Lawsuit: Immigrant Detainees Wait average 80 Days for Court Date

Immigrants detained in the New York City area spend about 80 days waiting to see a judge for the first time, according to a new class action lawsuit filed Thursday against the government.

Niji Jain, impact litigation attorney with the Bronx Defenders, claims that delay violates their constitutional right to due process.

"Due process requires that the government give you a hearing within a few days of seizing your car," she said, referring to a 2002 federal court ruling in New York. "And if that’s what’s required for when your car is seized, then due process certainly requires at least the same promptness when a person is themselves locked up."

The lawsuit, which names Immigration Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies, claims there's been a "dramatic deterioration" in the time detained immigrants spend waiting to see a judge.

It points to federal data showing initial court appearances typically occurred within 11 days of an arrest in 2014. But more than 70 percent of immigrants now wait more than two months.

That first court appearance is when a judge can set bond, allowing the immigrant to go home until the next court hearing, but that's rarely happening now according to the lawsuit. It's also when detained immigrants in New York City get assigned free lawyers, funded by the de Blasio administration and the City Council. Otherwise, there is no guaranteed right to counsel in immigration court.

When immigrants are arrested in New York City they're taken to three detention centers run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Two are in New Jersey and one is in Orange County, New York. These local jails are being used more heavily now that immigrant arrests have shot up since President Donald Trump took office, and the localities are making more money by renting their space to ICE.

The Bronx Defenders lawsuit states that there are currently over 100 people detained by ICE's New York Field Office who have not yet seen a judge, and more than 1,000 of them annually.

Immigrants held in all three of the jails used to appear in person at a court on Varick Street, in lower Manhattan, that's specifically for immigrants in detention. But after a protest outside the building in June, the immigration court began conducting hearings by video teleconference, a system which can be fraught with technical problems and delays.

Jain speculated that the Varick Street court may be struggling to process more cases. Spokespersons for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which runs the immigration courts, said their agencies don't comment on pending lawsuits.

The lead plaintiff in the suit is Uriel Vazquez Perez, a 43 year-old father of two who's been detained at the Orange County Correctional Facility since October 30th. "He’s already been away from his family for two and half weeks," Jain said. "He can’t tell them how long it’s going to be before he is able to even ask the judge to release him on bond."

Jain said she could not provide other information about the plaintiff because that's the job of the government.

"It’s the government’s burden to establish the facts about removability to the extent that they are charging him as removable," she explained. "And so until he is brought before the court and until he has that first court date, where the government presents their evidence, we’re not in a position to say anything about that."

The suit was brought by the Bronx Defenders with the Cardozo Law Immigration Justice Clinic and the New York Civil Liberties Union.