Judge orders ICE to allow immigrant detainees in DTLA to see lawyers

Judge orders ICE to allow immigrant detainees in DTLA to see lawyers

A federal judge has issued a permanent order ensuring that immigrants detained at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in downtown Los Angeles can promptly see their attorneys, according to court papers obtained Friday.

U.S. District Judge Maame E. Frimpong issued the permanent injunction on Thursday, requiring that detainees confined in the basement facility known as B-18 in the federal building be given access to lawyers as required by the Fifth Amendment right to counsel.

At a hearing last month, Frimpong heard that immigrants were detained for extended periods at B-18 in conditions that prevented private communication with attorneys. Lawyers reported that clients were denied access to phone lines, turned away from in-person meetings, and pressured to sign legal documents before speaking with a lawyer.

In her written ruling this week, the judge converted an existing temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction to ensure continued compliance while litigation proceeds.

According to plaintiffs' attorney Mark Rosenbaum, who is representing individuals who say they were held at the processing center in illegal conditions while being denied access to lawyers, the order "affirmed that the Constitution does not stop at the doors of a detention center."

By granting the injunction, Rosenbaum continued, "the judge made clear that the government cannot lock people up and cut them off from their lawyers. This ruling protects one of the most basic promises of this country -- that every person is entitled to due process -- no matter the language they speak, the color of their skin or where they come from. No one in B-18 should be left to face the power of the government alone. This case is not over, and neither is our fight to make sure this country lives up to its Constitution."

B-18 was designed to hold people only temporarily for processing before release or transport to a longer-term detention facility, according to evidence. It has no beds, showers or medical facilities, and is limited in size.

But, plaintiffs argue, ICE transformed B-18 into a de facto long-term detention facility for detainees swept up in immigration raids and mass arrests over the summer, and individuals held there have had their contact with the outside world purposely obstructed.

In June, a federal judge had previously ordered DHS to provide access to counsel on weekdays, weekends, and holidays for people who are detained in B-18, the federal building in downtown Los Angeles.

Southern California residents, workers, and advocacy groups across various industries sued the DHS for abducting and disappearing community members using unlawful stop and arrest practices and confining individuals at a federal building in illegal conditions while denying them access to attorneys.  

Both the City and County of Los Angeles, among nine municipalities, moved to intervene on behalf of their residents in the case, and the state of California filed an amicus brief arguing in favor of the TRO. 

The Justice Department countered at the October hearing that detainees were never intentionally barred from contact with attorneys, but circumstances during unrest on the streets over ICE immigration operations caused conditions at B-18 that were far from normal.

Government attorney Jonathan Ross asserted that conditions at B-18 have "normalized" and even without a court order, "the government is going to do the right thing" and ensure that detainees have access to counsel.

"The court should not be ordering the government to do what it is already doing," Ross said last month, adding that "the record shows plaintiffs are receiving what's required."

Frimpong responded from the bench that in the period after she issued the TRO in July, "there were still violations," so any future injunction would deal with the "future."

Also in July, the judge issued an order barring federal agents from making immigration arrests resulting from "roving patrols" that targeted people for deportation based on their race or language, but the U.S. Supreme Court lifted those restrictions.

The B-18 issue is part of a lawsuit filed in early July in Los Angeles federal court in which Southern California residents, workers and advocacy groups accused DHS of "abducting and disappearing" community members using unlawful stop and warrantless arrest tactics and confining individuals at the federal building in illegal conditions while denying access to attorneys.

Lead plaintiff Pedro Vasquez Perdomo, 54, a day laborer from Pasadena, says he was waiting to be picked up for a construction job at a Metro bus stop in front of a Winchell's Donuts in Pasadena on the morning of June 18, when he and two others were surrounded by masked men with guns, arrested and taken to the detention center, where he remained for three weeks, much of that time without access to attorneys. He has since been granted bond and released.

Additional reporting by City News Service.