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Law360 (August 25, 2020, 8:19 PM EDT) -- The Third Circuit reversed a Pennsylvania federal court's decision to temporarily free individuals at risk of coronavirus from immigrant detention in two state prisons, ruling Tuesday that the lower court "jettisoned" due process by ordering the release before hearing from the government.
U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III freed 22 immigrants from the prisons and then "turned due process on its head" when he required U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — which wasn't given the opportunity to argue against the initial release order — to explain why the temporary restraining order shouldn't be extended through an injunction, a three-judge panel said in a published opinion.
By requiring the government to argue against an injunction, the Pennsylvania judge had ignored the rules of civil procedure, which dictate that the immigrants had the burden of proving that the injunction was necessary, the appeals court explained.
"We acknowledge difficulties faced by trial courts in emergent matters and the need to act immediately, particularly during a pandemic," U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas Hardiman wrote on behalf of the panel. "But exigent circumstances do not empower a court to jettison fundamental principles of due process or the rules of procedure that govern such matters."
Counsel for the detainees did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
An ICE official said the agency doesn't comment on pending litigation.
On April 7, Judge Jones ordered the release of 22 immigrants from Pennsylvania's York County Prison and Pike County Correctional Facility, ruling that their continued detention unnecessarily exposed them to coronavirus. The order was made ex parte, without ICE's input, and without the immigrants specifically requesting that type of fast-tracked relief, according to the opinion.
The procedural misstep paved the way for more substantive errors, according to the panel. Without the government's input, Judge Jones "relied heavily" on a week-old ruling that the York County and Pike County prisons were ill-prepared to protect a separate group of immigrants from the coronavirus. But the findings in that case were already outdated one week later, the appeals court said.
The state prisons screened incoming inmates for coronavirus, quarantined individuals who showed symptoms, and had provided masks and hygienic products to the detainees — improvements that ICE detailed, but that the court never addressed, according to the opinion.
Faced with the evidence, the Third Circuit said it was unlikely that the immigrants' constitutional rights were being threatened by detention.
The Third Circuit additionally took issue with the release order, which was "not just vague, but is also over- and under-inclusive," Judge Hardiman wrote.
In the order, Judge Jones allowed the government to redetain released immigrants if they commit "further crimes", but hadn't specified what type of crimes warranted redetention. He also stated that the detainees' release was contingent on them self-quarantining and complying with local and federal coronavirus guidelines, without fully describing what quarantine entailed, or which guidance to follow, the appeals court explained.
"The court too readily accepted the petitioners' all-or-nothing proposition that nothing short of immediate release cannot remedy their plight," Judge Hardiman wrote.
U.S. Circuit Judges D. Brooks Smith, Thomas Hardiman and Anthony Scirica sat on the panel.
The detainees are represented by Eunice Cho, David Fathi and Witold Walczak of the American Civil Liberties Union; Stephen Kang and Cecilia Wang of the ACLU Foundation; Erika Nyborg-Burch, Vanessa Stine and Muneeda Talukder of the ACLU of Pennsylvania; and Carla Graff and Kelly Krellner of Dechert LLP.
The government is represented by David Byerley, Jeffrey Robins and Scott G. Stewart of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Immigration Litigation.
The case is Hope et al. v. Warden York County Prison et al., case number 20-1784, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
--Editing by Abbie Sarfo.
Update: The story has been updated to include comment from ICE.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
