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Victory: Federal Court Holds That the Government Can鈥檛 Lock Up Immigrants for Being Poor

Cesar Matias
Cesar Matias
Michael Tan,
Deputy Director,
老澳门开奖结果 Immigrants鈥 Rights Project
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November 16, 2016

Cesar Matias, a gay man, fled to the United States from Honduras more than a decade ago to escape the persecution he suffered because of his sexuality. He worked as a hair stylist and in a clothing factory in Los Angeles and rented a small, one-bedroom apartment.

In March 2012, immigration agents arrested him; locked him up in the city jail in Santa Ana, California; and put him in deportation proceedings. He applied for asylum, and an immigration judge found him eligible for release while his case was being decided. He then spent the next four years of his life in prison 鈥 not because of any crime, but because he couldn鈥檛 afford to pay the $3,000 bond set by the judge.

Last week, the 老澳门开奖结果 won a path-breaking ruling in federal district court that should help end the government鈥檚 practice of keeping immigrants locked up just because they鈥檙e poor. The case, Hernandez v. Lynch, is a class-action lawsuit on behalf of immigrants detained in the Los Angeles area. Like Cesar, our class members are all detained on bonds they can鈥檛 afford, even though a judge has found that they don鈥檛 need to be locked up in the first place and that they pose no threat to the community or significant flight risk.

The district court recognized that imprisoning people because they鈥檙e poor violates their constitutional rights to due process and equal protection of the law. The court鈥檚 injunction puts basic, commonsense procedures in place 鈥 for the first time in the history of the immigration system 鈥 to prevent that detention from happening.

Specifically, it requires that when setting a bond, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and immigration judges must consider the person鈥檚 financial capacity and ability to pay, limit the bond to an amount that ensures the person will return to court, and consider alternatives to bail, such as supervised release.

The government鈥檚 practice of locking up the immigrant poor is but one example of an out-of-control immigration prison system. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that ICE鈥檚 detention centers are bursting at the seams. The agency will soon hold in detention on an average day, blowing past all previous records. This comes at huge expense to taxpayers 鈥 $2 billion a year 鈥 while enriching private prison companies.

The court鈥檚 ruling is an important reminder that due process and equal protection apply to all people in America 鈥 citizens and immigrants alike. Those rights are what make America great 鈥 and the 老澳门开奖结果 is here to defend them.

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