Federal judge says immigrants in Washington state have right to bond hearings

The immigration judges at the Tacoma detention center have long denied bond requests by migrants. In July, Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, adopted that policy for immigration judges across the country, meaning that most migrants arrested cannot be released unless the Department of Homeland Security makes an exception.

The new rule has impacted people who have lived in the county for years, even decades, their lawyers say, including a man who was detained in Iowa when he sought police help after being shot during a robbery.

Messages seeking comment from ICE, DHS and the Executive Office for Immigration Review were not immediately returned. An EOIR spokesperson sent an automatic response saying “the appropriation that funds my salary has lapsed and as a result I have been furloughed.”

Matt Adams, attorney for Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, said the Tacoma ruling only applies to people held in that city and is not precedent for ICE detention centers across the country. But a similar lawsuit filed in California by NWIRP and the American Civil Liberties Union seeks to change the rule for all immigrants, he said.

The ACLU also filed a complaint against DHS in Massachusetts, saying denying bond hearings denies the immigrants their due process rights.

“When the government arrests any person inside the United States, it must be required to prove to a judge that there is an actual reason for the person’s detention," Daniel McFadden, managing attorney at the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in a statement. “Our client and others like him have a constitutional and statutory right to receive a bond hearing for exactly that purpose.”

The Tacoma case was filed in March on behalf of Roman Rodriguez Vazquez — who had lived in Washington state for 16 years — and others held at the ICE detention center. At the time, national data showed that Tacoma immigration judges have granted bond in only 3% of cases where bond was requested, making the Tacoma court's bond rate the lowest in the U.S., the judge's order says.

The new national policy issued on July 8 followed that pattern by saying: “All noncitizens who have not been lawfully admitted, including those already present in the United States, will no longer be eligible for release from ICE custody for the duration of their removal proceedings except by discretionary parole.”

Under the policy, “even those with strong ties to the community and no criminal records” are no longer eligible for a bond hearing, the judge said in her order.

Cartwright said immigrants who fall into this category have the right to seek bonds. Denying these hearings violates the primary federal law that governs immigration and citizenship in the U.S.