ACLU FOIA Litigation Reveals Information About Plans to Expand ICE Detention Facilities Nationwide

New Orleans, LA - Today, in the early hours of the morning, the New Orleans Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Field Office deported at least two families, including two mothers and their minor children – three of whom are U.S. citizen children aged 2, 4, and 7. One of the mothers is currently pregnant. The families, who had lived in the United States for years and had deep ties to their communities, were deported from the U.S. under deeply troubling circumstances that raise serious due process concerns. ICE detained the first family on Tuesday, April 22, and the second family on Thursday, April 24. In both cases, ICE held the families incommunicado, refusing or failing to respond to multiple attempts by attorneys and family members to contact them. In one instance, a mother was granted less than one minute on the phone before the call was abruptly terminated when her spouse tried to provide legal counsel’s phone number. As a result, the families were completely isolated during critical moments when decisions were being made about the welfare of their minor children. This included decisions with serious implications for the health, safety, and legal rights of the children involved–without any opportunity to coordinate with caretakers or consult with legal representatives. These actions stand in direct violation of ICE’s own written and informal directives, which mandate coordination for the care of minor children with willing caretakers–regardless of immigration status–when deportations are being carried out. Both families have possible immigration relief, but because ICE denied them access to their attorneys, legal counsel was unable to assist and advise them in time. With one family, government attorneys had assured legal counsel that a legal call would be arranged within 24-48 hours, as well as a call with a family member. Instead, just after close of business and after courts closed for the day, ICE suddenly reversed course and informed counsel that the family would be deported at 6am the next morning–before the court reopened. That family filed a habeas corpus petition and motion for a temporary restraining order, which was never ruled on because of their rapid early-morning deportation. In the case of the other family, a U.S. citizen child suffering from a rare form of metastatic cancer was deported without medication or the ability to consult with their treating physicians–despite ICE being notified in advance of the child’s urgent medical needs. In addition, one of the mothers who was deported is pregnant, and ICE proceeded with her deportation without ensuring any continuity of prenatal care or medical oversight. These actions represent a shocking – although increasingly common–abuse of power. NOLA ICE has inflicted harm and jeopardized the lives and health of vulnerable children and a pregnant woman. The cruelty and deliberate denial of legal and medical access are not only unlawful, but inhumane. Teresa Reyes-Flores, Southeast Dignity not Detention Coalition (SEDND) - “ICE’s actions show a blatant violation of due process and basic human rights. The families were disappeared, cut off from their lawyers and loved ones, and rushed to be deported, stripping their parents of the chance to protect their U.S. citizen children.” Gracie Willis, National Immigration Project - ”What we saw from ICE over the last several days is horrifying and baffling. Families have been ripped apart unnecessarily. These mothers had no opportunity to speak with their co-parents to make the kinds of choices that parents are entitled to make for their children, the kinds of decisions that millions of parents make every day: “what is best for our child?” We should be gravely concerned that ICE has been given tacit approval to both detain and deport U.S. citizen children despite the availability and willingness of U.S.-based caregivers who, only because of ICE’s own actions, cannot find or contact them.” Alanah Odoms, Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana - “Once again, the government has used deceptive tactics to deny people their rights. These outrageous actions must be condemned. We as a nation are better than this. These families deserve better. They must be returned.” Fatima Khan, Louisiana Organization for Refugees and Immigrants (LORI) - “ICE’s actions today go far past the typical inhumanity of their detention operations in Louisiana. They ignored their own protocols on legal access and protecting children’s rights to enact an expedient deportation they know to be unlawful. Not only that, they disappeared these families before any U.S. Court could stand up for its children. We should all be mortified.” Erin Hebert, Ware Immigration - “Deporting U.S. citizen children is illegal, unconstitutional, and immoral. The speed, brutality, and clandestine manner in which these children were deported is beyond unconscionable, and every official responsible for it should be held accountable.” Homero López, Jr., Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy (ISLA) - “These deplorable actions demonstrate ICE's increasing willingness to violate all protections for immigrants as well as those of their children. These types of disappearances are reminiscent of the darkest eras in our country's history and put everyone, regardless of immigration status, at risk.” Mich P. Gonzalez, Sanctuary of the South - “A government agency that sequesters and deports vulnerable mothers with their US citizen children without due process must be defunded, not rewarded with an additional 45 billion dollars to continue at taxpayers’ expense. These families were lawfully complying with ICE’s orders and for this they suffered cruel and traumatic separation. If this is what the Trump administration is orchestrating just three months in, we should all be terrified of what the next four years will bring.”

Whether a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. can be arrested and detained on the basis of their political speech and advocacy.

