AI Justice Files Suit on Behalf of Father and Son Forcibly Separated at the Border

MIAMI, FL – On August 28, 2020 Americans for Immigrant Justice (AI Justice) filed one of the first Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) cases seeking justice for a family separated at the border during the U.S. Government’s pilot program for family separation. In November 2017, “Andres” and his three-year old son “Juan” crossed the U.S.-Mexico border fleeing Honduras, following death …

Civil Rights Advocates Demand Miami ICE Facility Stop Feeding Pork to Detained Muslims

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 19, 2020 Contact: Eric Naing, [email protected] or Ariela Moscowitz, [email protected] Civil Rights Advocates Demand Miami ICE Facility Stop Feeding Pork to Detained Muslims  ICE Chaplain’s Dismissive Response to Immigration Detainees’ Complaints: “It is what it is.” WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Muslim Advocates, Americans for Immigrant Justice and the law firm King & Spalding LLP sent a …

Pork or Rotten Food: Muslim Detainees at Krome Say They’re Forced to Choose – Miami New Times

By Alexi C. Cardona, Miami New Times “Lily Hartmann, a human-rights advocate for Americans for Immigrant Justice, says the detainees asked officials for other food and tried to address the issues on their own before turning to advocates. The letter says detainees’ complaints to detention staff have gone ignored and that a chaplain dismissed them by saying, ‘It is what …

Detained person with wrists tied

Sick ICE detainees are scared to die of COVID. Some beg federal judge to release them

By Monique O. Madan, The Miami Herald “Attorney Lisa Lehner of Americans for Immigrant Justice, a Florida non-profit immigration organization, told the judge that her client, Deivys Perez Valladares, who was transferred from Broward to Krome, never received a decision regarding his release or an explanation for his transfer. ‘Medical staff at BTC did not complete a medical examination prior …

Detainees Blast ICE Bid To Upend Pandemic Response Order

By Nathan Hale, Law 360 Detainees at three Florida facilities have slammed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement‘s bid to escape an order requiring it to improve conditions and limit transfers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the Florida federal court’s ruling was justified and more recent events only reinforce that conclusion. Responding Monday to ICE’s motion for reconsideration of the June …

AI Justice Plays Key Role in Garcia-Ramirez v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

AI Justice played a key role in a recent Federal Court decision against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) treatment of immigrant children. Last week, after two years of litigation and an 18-day trial, U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras ruled in favor of plaintiffs in Garcia-Ramirez v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, No. 18-00508, 2020 WL 3604041 (D.C. Cir. …

Detained Man Behind Bars

South Florida ICE case on the release of detained immigrants to go to trial

By Monique O. Madan, the Miami Herald A Miami federal judge has set a trial date in January for a case involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and immigrants held at three South Florida detention centers amid the coronavirus pandemic. In court documents filed late Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Marcia G. Cooke set trial for Jan. 19, 2021, and said evidence …

AI Justice's Detention Program

ICE unlawfully jails unaccompanied migrant children once they turn 18, judge rules

By Spencer S. Hsu, The Washington Post A federal judge ruled Thursday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has unlawfully transferred thousands of unaccompanied children who turned 18 to adult detention facilities without considering alternatives, in violation of a 2013 law. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras of Washington, D.C., said he will order changes “in the near future” after a …