Advocacy groups that had two years ago sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over its secretive, illegal practice of blocking the release of nearly all New York-area immigrants have announced that they’ve reached a settlement with the mass detention and deportation agency.
The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and the Bronx Defenders said this week that the settlement, finalized last week and approved by the Southern District of New York, “secures the right to a fair release assessment for everyone arrested by ICE.”
“Federal law requires ICE officers to make individualized custody determinations to assess whether a person should be released or detained after being arrested,” they said. But for a period of more than two years, ICE manipulated this determination process, granting release to just 4% of people.
“Since 2013, the agency had used a risk-assessment tool that considers factors like a person’s family ties, connections to community, time in the country, and criminal history,” NYCLU and Bronx Defenders said. “However, the data shows that this tool, which ICE offices use nationwide, was manipulated, most recently in mid-2017, to remove its ability to recommend anyone be released.”
It offered one very unsurprising recommendation: “detention without bond.” The result was a plummeting level of releases for people considered “low risk” by the federal government. Groups said in the March 2020 lawsuit that while ICE released 47% of people in this category from 2013 through June 2017, that number dropped to just 4% after that June. (Who was sworn in as president earlier that year?)
NYCLU said it found out about ICE’s no-release policy only as result of a Freedom of Information Act request. Documented reports that shortly after the March 2020 lawsuit, a federal court ordered the New York field office “to make an equitable release assessment in each arrest.” But NYCLU Senior Staff Attorney Amy Belsher tells Documented that the settlement this week could protect even more people, because ICE must now “see whether somebody has a special vulnerability.” ICE must also consider “alternatives to detention, like bond or remote monitoring.”
”The settlement also requires that all officers complete documentation reflecting their assessment of each individual and to undergo training on the terms of the settlement,” the organizations said. “ICE officers must also provide a form advising individuals of their rights. Counsel in the case will regularly receive reporting to monitor ICE’s compliance.”
“ICE’s default detention policy was cruel and unacceptable,” Belsher said in the statement. “The policy affected thousands of people, many long-time residents with U.S. family members. Beyond the devastating physical and mental health outcomes, those detained are separated from their families and face immense difficulties defending their right to remain in the United States from behind bars. Everybody is entitled to a fair chance at release.”
Advocates and lawmakers, including more than 100 House members, have also recently called on the Biden administration to halt its immigration detention expansion.
“Following the White House Executive Order ending privately operated prisons, members of congress called for the President to expand the order to include ICE detention,” progressive champion Rep. Pramila Jayapal led members in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and acting ICE Director Tae Johnson. “Unfortunately, it appears that ICE is moving in the opposite direction.”
That includes a disastrous new agreement with foul private prison profiteer GEO Group to detain up to 1,875 people at Moshannon Valley Correctional Center, a former Bureau of Prisons jail in Pennsylvania.
RELATED: Lawsuit details how ICE manipulated policy in order to keep more New York-area immigrants locked up
RELATED: Over 100 House members call on Biden administration to halt its ICE detention expansion
RELATED: Nearly 1,000 faith leaders and immigration groups urge Biden 'to reverse course' on ICE detention