Latest news with #NationalImmigrationProject
CBS News
14-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Maryland judge suspends deportation of women held in "inhumane" conditions at Baltimore ICE facility
Two women who were living in Maryland and were detained by ICE will remain in the United States following a judge's ruling in federal court to suspend their deportation. U.S District Court Judge Julie Rubin said at the court hearing that her ruling was not a national injunction and only applies to the two women listed in the lawsuit. The federal class action lawsuit was filed by The Amica Center for Immigrant Rights and the National Immigration Project earlier this month, on behalf of two women, whose attorneys say were living in Maryland lawfully. Detainees have lived in Maryland for many years Their attorneys explained that they are not able to identify the women but shared that one was Guatemalan and the other from El Salvador– both lived in Maryland for many years. "They were abruptly detained after checking in for years with lawful status, and taken to the Baltimore hold rooms," said Ian Rose, the managing attorney at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. "Miss D.N.N. was held for more than 60 hours at the Baltimore hold room, and Miss B.R.G. was, I believe, held for approximately 48 hours in Baltimore hold rooms, which is far in excess of ICE's own policy." Rose added, "These are the two plaintiffs who have bravely decided to represent the class and litigate this case." "We are seeing a policy of detain first, think later, when it comes to immigration enforcement, and it's leading to systematic violations of people's rights in the interest of meeting quotas," said Sirine Shebaya, the executive director at the National Immigration Project. "The overcrowding, unlawful detention, and inhumane conditions in the holding cells are just another outcome of that dragnet approach. The courageous women in this case should never have been detained in the first place, and the cruelty and harm they are experiencing must be stopped." "Inhumane" holding room conditions According to their attorneys, the women were allegedly being held illegally by ICE in 'inhumane" holding rooms at the George Fallon Federal Building downtown and were recently moved after being held to other facilities in New Jersey and Denver, Colorado. "Unfortunately, this is a very common thing that is happening right now," Rose said. "ICE sends people all over the country without notice. We often see folks disappear and find them later, and that's why we filed this motion." "ICE's detention crisis is of its own making, and instead of releasing people they don't have the capacity to detain, they are systematically caging people for many days in cruel, unconstitutional, and life-threatening conditions that even their own policies prohibit," said Adina Appelbaum, the program director for the Immigration Impact Lab at Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. "This lawsuit is critical to stopping ICE from one of its most egregious abuses of power and ensuring that no human being is subjected to this inhumane, animal-like treatment that has no place in the United States." The defense declined to immediately speak to reporters following the hearing Wednesday morning. "The case will proceed," Rose said. "We filed while they were at the Baltimore holding rooms, and we believe that gives us the ability to proceed with the case. We will continue to have hearings and arguments about the conditions at the Baltimore holding rooms, the length of stay at the Baltimore holding rooms, and the ability of these individuals to represent a class of people that this is happening." Concerns at Baltimore's ICE facility The condition inside the Baltimore federal building has been a big concern for multiple immigrant advocacy organizations and state leaders. In March, dozens of community members rallied outside the federal building downtown where the detainees were being held. Staffers for U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks (both D-Md.) also visited the ICE holding facility in downtown Baltimore in March. Following their visit, Van Hollen and Alsobrooks wrote to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons regarding the reports of the conditions detainees have faced while in custody in the holding rooms at the ICE Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Baltimore Field Office. The letter laid out that detainees have been held for durations longer than allowed by ICE standards in a facility that is unequipped to meet their basic needs, including reports of overcrowding in holding cells with no bed space, lack of adequate food service, and the absence of medical staff on-site. The Senators' staff members noted in the letter that during their staff's visit, they learned: The average length of stay from January 20, 2025, to the date of the staff visit in March was about 1.5 days – this is more than four times the six-to-eight-hour duration the BHR is equipped for and three times what is allowed under ICE standards; The BHR has recently held up to 54 detainees at once—a concerning number for the size of the rooms, and highly unlikely to meet holding room size requirements under ICE standards; There is no infirmary or medical staff on-site, and even when a field medical coordinator is contacted, they are not able to speak to the detainees directly about their medical needs; The BHR currently has no food service contract, so ICE staff have been making sandwiches themselves or buying McDonald's, served vaguely "at mealtimes"; The BHR also has no bed space, so ICE staff have procured emergency foil blankets and inflatable beds that are sanitized daily
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Deported 2-year-old's family dropping lawsuit against Trump administration
