released reports on detention conditions, some critical
information in these reports was not released. For example, although the
Orantes team obtained copies of many DHS annual facility reports
for 2004 and 2005, information in these reports relating to 20 of the 38
National Detention Standards had been redacted as irrelevant to the
litigation. Among the redacted material is information
regarding facility compliance with standards relating to medical care,
use of force, religious practices, and food services.
In March 2007, NILC, along with the ACLU of Southern California and the
National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, filed a
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain this redacted
information as well as other crucial government documents relating to
the detention conditions immigrants face. To date, the
government has failed to produce a single document in response to this
request.
Click here for a copy of the FOIA
request.
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