Press Coverage
Detained immigrants sue ICE, say they can’t social distance in jail and fear severe coronavirus illness
The immigrants are represented by multiple agencies including the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, the American Civil Liberties Union’s northern and southern California units, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, and the Bay Area immigration firm Lakin & Wille LLP.
Judah Lakin, an immigration attorney with Lakin & Wille, said that ICE is not capable of protecting the health and safety of people whom they detain.
“These are extraordinary circumstances and public health experts around the country have rung the warning bell that the only way to protect incarcerated individuals, as well as the broader community, is to depopulate jails and prisons,” Lakin said.
ICE releases California woman amid coronavirus pandemic. Will other detainees be freed?
Immigration authorities this week released from custody a 64-year-old Kern County woman considered a high-risk for severe illness from the coronavirus, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Sofia Bahena Ortuño, who suffers from diabetes, hypothyroidism and occasional high blood pressure, was released from custody Tuesday, the same day the ACLU sued ICE on behalf of Ortuño and a dozen other undocumented immigrants who also have health issues that could be complicated by COVID-19 infection.
Bahena Ortuño, who came to the country illegally, had been in custody since October in Mesa Verde. Her attorney, Judah Lakin, said they believe Bahena Ortuño’s arrest was illegal and plans to fight the case in court.
“I think we are relieved and are happy that she is out,” Lakin told The Bee. “But we are still very concerned about the rest of the plaintiffs in our case, as well as everybody else who is detained.”
Judge grants temporary restraining order in favor of immigrants at Bakersfield, Yuba County detention centers in ICE lawsuit
A federal judge has granted a temporary restraining order in response to a challenge by immigrants detained at two California immigration detention centers, one of which is in Bakersfield, where conditions are rife for the spread of COVID-19.
The centers, used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain immigrants, are the Mesa Verde Detention Center in Bakersfield and the Yuba County Jail in Marysville, which together currently hold about 400 detainees.
The judge ordered a review process to identify people for release in order to enable social distancing inside the centers.
“Time is of the essence,” said Judge Vince Chhabria. “The plaintiffs have demonstrated an exceedingly strong likelihood that they will prevail on their claim that current conditions at the facilities violate class members’ due process rights by unreasonably exposing them to a significant risk of harm.”
The order said that “the conditions of confinement do not merely threaten detainees; they also threaten facility staff, not to mention the greater community whose health is put at risk by the congregation of large groups in cramped spaces.”
Judge Chhabria provisionally certified a class of all immigration detainees in the two facilities and ordered ICE to provide information to the court about detained immigrants to allow for the review of their custody.
“ICE’s failure thus far to respond meaningfully to the crisis despite the wave of court rulings from around the country documenting the agency’s inaction,” the judge said in his ruling. He said ICE failed to have even a list of medically vulnerable people in detention six weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom shut down the state in light of the health risks of COVID-19.
This is the first class-action lawsuit in California challenging conditions of detention filed on behalf of everyone detained at these two facilities.
A coalition of legal organizations is representing the plaintiffs, including the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundations of Northern California and Southern California, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, and the law firms of Lakin & Wille LLP and Cooley LLP.