The attorneys for the family of a 2-year-old deported to Honduras with her mother said Tuesday they would drop their lawsuit against the Trump administration. A federal judge previously sounded the alarm over the child's removal citing a lack of 'meaningful process.' 'Given the traumatizing experiences the families have been through, they are taking a step back to have full discussions about all their options, the safety and well-being of their children, and the best ways to proceed so the harms they have suffered can be fully addressed,' Gracie Willis, one of the family's lawyers, told The Associated Press. The American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigration Project and several other groups were representing the family members, who said they want 'space and time to consider all the options that are available to them.' The family's lawyers previously argued that the child's father wanted the young girl to remain in the United States where she held citizenship. The Trump administration's attorneys said the mother wanted the child removed with her alongside her other siblings. The government said her request was documented in a note written in Spanish, as reported by Politico, but a federal judge said it would have to be verified. 'The Government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her. But the Court doesn't know that,' U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, an appointee of President Trump, wrote in court filings. For now, the two remain in the Central American country where they were released by federal immigration authorities. The family will forgo a hearing slated for later this week where Doughty would have further inquired about legality of the child's removal. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
14-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Deported 2-year-old's family dropping lawsuit against Trump administration
The attorneys for the family of a 2-year-old deported to Honduras with her mother said Tuesday they would drop their lawsuit against the Trump administration. A federal judge previously sounded the alarm over the child's removal citing a lack of 'meaningful process.' 'Given the traumatizing experiences the families have been through, they are taking a step back to have full discussions about all their options, the safety and well-being of their children, and the best ways to proceed so the harms they have suffered can be fully addressed,' Gracie Willis, one of the family's lawyers, told the Associated Press. The American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigration Project and several other groups were representing the family, which said they want 'space and time to consider all the options that are available to them.' The family's lawyers previously argued that the child's father wanted the young girl to remain in the United States where she held citizenship. The Trump administration's attorneys said the mother wanted the child removed with her alongside her other siblings. The government said her request was documented in a note written in Spanish, as reported by Politico, but a federal judge said it would have to be verified. 'The Government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her. But the Court doesn't know that,' U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, an appointee of President Trump, wrote in court filings. For now, the two remain in the Central American country where they were released by federal immigration authorities. The family will forego a hearing slated for later this week where Doughty would have further inquired about legality of the child's removal.
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Business Standard
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Business Standard
Family of 2-year-old US citizen deported to Honduras drops lawsuit
Lawyers for a 2-year-old US citizen who was deported with her mother to Honduras confirmed on Tuesday that the family was dropping its lawsuit against the administration of US President Donald Trump. The girl - one of three US-born children who were deported alongside their Honduran-born mothers - had been at the heart of one of the mounting legal battles playing out in the United States weighing if the Trump administration broke the law in implementing its new deportation policies. Given the traumatizing experiences the families have been through, they are taking a step back to have full discussions about all their options, the safety and well-being of their children, and the best ways to proceed so the harms they have suffered can be fully addressed, said Gracie Willis, one of the family's lawyers. The lawsuit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigration Project and several other allied groups, which said the deportations were a shocking although increasingly common abuse of power. Willis and the group of lawyers had argued that the families did not have a fair opportunity to decide whether they wanted the children to stay in the United States. Willis said the family of the 2-year-old girl and their lawyers jointly decided to dismiss the case to give the family space and time to consider all the options that are available to them. A federal judge in Louisiana had raised questions about the girl's deportation, saying the government did not prove it had done so properly. The Honduran-born mother who is pregnant was arrested in April on an outstanding deportation order along with the girl and her 11-year-old Honduran-born sister during a check-in appointment at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in New Orleans, lawyers said. The family lived in Baton Rouge. Lawyers for the girl's father insisted he wanted the girl to remain with him in the US, while ICE said the mother had wanted the girl to be deported with her to Honduras. In a court filing, lawyers for the father said ICE indicated that it was holding the girl in a bid to induce the father to turn himself in. US District Judge Terry Doughty in Louisiana had scheduled a hearing for the case later this week, saying it was in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a US citizen with no meaningful process. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Yahoo
Mothers deported by Trump ‘denied' chance to transfer custody of children, lawyer says
