NEWARK, N.J. (1010 WINS) — The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Biden administration to stop the long-distance transfer of ICE detainees from a detention center in Newark.
The federal class-action lawsuit marks the group's first legal challenge over the Biden administration's immigration policy.
About 100 ICE detainees are being held at the Essex County Correctional Facility, which recently announced it would be ending its contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
According to the ACLU, detainees are typically transferred to detention centers hundreds of miles away from their families, attorneys and support networks when a facility closes.
The group alleges "those who have ongoing immigration proceedings could be subject to having their cases considered in jurisdictions with much less favorable case law."
The ACLU said it is fighting to allow those detainees to await their immigration proceedings in communities rather than in detention.
“We sued the Trump administration over 400 times, and the Biden administration is trying to resolve many of those suits. Today’s suit is a challenge to a decision made by the Biden administration — it’s not a Trump hold-over," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "True to form, we will sue any administration — Democrat or Republican — and hold them accountable when they take positions that violate civil liberties and civil rights. This may be one of the first lawsuits filed against the Biden administration by advocacy groups, but I’m guessing it won’t be the last."
“Transferring hundreds of people far away from their families and attorneys violates the rights and dignity of New Jerseyans, and we’re calling on the courts to stop this policy of gratuitous cruelty,” said ACLU-NJ Executive Director Amol Sinha. “Especially in New Jersey, which offers legal representation for immigrants in detention who face deportation, the policy of transferring people deprives community members of their rights and fails to treat them with the dignity they deserve. We have a duty to allow people to await their immigration proceedings in communities rather than in detention, to avoid disrupting lives and depriving people of their constitutional rights.”
“Immigration detention needlessly deprives thousands of immigrants their liberty each day, and transferring immigrants to facilities hundreds of miles away only exacerbates this injustice. Today’s lawsuit challenges the transfer of immigrants detained in New Jersey far from their attorneys and communities. The government must end this harmful, unfair, and unlawful practice and instead allow people to be released back to their families and communities,” said Joseph Meyers, Justice Catalyst Fellow at the National Immigration Project.
The White House has not commented on the lawsuit.