A Nevada judge accused federal immigration authorities of “lawless conduct” for holding immigrants with no legal status in arbitrary detention for months without providing bond hearings.
Ordering the release of 17 detainees earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Richard F. Boulware II said he would consider sanctions against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and officials who defied his July 2 and July 7 orders.
All but two of the detainees had been released as of Monday, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, which represents them. The remaining detainees were waiting to settle procedural issues.
Boulware’s orders relate to his late March ruling in which he determined that a Department of Homeland Security policy — that called for mandatory detention of immigrants in deportation proceedings who otherwise would have been eligible for bail — was unconstitutional.
The DHS last year expanded mandatory detention that generally applied to immigrants taken into custody at the border to all detainees, including those taken into custody in the U.S. interior.
The DHS did not respond to a request for comment Monday. In March, the agency said that ICE had the law and facts on its side but would continue adhering to court decisions until they are struck down by the Supreme Court.
The policy change came as President Donald Trump has worked to fulfill a campaign promise of mass deportations.
“As someone who has practiced law at a high level for quite a long time, I’ve never seen anything quite like this,” said Athar Haseebullah, ACLU of Nevada’s executive director. “Rarely do we see a government agency openly and brazenly ignoring federal court orders, but people should feel comfort knowing that there remain judges like Judge Boulware committed to the Constitution who refuse to serve as doormats for executive agencies to walk over and people and groups that will continue to resist illegal government actions.”
‘Unlawful conduct’
After Boulware’s initial ruling, the ACLU said it offered reprieve to hundreds of people with immigration cases in Nevada with qualifying criteria, such as proving that they entered the country without DHS inspection and not being subject to prior removal orders.
The federal government then identified 185 such cases, although the ACLU said the number might be higher. The March order also applies to new arrests, which the nonprofit estimated to be an average of 66 a week.
Boulware wrote this month that the plaintiff detainees had been held for months without explanation, skirting his previous order. The government also hadn’t proven that the plaintiffs were a danger to others or a flight risk, he said.
“Three months have passed since the (previous) judgment, yet ICE has not conducted an initial custody determination for any Petitioner,” Boulware wrote. “Put simply, months after a binding judgment that (1) declared Petitioners’ detention illegal and (2) vacated the agency policy underlying their arrest and detention, the government has taken no action to cure its unlawful conduct.”
The judge said that obtaining an expedited bond hearing for the plaintiffs would not suffice, ordering ICE to release them by July 6 and July 8 without restrictions, unless authorities can justify its actions.
Furthermore, ICE cannot re-arrest them without a hearing before an immigration judge with sufficient notice, the order said. “At this hearing, the government must bear the burden of establishing that detention is appropriate by clear and convincing evidence.”
Most of the detainees were held at Nevada Southern Detention Center, a privately operated CoreCivic facility in Pahrump. The company was not immediately available for comment Monday.
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.