Two women who were deported to Honduras alongside their US citizen children were held in 'complete isolation' and denied any opportunity to coordinate the care and custody of their children before being put on a flight, according to one of the lawyers representing them. The mothers were unable to contact attorneys or loved ones, and were not allowed the option to transfer the custody of their citizen children to another parent or caregiver, said Gracie Willis, an attorney with the National Immigration Project who is representing one of the families and coordinating with the team representing the other family. 'Here we had moms held completely in isolation, being told what was happening to their children. They didn't have an opportunity to talk this through, to weigh the pros and cons of taking or leaving their children in the US,' Willis said. One of the mothers, who was deported with her seven-year-old and her four-year-old, both of whom are citizens, was unable to access medications and care for her youngest, who has a rare form of late-stage cancer. Another woman, who is pregnant, was put on a plane to Honduras along with her 11-year-old and two-year-old daughters, even as the children's father and a caretaker designated by the family were desperately trying to contact them. 'She's in the early stages of a pregnancy and has undergone unimaginable stress,' said Willis. 'So she's trying to ensure her and that unborn child's safety and health, while also processing and working through what they've all been through.' Both families were detained at regular check-in appointments with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in New Orleans, according to lawyers, and then taken hours away from the city and prohibited from communicating with family members. Each year, hundreds of thousands of immigrant parents in similar situations, who have both a deportation order and US citizen children, have to choose whether to leave their kids in the US under the care of another family member or guardian, or surrender them to Child Protective Services. 'No parent would want to be in that situation,' Willis said. 'And we don't bring any judgment against any decision that a parent makes.' But the mothers who were rushed on to deportation flights with their children last week, in high-profile cases that have drawn widespread condemnation from civil rights groups and lawmakers, were not empowered to make any real choices for their families, Willis said. 'There were no real decisions being made here, especially when those parents were not able to communicate with other available caregivers,' she added. After lawyers for VML, the two-year-old who is identified in court documents by only her initials, filed an emergency motion to prevent the US citizen toddler's deportation, a federal district judge raised concerns that he had a 'strong suspicion that the government just deported a US citizen with no meaningful process'. A hearing in VML's case has been scheduled for 18 May. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been claiming that the family's cases were handled legally and with due process. Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, said: 'The children aren't deported. The mother chose to take the children with her.' In an interview with NBC's Meet the Press, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, echoed Homan, saying: 'I imagine those three US citizen children have fathers here in the United States. They can stay with their father. That's up to their family to decide where the children go.' The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to the Guardian's request for comment. But VML's father had been desperately trying to reach his partner and retrieve his toddler in the days leading up to the deportation, Willis said. On 22 April, VML's mother had been told to bring her children to her check-in with Ice, according to Willis. The father, who had brought them to the check-in appointment, began to worry that the appointment was taking longer than usual – and was later told that his partner and daughters had been detained. When he was eventually able to speak to them, he could hear his partner and daughter crying on the phone and his call was cut off before he was able to give them a number for the family's attorneys. The government told him that it had removal orders for VML's mother and her 11-year-old sister, who was not born in the US, and that their mother was choosing to also take VML to Honduras with them. They pointed to a handwritten letter, which they say was written by the mother, that reads in Spanish: 'I will take my daughter ... with me to Honduras.' But the family's lawyers dispute that the letter proves their consent, especially given that the parents weren't allowed to coordinate VML's release. They had wanted the toddler to be handed over to a US citizen that the family had chosen to serve as VML's legal custodian. 'The mom was never asked what she wanted. She was told, your child will be deported with you,' Willis said. Before their deportation, both families had been dutifully complying with Ice orders to regularly check-in. VML's mother had arrived at the US southern border during the 'remain in Mexico' program instituted during the first Trump administration, which forced non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait south of the border while their cases were processed. The mother, and her now 11-year-old, had reported to an initial appointment with immigration officials but had been kidnapped in Mexico – and were unable to attend their second immigration hearing. When the mother and daughter managed to return and seek safety in the United States, immigration officials released them into the country on the condition that they regularly check-in – which they had been doing for about four years, according to Willis. The other woman deported with her children had entered the US as an unaccompanied minor child, and had been issued deportation orders after she failed to report at a hearing that she was not aware was happening, as she never received a summons, Willis said.
