By Gabriel Johnson and Rena Abdusalam
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Following an unanswered Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit this week, pursuing documents on the conditions and accessibility of legal materials for individuals held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities.
“Legal materials provided in ICE detention facilities may be the only information that a detained immigrant may have for court hearings. For the more than 80 percent of detained people without counsel, the quality of these materials can determine the outcome of a case with life-or-death stakes,” said Marisol Dominguez-Ruiz, Justice Catalyst Fellow at the ACLU National Prison Project.
“ICE’s own detention standards require regular access to a law library and robust legal resources. We must know if people’s due process rights are being violated, and we shouldn’t have to sue to find out,” added Dominguez-Ruiz.
According to the ACLU’s lawsuit, ICE arrests more than 24,000 people every day in roughly 200 facilities nationwide, yet only 14 percent of detained people are represented by an attorney in their immigration proceedings, creating access to legal materials essential, said the ACLU.
While U.S. citizens enjoy more rights than non-citizens, immigrants have rights under the law as well, added the ACLU, noting they have the right to representation in immigration proceedings, but do not have a right to free, court-appointed representation.
The ACLU’s complaint has pointed out how unfair and inefficient the current process can be for immigrants whose first language is not English and who are not familiar enough with the law to successfully represent themselves.
“In the absence of counsel, and in light of the multiple barriers that impede effective attorney-client communication, detained people are overwhelmingly left to argue their cases against government lawyers pro se, with limited knowledge of the immigration laws,” argued the ACLU in its suit.
The lawsuit also points out that wealthier immigrants who can afford to hire an attorney and those who happen to have access to pro-bono legal resources, “often navigate immigration proceedings more quickly, which increases court efficiency and shortens the length of detention.”
ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) received the FOIA request in May, but have refused to turn over the records so far, charged the ACLU. The complaint is asking a judge for a court order requiring both agencies to hand over the records to the ACLU.
A copy of the complaint can be found at: https://www.aclu.org/cases/american-civil-liberties-union-v-united-states-immigration-and-customs-enforcement?document=Complaint
