Federal Court Rules U.S.

Government is Required to Give Bond Hearings to Immigrant Detainees FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 7, 2013 CONTACT: Diana Rubio or Vicki Fox, ACLU SoCal, 213-977-5252 Inga Sarda-Sorensen, ACLU national 212-549-2666, media@aclu.org LOS ANGELES Federal Judge Terry J. Hatter today issued a landmark permanent injunction requiring the government to give automatic bond hearings as soon as immigrant detainees have been held for six months to determine if they should continue being detained. The ruling follows the Ninth Circuits decision affirming a preliminary injunction issued by Hatter late last year. In todays ruling, the judge held that all immigration detainees held in the Central District of California with pending deportation cases are entitled to a bond hearing at six months, and that such hearings include heightened procedural protections to ensure the hearings are fair. Detained immigrants will no longer have to languish for prolonged periods of time wondering if they will live out their lives in a detention center, said Michael Kaufman, staff attorney for the ACLU Foundation of Southern California. Now they will have the opportunity to make their case and have a fair shot of being released on bond.

Rodriguez v. Robbins, a class-action lawsuit, was filed on behalf of the hundreds of immigrants whom the government has imprisoned for more than six months in the Los Angeles area while their deportation cases are being decided. The suit sought the most basic procedural right for detained immigrants a right to a hearing where they can argue for release on bond. The case has been pending since 2008 and has been extensively litigated, including in two different Ninth Circuit appeals.
Todays ruling is an important victory against the federal government's inhumane practice of putting immigrants in long-term detention without the basic due process of a bond hearing," said Michael Tan, staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants' Rights

Project. As Congress continues to debate immigration reform, this ruling is an important reminder that meaningful reform must include fixing our broken immigration detention system a system that wastes money, ruins lives, and violates our constitutional values. Todays ruling ensures that immigrants receive the basic protections of due process before the government subjects them to detention for long periods of time, said Jayashri Srikantiah, director of Stanford Law Schools Immigrants Rights Clinic. The District Court recognized the important rights at stake in this case, as well as the clear weight of the law, in granting a permanent injunction in favor of the entire class, added Sean Commons, partner at Sidley Austin LLP. After so many years of hard fought litigation, it is gratifying to see class members receive the right to bond hearings, so they have an opportunity to reunite with their families. Counsel for the plaintiffs include the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California, the American Civil Liberties Unions Immigrants Rights Project, the Stanford Law School Immigrants Rights Clinic, and the law firm of Sidley Austin LLP. For more information on the case, see http://www.aclu-sc.org/rodriguez/ Link to permanent injunction: http://www.aclusocal.org/cases/rodriguez-v-hayes/orderjudgement-permanent-injunction/

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