NEW YORK — Newly detained immigrants must appear before a judge within 10 days, rather than the weeks or months they've sometimes had to endure in recent years, a judge said Monday.
Civil rights groups praised the ruling by U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan as the first of its kind in the nation to set such a rule for the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency.
They said in a release that the ruling would strike a blow to federal immigration authorities who hold detained immigrants indefinitely before they appear before a judge.
The judge said a law authorizing the detention of immigrants while removal proceedings are pending "does not negate class members' interests — of the utmost importance — in freedom from imprisonment."
"Class members may not have a 'fundamental right to be released during removal proceedings,' but nor does the Government have an unfettered right to detain them," she added.
In 2014, the average wait to see a judge was 11 days, but it had stretched to over a month in 2017 and nearly three months in 2018, according to the judge's ruling.
Messages for comment was sent to the Justice Department, which represented the agency in court, and ICE, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security.
"A few weeks or months of sitting in inhumane ICE detention facilities can be dangerous and devastating for individuals and their families," said Niji Jain, an attorney at The Bronx Defenders. "The Court's ruling recognizes that prompt access to an immigration judge is a fundamental right — one that is all the more important when detention facilities are hotbeds for the spread of COVID-19."
