Bay Area judge blocks ICE from detaining asylum-seekers during proceedings

SAN JOSE, Calif. (CN) — A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction Wednesday against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials detaining asylum-seekers while they continue immigration court proceedings, asserting the plaintiffs are not a danger to the community and their detention is unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts granted the preliminary injunction to stop any further detention of Colombian asylum-seeker Ligia Garcia and Guatemalan asylum-seeker Yulisa Alvarado Ambrocio after first issuing a temporary restraining order on Sept. 19 while Garcia was detained at ICE’s San Francisco Field Office at 630 Sansome St.. The preliminary injunction prohibits detention of the two women without notice while they go through the immigration court process.

“The government may not detain Ms. Alvarado Ambrocio, and may not re-detain Ms. Garcia, during the pendency of these proceedings without providing them with pre-detention bond hearings before a neutral immigration judge,” the Joe Biden appointee said. “The government may detain petitioners only if, at such a bond hearing, the government bears its burden of demonstrating by clear and convincing evidence that Ms. Alvarado Ambrocio or Ms. Garcia are a danger to the community or a flight risk and that no conditions other than detention would be sufficient to prevent such harms.”

The temporary restraining order, which he extended on Sept. 30, allowed for the immediate release of Garcia and prevented detention of Alvarado Ambrocio while she went to a court proceeding today.

During Garcia’s detention, the 54-year-old spent over 24 hours in ICE custody. She suffers from high blood pressure and is hard of hearing in one ear, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the organizations representing Garcia and Alvarado Ambrocio.

By granting the temporary restraining order, Pitts determined Garcia’s Fifth Amendment due process rights were violated by her detention and that her release had minimal impact on the government.

In a similar case against acting ICE Field Office Director Sergio Albarran and other U.S. officials, U.S. District Judge Eumi Lee, also a Biden appointee, issued an extension of a temporary restraining order on Thursday for five petitioners from Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua and China, until 24 hours after a ruling on the motion for preliminary injunction.

The hearing to show cause for this case was vacated earlier Thursday.

Both women have been in the U.S. for over a year. During that time, according to their attorneys, they became a part of the community and do not pose a threat to national or border interests.

Garcia and Alvarado Ambrocio are two of four named plaintiffs in a Sept. 19 class action. The suit follows an Aug. 1 petition for writ of habeas corpus filed for named plaintiff Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen, who was similarly detained by ICE but released after a day. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco and the Central American Resource Center joined the class action.

“We are encouraged by the court’s decision and are eagerly seeking broader relief to halt the federal government’s ill-considered decision to convert immigration court into a trap for immigrants who were promised a fair day in court,” Jordan Wells, an attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco, said in an email.

Part of the class action argues the conditions in which detainees are held at 630 Sansome St. are inhumane. The government challenged the idea, saying the plaintiffs’ claims can only change the duration of the confinement and not the conditions. Pitts dismissed the conditions arguments because he said they didn’t apply to the preliminary injunction.

“The court must dismiss from the amended complaint petitioners’ new claims concerning the conditions of confinement at 630 Sansome,” he said. “Even if that were true, however, it has no bearing on Ms. Alvarado Ambrocio and Ms. Garcia’s request for a preliminary injunction, which does not concern conditions of confinement.”

The defendants of the case include Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pamela Bondi and several San Francisco ICE officials.

U.S. attorney Douglas Johns could not be reached for comment. An automated email message said he has been furloughed due to the government shutdown.