COVID-19 Summary: This is a habeas action brought by seven medically vulnerable detainees in Mississippi. They sought release from detention because their underlying medical conditions made them particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, which they alleged made their detention unconstitutional. The court ...
read more >
COVID-19 Summary: This is a habeas action brought by seven medically vulnerable detainees in Mississippi. They sought release from detention because their underlying medical conditions made them particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, which they alleged made their detention unconstitutional. The court denied a temporary restraining order on June 3, 2020.
On April 16, 2020, seven medically vulnerable civil immigration detainees held in the Adams County Detention Center brought this suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. Represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers' Guild, and the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law, the plaintiffs sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the New Orleans ICE field office and the warden of the Adams County Detention Center under the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. § 701) and the federal habeas statute (28 U.S.C. § 2241). The plaintiffs alleged that the risks from COVID-19 rendered their continued detention unsafe and that the government did not have sufficiently compelling reasons to keep them detained, violating the Due Process clause of the Fifth Amendment. They sought habeas, declaratory, and injunctive relief.
At the same time, the plaintiffs filed a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO), arguing that their detention was unconstitutional and that release from detention was the only action that could remedy the violation of their rights. The defendants filed a motion in opposition to the TRO on April 30.
The case was assigned to Judge David C. Bramlette III and Magistrate Judge Michael T. Parker.
After a hearing, Judge Bramlette denied the TRO on June 3, 2020. While Judge Bramlette determined that habeas relief was available to detainees challenging conditions of confinement who requested release, he found that the plaintiffs were unlikely to succeed on the merits because (1) the government's interest in ensuring that detainees did not abscond justified continued detention; and (2) the defendants were taking steps to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the detention center. So, Judge Bramlette concluded that the defendants were likely neither punishing detainees nor deliberately indifferent to their medical needs. 2020 WL 2949779.
Two months passed without further substantive docket activity. On August 4, 2020, the plaintiffs stipulated to dismissal. The Clearinghouse does not know if the parties reached any private settlement agreement that led to the dismissal. The case is presumably now closed.
Caitlin Kierum - 07/19/2020
Timothy Leake - 11/16/2020
compress summary