At issue is the Trump administration’s sudden and unexplained termination of a contract guaranteeing legal services SAN DIEGO — The American Civil Liberties Union is asking a federal court to enforce provisions of a settlement agreement stemming from its family separation lawsuit. At issue is the Trump administration’s sudden and unexplained termination of a contract guaranteeing legal services to clients covered in the 2023 agreement. According to the ACLU motion filed today, the Trump administration abruptly notified the Acacia Center for Justice, the main contractor that oversees the legal services program serving those clients, that it does not intend to renew its contract. The administration has not explained why the contract is being terminated, nor has it provided any details about an alternative program that would meet the government’s obligations under the agreement. That contract is set to expire on April 30. ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt, lead counsel in the family separation lawsuit, said: “Babies were horrifically ripped from their parents’ arms under the first Trump administration’s family separation policy. Depriving these families of vital services needed to remedy these tragic events is just the latest cruelty inflicted upon the families. We will keep fighting for these parents and children.” The filing is online here.  

BURLINGTON, Vt. – In federal court today, Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford heard arguments from the legal team representing Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University student and Vermont resident who was arrested at his naturalization interview in retaliation for his advocacy for Palestinian rights. Arguments centered on whether or not the court has jurisdiction over Mr. Mahdawi’s habeas petition filed on April 14. Judge Crawford requested supplemental briefings on the merits of the habeas petition and release on bail early next week. Oral arguments are scheduled for Wednesday, April 30 at 9 a.m. ET. “I don’t want people to lose hope,” said Mohsen Mahdawi. “Stay positive and believe in the inevitability of justice. This hearing is part of the system of democracy; it prevents a tyrant from having unchecked power. I am in prison, but I am not imprisoned. A system of democracy guarantees freedom of speech, speaking of Palestine does not only qualify as freedom of speech, but it is also about our humanity. Keep the hope alive; I will see you under the sun.” Mr. Mahdawi is a lawful permanent resident of the United States who has lived in Vermont for 10 years and is set to graduate from Columbia University in May. ICE detained him after his long-awaited naturalization interview on April 14. After apprehending him, ICE attempted to put him on a plane to Louisiana, but a temporary restraining order issued by Judge William K. Sessions III compelled the government to keep Mr. Mahdawi in Vermont. Today, Judge Crawford extended that restraining order by 90 days. Mr. Mahdawi’s habeas petition argues that his detention violates his constitutional rights, including free speech and due process, and goes beyond the government’s legal authority. Copies of the legal documents filed in this case are available here. Mr. Mahdawi is represented by Cyrus Mehta and David Isaacson of Cyrus D. Mehta Partners, PLLC; Luna Droubi of Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP; Andrew Delaney of Martin Delaney & Ricci Law Group; CLEAR; the American Civil Liberties Union; and the ACLU of Vermont. The following are quotes from Mr. Mahdawi’s legal team: “What you are seeing with Mohsen and all of the other students who have been taken because of their advocacy of Palestinian rights is unprecedented,” said Cyrus Mehta of Cyrus D. Mehta Partners, PLLC. “The Trump Administration is hellbent on detaining these students and treating them like criminals simply for exercising their First Amendment right to freedom of speech. We will continue to fight for Mohsen to be rightfully returned to his community in Vermont.” “Today, we once again saw that the government has no basis, whatsoever, for Mohsen Mahdawi’s detention other than their own admission that they detained Mohsen on the basis of his speech,” said Luna Droubi of Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP. “Their claims and actions are baseless, without evidence, and are a disgrace to the US constitution. We plan to return to Vermont next week to argue in court and free Mohsen.” “Mohsen was taking steps to become a citizen when he was detained in retaliation for his political speech,” said Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “The growing list of people who have been punished for their beliefs should frighten everyone in the country, citizen or not, and we are pleased that the court recognized the urgency of this case and scheduled a merits hearing in a week. We will work hard to ensure Mohsen is released and that nobody else has to fear detention for exercising their rights under the First Amendment.” “Mohsen is a valued member of his community here in Vermont. His friends and neighbors—and people across the country—are right to be deeply concerned by the government’s retaliation against his constitutionally protected speech” said Hillary Rich, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Vermont. “Mohsen has committed no crime, and the government’s only supposed justification for holding him in prison is the content of his speech. We are proud to join his legal team and will not stop fighting for Mohsen’s freedom.” “The government continues to engage in the same delay tactics it has in other matters,” said Naz Ahmad, co-director of CLEAR at the City University of New York. “Mohsen should not spend a single second longer in detention when it is obvious that he is being targeted for his speech supportive of Palestinians. The court rightly recognizes the need for urgency."