Bay Area asylum-seekers get extended protection from ICE arrests

SAN JOSE, Calif. (CN) — A federal judge granted a 14-day temporary restraining order extension on Tuesday to a pair of class action plaintiffs who say they were either arrested or nearly arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after their immigration hearings.

The order protects Ligia Garcia and Yulisa Alvarado Ambrocio from arrest and incarceration at the San Francisco Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center as they continue through immigration court.

In the Tuesday hearing, U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts allowed the time for both parties to file additional materials, including personal information to show how they have integrated into the broader community in the year they have been in the U.S.

Pitts, a Joe Biden appointee, said the two weeks will also give him time for additional written ruling on a preliminary injunction, which the plaintiffs seek to permanently halt the plaintiffs’ risk of detention.

“We are hoping for a preliminary injunction ruling soon, as we want to protect the plaintiffs and are concerned about detentions as immigration proceedings continue,” said Laura Sanchez, a representative with immigrant legal service Central American Resource Center, which co-leads the litigation along with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Sanchez said after the hearing that the way the government currently interprets the law could mean a person going through immigration court may be detained anywhere, at any time — though she noted they are most at risk at immigration court proceedings and the court hearings are where many of ICE arrests have recently been made.

U.S. Attorney Douglas Johns, representing Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pamela Bondi and San Francisco ICE officials, said Tuesday it was unlikely that Ambrocio would be detained at her upcoming Oct. 16 immigration court hearing.

He also took issue with adding more plaintiffs to the class action, questioning whether the relief given to some would apply to all, calling it “procedurally improper.”

Pitts asked Johns, “why should be engage in this legal fiction?” regarding the government’s interpretation of the law that Garcia and Ambrocio be treated as if they first entered the country and were deemed inadmissible, thus allowing their detention, when both women have been in the U.S. for a year.

Johns declined to comment on the extension.

Garcia and Alvarado Ambrocio are two of four named plaintiffs in the Sept. 19 class action. The suit followed an Aug. 1. petition for writ of habeas corpus filed for named plaintiff Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen, who was similarly detained by ICE but released after a day. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco and CARECEN joined the class action.

Pitts granted a temporary restraining order on Sept. 19 that required Colombian asylum-seeker Garcia to be released from detention at San Francisco’s Immigration Court, where she was held after a same-day arrest following her immigration hearing.