Judge orders hearings for immigrants held in indefinite detention

A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction ordering federal immigration officials to provide bond hearings to potentially hundreds of immigrants detained across the Los Angeles area, where they can ask for release under appropriate conditions of supervision. The ruling by U.S. District Judge for the Central District of California Terry Hatter affects up to 500 asylum seekers and other detainees being held due to certain criminal offenses.

September 13, 2012 7:35 pm

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“This is a victory for hundreds of immigrants forgotten in immigration holding cells, some of them for years,” said

Ahilan Arulanantham , deputy legal director for the ACLU of Southern California and senior staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project. “In many cases, that’s just adding to the pain of people trying to escape horrific conditions in their own countries to seek asylum here. Detainees have a right to a bond hearing – that’s simple due process guaranteed to everyone by the Constitution. We’re thrilled to have that guarantee upheld.”


Co-counsel in the lawsuit include the national ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, the Stanford Law School Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, and the law firm of Sidley Austin LLP.

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