ICE detainees to face judge for alleged house arrest violations
A federal judge today will weigh the fate of 10 ICE detainees who have allegedly treated bail orders “with complete and utter disregard” amid the coronavirus pandemic, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson and feds say.
Federal Judge William Young will hear Hodgson and feds’ concern over the detainees who have convictions for crimes including domestic violence, aggravated assault with a weapon, drug trafficking, extortion and fraud. One of the ICE detainees has pending charges out of Lynn for enticing a child under the age of 16 and assault and battery.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Kanwit wrote last week in a filing of hundreds of alleged violations of home detention by the detainees, in violation of their bail orders and selfquarantine for 14 days following their release.
“Petitioners do not dispute, nor can they, that this Court’s bail order, which of course controls the release of the detainees, is anything but confusing or ambiguous,” Kanwit wrote. “Again, this Court’s order – stay home – is clear.”
Attorney Oren Nimni for ICE detainees said Thursday
home confinement violations stem from varying instructions by ICE and the third-party vendor providing GPS tracking.
“They created the confusion and they’re trying to punish people for it,” Nimni said, noting the GPS systems are shrouded in mystery.
“Even if our clients did violate their GPS and did violate their conditions of release, it’s a step further for the government to ask them to be put back into a facility that judge Young has already declared is a health risk and is dangerous,” Nimni said.
Young last month slammed Hodgson and feds for their alleged “deliberate indifference” toward the health of ICE detainees amid the pandemic and ordered COVID-19 testing for all facility staff and detainees while blocking admission of new detainees.
Bristol County has acknowledged several staff and onsite vendors contracted the disease, and one ICE detainee tested negative for COVID-19 two days after testing positive.
Hodgson has also continually posted to social media the criminal histories of the dozens of detainees released periodically since April by Young, to the chagrin of opposing counsel.