The court denied the plaintiff's habeas petition. The case was brought by a transgender man who had fled to America from Honduras, motivated by "fear of serious harm or death" on the basis of his gender identity. He has been detained since September 2019, was waiting on an appeal of an IJ's decision to deny him asylum, and sought to be temporarily released because Covid-19 had spread at the detention facility and because he had been detained for almost eight months. The court ruled against the plaintiff because he was deemed a flight risk, noting that "Garcia Diaz’s history of three unauthorized entries to the U.S. evidences his propensity for noncompliance with immigration requirements" and because he did not fit into a CDC risk category. The court also stated that the conditions in the facility do not "amount to punishment so as to violate his due process rights as alleged in his Petition" given that medical care and testing is available and because "[h]and sanitizer, soap, and masks have been provided to all detainees."
Garcia Diaz v. Acuff, No. 20-cv-00352, 2020 WL 2769994 (S.D. Ill. May. 28, 2020)
DETAILS
Decision
Date
5/28/2020
Practice Area
Immigration
Relief Requested
Preliminary Injunction (PI), Release, Temporary Restraining Order (TRO)
Type of Court
Federal District Court
Location
Illinois
Type of Case
Individual
Case Characteristics
Immigrant Detention, Pre-Existing Health Conditions, Pretrial Detention [jail]
Release Granted
No
Compassionate Release Case
No
Case Tracking Number
20-cv-00352-SMY
MORE CASE INFORMATION
Court Name
S.D. Ill.
Decision
Motion Denied
Place of Incarceration
Immigrant Detention
Name of Facility
Pulaski County Detention Center
Legal Authority
Eighth Amendment - Deliberate Indifference, Procedural Due Process (both 14th and 5th Amendments), Substantive Due Process - Deliberate Indifference (both 14th and 5th Amendments), 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.