Federal judge orders government to stop blocking immigrant detainees from having access to lawyers
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A federal judge on Friday ruled that the government is “partially blocking access to lawyers” for immigrant detainees held in a downtown Los Angeles processing center and ordered it to stop.The preliminary injunction essentially extends a temporary restraining order that U.S.District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong issued in July, requiring federal immigration agencies to allow legal visitation at the B-18 detention facility in downtown L.A.
seven days a week.In her ruling this week, Frimpong said that lawyer visiting hours at B-18, which is in the basement of a federal building, have been closed down repeatedly without letting lawyers know, despite her ordering the government to notify them.“Officers insist on keeping the door open when lawyers are trying to have private conversations with their clients — even though this means the conversations are no longer private,” Frimpong said.“Officers sometimes will not let lawyers meet with people who want to work with lawyers — even though they are not supposed to.
Individuals in B-18 do not get the free, confidential phone calls with their lawyers that even the government says they should have.And sometimes, individuals are moved from B-18 to another location which does not allow lawyer visits at all.”“And, once again, the Court is ordering the federal government to stop — this time for the rest of this lawsuit.”Mark Rosenbaum, of Public Counsel, which helped bring the lawsuit, said that the court has “affirmed that the Constitution does not stop at the doors of a detention center.”“This is a terribly important ruling, not just because it enjoins the denial of access to lawyers, but because it takes apart a key part of ICE’s strategy in Los Angeles and that has been to dehumanize Latinos and to do everything they can to assure that Latinos that are subject to these raids are not able to avail themselv...