He said the Department of Homeland Security has a “pattern of unlawful arrests and confinements.”
By Catholics for Catholics
A Chicago federal judge ordered the Department of Homeland Security to free more than 600 illegal migrants kept at detention centers, lambasting the agency for alleged “repeated, material violations.”
According to The Washington Times, US District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ruled that more than 600 detainees being held at the Broadview ICE center must be released “on bond and into ICE’s Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program” by Nov. 21, citing what he called a “pattern of unlawful arrests and confinement.”
Cumming’s order derives from Margarito Castañon Nava v. DHS, a class-action lawsuit claiming federal agents unlawfully arrested hundreds of migrants who were not subject to mandatory custody or final removal orders, a direct violation of a 2021 Biden-era decree inherited by the Trump administration.
Cummings accused DHS in the ruling of imprisoning migrants in “unsafe and unsanitary” conditions, saying detainees had been kept in jammed buildings “next to overflowing toilets.” The judge further said the department’s recent reversal on detention authority represented a “180-degree change” from previous legal interpretations.
The judge said only some migrants who have a final deportation order or a criminal record grievous enough to trigger the law are subject to obligatory incarceration. Those who are in the country illegally but who have not yet received a final deportation order cannot be automatically subject to detention.
Cumming said Homeland Security used to proceed as he described it until it overturned its policy earlier this year under the Trump administration. Judge Cummings called that an “abrupt 180-degree change” and said he and other courts have disagreed with DHS’s new reading.
“This court will stand by its ruling on this issue until it receives contrary direction from the Seventh Circuit or the Supreme Court,” the judge wrote.
He ordered the migrants released on a $1,500 bond. Judge Cummings stayed his order until Nov. 21.
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