SPLC v. DHS - Immigration TRO Grant - Improved Conditions for Communications with Attorneys
The court granted a TRO on behalf of the Southern Poverty Law Center, whose clients are in immigration detention in four facilities in Louisiana and Georgia. The SPLC requested a TRO "to remove access barriers" to legal counsel and "remedy the dangerously punitive conditions" resulting from COVID-19 restrictions that limited detainees' access to in-person and remote legal visitation. SPLC claimed that these punitive conditions were a violation of substantive due process and right to counsel under the Fifth Amendment. The court only ruled on the substantive due process claim, finding that the SPLC sufficiently demonstrated third-party standing and subject-matter jurisdiction in its claim. It found a TRO was appropriate to eliminate the "unnecessarily restrictive and excessive" barriers to legal representation during the pandemic, which threatened irreparable injury to the constitutional rights of civil detainees in the defendants' facilities.
S. Poverty Law Ctr. v. U.S. Dep't of Homeland Sec., No. CV 18-760 (CKK), 2020 WL 3265533 (D.D.C. June 17, 2020)
DETAILS
Decision
Date
6/17/2020
Practice Area
Immigration
Relief Requested
Improved Conditions, Temporary Restraining Order (TRO)
Type of Court
Federal District Court
Location
District of Columbia
Type of Case
Individual
Case Characteristics
Immigrant Detention
Compassionate Release Case
No
Case Tracking Number
1:18-cv-00760-CKK-RMM
MORE CASE INFORMATION
Court Name
D.D.C.
Decision
Motions Partially Granted
Place of Incarceration
Immigrant Detention
Name of Facility
LaSalle ICE Processing Center; Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center; Irwin County Detention Center; Stewart Detention Center
Legal Authority
Substantive Due Process - Punitive Detention (both 14th and 5th Amendments)
Legal Authority
Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)
Case Status
On Appeal
Improved Conditions Ordered
The court ordered that the facilities comply with the optimal-level requirements of the PBNDS related to calls and video-teleconferences; provide at least one phone or video teleconferencing system for every ten individuals; allow direct or free calls to legal representatives; ensure that the telephones, video-teleconference systems, and other devices used to access legal representatives are in good working order and designate points of contact at the facilities for related issues; ensure that attorney-client confidentiality be maintained on legal calls and video-teleconferences; devise, implement, and advertise procedures for scheduling and accessing calls and video-teleconferences and designate points of contact at the facilities for related questions and issues; comply with the CDC Interim Guidance with respect to the cleaning of devices and spaces used for legal calls and video-teleconferences; create, implement, and advertise procedures through which detained individuals and legal representatives may exchange confidential legal documents electronically and designate points of contact at the facilities for related questions and issues; and train staff at the facilities on the aforementioned procedures.
Motions Partially Granted
Although plaintiffs made a conditions of confinement claim under the Fifth Amendment's substantive due process guarantees and a separate claim under the Fifth Amendment's right to counsel guarantee, the court granted a TRO only on the substantive due process claim. The court also found that plaintiff's request to "[require] Deportation Officers to provide immigrants and their attorneys confirmation of receipt of any parole request or custody redetermination requests within 24 hours and to provide a final determination within seven (7) days" was "outside the scope of the issues raised by Plaintiff's claims in this case and the instant Motion."
COVID-19 in Jail Prison or Detention Center
Not Discussed
Litigation Database
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.