December 21, 2020
The federal courts considered a mountain of immigration litigation this past year, from the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling on protections for young unauthorized immigrants to a flurry of cases challenging immigration detention and visa restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
December 11, 2020
A D.C. federal judge on Thursday trimmed a suit brought by a group of immigrant detainees seeking to be released over COVID-19 health risks, while greenlighting certain claims by detained minors as well as allegations that the facilities' conditions violate due process rights.
July 29, 2020
A D.C. federal judge sent the government and lawyers for detained migrant families to the negotiating table on Wednesday to discuss whether certain vulnerable families who fear contracting COVID-19 in immigration detention should be released on a case-by-case basis.
July 22, 2020
A D.C. federal judge on Wednesday refused to empty family detention centers during the pandemic, a decision that may force detained parents to choose between breaking up their families by releasing their children to a sponsor or keeping the family whole in detention.
July 13, 2020
Although a D.C. federal judge appeared wary on Monday of ordering the nation's three family detention centers emptied, he seemed to be seriously considering releasing detainees with health conditions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
May 20, 2020
Despite some "good lawyering," a D.C. federal judge said Wednesday he has seen no proof that the supposedly tinderbox-like conditions under which some immigrant families are being detained amid the coronavirus outbreak amount to a violation of their Fifth Amendment rights.
April 27, 2020
A D.C. federal judge ordered the government Monday to apply certain standards laid out in a landmark consent decree that established bedrock standards of care for migrant children in custody to adults held in three residential detention centers in Pennsylvania and Texas amid the coronavirus outbreak.
April 13, 2020
A D.C. federal judge Monday declined, at least for now, to grant immediate release of dozens of migrant families at three detention centers in Pennsylvania and Texas amid the coronavirus outbreak, saying the government is "continuing to make substantial progress" to ensure detainees are not infected.
March 31, 2020
As the coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 180,000 people in the U.S., federal judges have fielded requests from individuals in immigration detention centers, which feature close quarters and allegedly shoddy medical services, to be temporarily released from custody.
March 23, 2020
A federal judge must immediately release migrant families from residential centers that are "tinderboxes" for a devastating COVID-19 outbreak that will threaten the lives of parents and children, according to an emergency lawsuit filed in D.C. federal court.