Immigrant succeeds on civil rights claim

A Nashville woman will receive a substantial settlement after being shackled to her hospital bed while giving birth.

Nobody likes a traffic ticket.
Photo credit @woodleywonderworks on Flickr; used under Creative Commons license.

Ms. Juana Villegas was taken into custody during a 2008 traffic stop. As part of an agreement between Tennessee law enforcement officials and federal immigration enforcement, local police had the power to detain people whose immigration status was in question. At the time, Ms. Villegas was nine months pregnant. She went into labor during her six-day stay in immigration detention. While she gave birth, she was kept in handcuffs and leg chains. After she delivered her child, she was denied the use of a breast pump, which caused an infection.

Ms. Villegas filed suit to protest this treatment. A federal judge ruled in 2011 that the jail officials had shown "deliberate indifference" to Ms. Villegas' medical needs. In an unusual step, the judge also recommended that Ms. Villegas be given immigration status, under a visa type for crime victims. Appeals ensued, but the city settled with Ms. Villegas to avoid further litigation.

Ms. Villegas' case has clarified rights for immigration detainees, and also opened a new possible route to legal status for people whose civil rights have been violated.

If someone you know is in immigration detention, or if you have questions about which visas you might be eligible for, please contact us to see if we are able to help.
 

Quotas aren't just for traffic tickets

It's a full house... by law.
Photo credit @ChodHound, Flickr; used under CC License.

A Congressional quota requires that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) keep roughly 34,000 detainees in custody per day -- whether ICE wants to detain that many people, or not. This policy dates from 2006, when some legislators wanted to make sure that the federal government didn't get lazy on enforcing the immigration laws.

Years ago, ICE filled those spots easily, with the huge number of people it caught at border crossings. Now there are fewer people coming over the border, and ICE cannot meet its quota. So the government searches for legally present immigrants who have criminal records, and also focuses on undocumented immigrants taken into custody during traffic stops by local police.

A large number of these people --as many as half of them --will appear before immigration judges and eventually be approved to stay in the United States. In the meantime, however, they have to spend months in costly federal custody. This also feeds the pockets of private prison companies, such as the GEO Group and CCA. These companies, in turn, spend money lobbying Congress on immigration issues.

Immigration advocates point out that other, less costly forms of supervision are available, such as GPS ankle bracelet monitoring. The alternatives cost less than one-tenth of the price of keeping a person in detention, and research shows there is nearly full compliance with them.

While a quota, in theory, may seem like a way to ensure that immigration laws are enforced, in practice it just means that people are locked up unnecessarily.

Read more at the Washington Post.

New Detention Center For Immigrants Opens in Texas

The New York Times reported that a new immigrant detention center has opened in Karnes County, Texas. The detention center is part of the Obama administration's plan to reform the immigration system in order "to provide a less penal setting for detainees" that are considered a minimal safety risk. The detention center resembles a school setting more than a jail where detainees will be allowed to move freely around most of the center. The guards who are unarmed will be referred to as "resident advisers" dressing in khaki pants and blue polo shirts. There will be courtrooms on the premises for immigration hearings with video conferencing available for judges in San Antonio and Houston. 


Advocates of human rights and immigrants had long criticized the federal government's use of jails and jail-like detention centers for mistreating detainees, including providing poor health care that would result in deaths, for people who were mainly detained for civil violations. There are plans to upgrade several existing detention centers around the country, as well as plans to build new centers in South Florida and Chicago to hold medium and high security detainees. 


Glickman Turley's experienced attorneys represent individuals on a wide range of immigration matters, as well as other legal issues. Please contact our attorneys if you wish to discuss representation on immigration matters, real estate purchase and sales, condominium associations, criminal defense, non-profit law, civil litigation, business litigation, business law, trademark law, probate matters including wills, powers of attorney, health care proxy, same-sex parent adoptions, guardianships, animal law, or LGBT legal matters.