Groups seek to halt immigration court inperson hearings

Immigration advocates and attorneys on Wednesday asked a federal judge to temporarily halt inperson court hearings for detained immigrants, arguing that the government’s decision to continue doing so during the coronavirus pandemic “unnecessarily endangers all participants.”

The National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the Immigration Justice Campaign filed the request for a temporary restraining order against the Executive Office for Immigration Review and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

The group is also asking a federal judge to facilitate remote confidential communication between attorneys and detained clients.

“The public interest demands this relief to help mitigate the risk of rampant infection in detention facilities and the propagation of infection through the court system to the general public,” attorneys wrote in court documents Wednesday.

The Executive Office for Immigration Review and ICE said they do not comment on pending litigation.

ICE has previously said that legal visits ideally should be done via teleconference to limit exposure to detainees, but inperson meetings will be allowed if an attorney deems it essential.

Prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges have all criticized the government for continuing to hold immigration hearings for detainees in San Francisco and nearly 60 courthouses across the nation during the coronavirus pandemic, even as many criminal courthouses have shut down.

Hon. Ashley Tabaddor, a U.S. immigration judge in Los Angeles and president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, said in a statement Wednesday that defendants, attorneys and judges “are being forced to

The public interest demands this relief to help mitigate ... the propagation of infection through the court system to the general public.”

Attorneys seeking to halt inperson hearings

gather in courtrooms and buildings where there are confirmed cases of coronavirus and where people are visibly sick.”

She added that court members are also “interacting with guards and detainees who are traveling back and forth from detention facilities — some run by private companies — where COVID19 has been detected and confirmed.”

Many judges in San Francisco are calling in sick in order to stay home, said Dana Leigh Marks, an immigration judge and former president of the judges’ union.

The Executive Office for Immigration Review has canceled nondetained hearings in San Francisco and other places, which slowed down foot traffic, but the courthouse on Montgomery Street remains open for other business and staff is required to work normal hours.

Immigration courthouses are generally much smaller than criminal courtrooms, and immigrants, attorneys, judges, witnesses and interpreters often share tight spaces. Close confines make it easier for the virus to spread, according to health experts.