The court granted Arana's habeas petition seeking an order providing him with a bond hearing given the risks posed to his health by COVID-19. Arana is 63 years old, has asthma, and suffers from severe depression and auditory hallucinations, causing him to attempt suicide on multiple occasions including attempting to burn his house down. Arana was sentenced to time served and five years of probation, but was subsequently arrested by ICE and placed in removal proceedings. Arana had been detained for more than 20 months without a bond hearing. The court applied the Sajous factors, an S.D.N.Y. test to determine whether detention has been unreasonably prolonged, thereby entitling a petitioner to a bond hearing. Sajous v. Decker, No. 18-CV-2447, 2018 WL 2357266, at *7 (S.D.N.Y. May 23, 2018); see also Lora v. Shanahan, 804 F.3d 601, 613 (2d Cir. 2015). The court concluded that the Sajous factors weighed overwhelmingly in favor of Arana and required the government to produce Arana before an Immigration Judge by April 7, 2020 for an individualized bond hearing or release him on his own recognizance that day.
Arana v. Barr, No. 19-cv-07924 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 13, 2020)
DETAILS
Decision
Date
4/3/2020
Practice Area
Immigration
Relief Requested
Bond Hearing
Type of Court
Federal District Court
Location
New York
Type of Case
Individual
Case Characteristics
Immigrant Detention
Compassionate Release Case
No
Case Tracking Number
19-cv-07924-PGG
MORE CASE INFORMATION
Court Name
S.D.N.Y.
Decision
Motion Granted
Place of Incarceration
Immigrant Detention
Name of Facility
Bergen County Jail
Legal Authority
Substantive Due Process - Punitive Detention (both 14th and 5th Amendments)
Crowdsourced legal documents from around the country related to COVID-19 and incarceration, organized, collected, and summarized for public defenders, litigators, and other advocates. Created and managed by Bronx Defenders, Columbia Law School’s Center for Institutional and Social Change, UCLA Law COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project, and Zealous. Mostly federal court opinions, but now expanding to states and legal filings, declarations, and exhibits.
This resource is designed to help lawyers, advocates, researchers, journalists, and others interested in challenging, remedying, or drawing attention to the grave risk that Covid-19 poses to individuals who are detained.