‘Indians at US detention centre can get legal aid’

WASHINGTON : A US judge has ordered that 120 immigrants, including 52 Indians, be given immediate access to legal aid by allowing attorneys to meet them at the federal prison in Oregon, according to a media report.

Nearly 100 Indians, mostly from Punjab, are detained for illegally entering the country through its southern border.

According to officials, around 40-45 Indians are at a federal detention centre in the Southern American State of New Mexico while 52 Indians, mostly Sikhs and Christians, are held in Oregon.

The Oregon federal judge has granted the detained immigrants being held in a Sheridan prison immediate access to legal aid, The Portland Mercury reported.

US District Judge Michael Simon yesterday granted an emergency order sought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Innovation Law Lab, a non-profit whose attorneys have been denied access to immigrants being held at the prison in Sheridan.

“We are a nation under law,” said Simon. “The rule of law is one of our most cherished principles. And because we are a nation that lives under law, the right to legal counsel is a right that has been recognised as required,” the judge said.

Simon approved an emergency temporary restraining order filed on Friday against the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for violating the detainees’ constitutional rights to due process, the report said.

The ACLU of Oregon filed a lawsuit on Friday arguing the federal government is violating the rights of immigration detainees at the federal prison.

According to immigration attorney Akansha Kalra the largest number of Indians who enter the US illegally are from Punjab and Gujarat.