On July 28, 2017, an asylum-seeker who had been held in federal detention for nine months sought habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York. Three weeks later, represented by the New York Civil Liberties Union and the International Refugee Assistance Project, he and a fellow asylum-seeker filed an amended petition and class action complaint against the Department of Homeland Security. They challenged the federal government’s authority to indefinitely detain arriving asylum-seekers who had been determined likely to win the right to remain in the United States. They asserted that such detention, without parole or bond hearing, was a violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, the Immigration and Naturalization Act, and 8 C.F.R. §212.5. The case was assigned to Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford.
The complaint sought to certify a class of “all arriving asylum-seekers who have passed a credible fear interview and who are or will be detained at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility and who have not been granted parole,” as well as a sub-class who “have been or will be detained for more than six months without a bond hearing before an immigration judge.”
An overbroad plaintiffs’ discovery motion was denied in November 2017. 292 F.Supp.3d 592.
On November 17, 2017, the court denied the government’s motion to dismiss the suit, simultaneously granting the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction. 280 F.Supp.3d 373. The injunction required the government to give detainees access to parole procedures as described in Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Directive 11002.1. Additionally, relying on the Ninth Circuit’s reasoning in
Jennings v. Rodriguez, reasoning which was subsequently overturned by the Supreme Court, the court found that 8 U.S.C. 1225(b) implicitly prohibits indefinite detention, and ordered the government to offer bond hearings to asylum-seekers within six months of their detention. For continued detention, the government must prove at the bond hearing that the asylum-seeker is a flight risk or a danger to the community. In February 2018, the court clarified the injunction, requiring that once “an [Immigration Judge] has determined that a detainee should be released on bond, he or she must consider the financial circumstances of each [detainee] and alternative conditions of release in setting the amount of bond.” 287 F.Supp.3d 327 at 345.
Class certification was granted on December 19, 2017, and the preliminary injunction of November 17 was applied to the newly-certified class. 323 F.R.D. 131.
In January 2018, the government appealed the November 17 orders (Second Circuit Docket No. 18-00094, Jan 12, 2018). In late February, the Supreme Court ruled in
Jennings v. Rodriguez, effectively overturning the district court’s November order regarding the subclass (detainees held more than six months without a bond hearing). By consent of the parties, the Second Circuit remanded this issue to the district court on September 5, 2019.
On September 24, 2019 the district court granted the government’s motion to decertify the subclass. 405 F.Supp.3d 467. There was no activity in the case for nearly a year, until on July 10, 2020, the court directed the parties to submit a joint status report indicating whether the case should be closed. The parties responded that they were in the process of meeting and conferring regarding a settlement that would resolve the case entirely. But then, on September 24, 2020, the parties informed the court that they were no longer intending to reach a settlement. The parties negotiated a discovery schedule and the court set a schedule for summary judgment motions. The petitioners' motion for summary judgment is due January 28, 2021, and the respondents' opposition and cross-motion for summary judgment is due February 25, 2021. As of December 23, 2020, this case is ongoing.
Virginia Weeks - 11/26/2017
Virginia Weeks - 11/01/2018
Ava Morgenstern - 04/21/2018
Gregory Marsh - 07/11/2020
Emily Kempa - 12/23/2020
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