Immigrant Teens Get ICE Class Action Lawsuit Certified

A group of immigrant teens were able to get their proposed Class certified in a Immigration and Customs Enforcement class action lawsuit, along with an injunction against the agency.

The teens filed the ICE class action lawsuit alleging that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) improperly transferred them and other detained teenagers to adult facilities.

The plaintiffs say that ICE conducts the transfer without considering other, less restrictive placements, in violation of child trafficking laws.

In addition to obtaining federal certification of their proposed Class Members, a federal judge agreed to issue an injunction against ICE, stopping it from removing the plaintiffs to adult detention facilities.

The proposed Class in the ICE class action lawsuit includes “[a]ll former unaccompanied alien children who are detained or will be detained by ICE after being transferred by ORR because they have turned 18 years of age and as to whom ICE did not consider placement in the least restrictive setting available, including alternatives to detention programs.”

According to the ICE class action lawsuit, the three teen plaintiffs were all improperly transferred to adult detention facilities upon their 18th birthdays in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2013.

The plaintiffs in the ICE class action lawsuit are undocumented immigrants from Central America fleeing poverty, abuse, or gang violence. One of the plaintiffs alleges she was separated from her two-year-old son when she was transferred to an adult jail upon her 18th birthday.

In his order granting Class certification and denying the government’s motion to dismiss the ICE class action lawsuit, U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras noted that while the enforcement arm of DHS was granted broad authority, ICE cannot ignore specific directions from Congress as laid out in statutory law.

According to the order, ICE contended that the specific provision in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act they are accused of flouting actually applies to undocumented immigrants who are not consider “flight risks” or dangerous.

“Defendants suggest that the existence of this requirement means that those deemed by the Secretary to pose a risk of flight or those deemed dangerous are not entitled to any further consideration under the statute,” explained the judge in his order certifying the Class in the ICE class action lawsuit. “But Congress’s stipulation that the Secretary must ‘tak[e] into account’ certain factors before evaluating placements for each former unaccompanied minor in no way limits who is entitled to consideration.”

Judge Contreras also tossed the government’s argument that the statutory provision was meant to refer to some subset of former unaccompanied minors.

“This interpretation, though, runs counter to basic rules of English grammar,” stated the order.

The three plaintiffs have since been released – one with an ankle monitor, one was granted humanitarian release, and the other granted legal status. However, the two-year-old who was separated from his mother, one of the plaintiffs, reportedly remains in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

The Class is represented by Tia T. Trout Perez, Anne K. Reser and Stephen R. Patton of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Katherine E.M. Goettel of the National Immigrant Justice Center.

The ICE Immigrant Teen Transfer Class Action Lawsuit is Garcia Ramirez, et al. v. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, et al., Case No. 1:18­-cv­-00508, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

UPDATE: On Dec. 28, 2018, a federal judge recently refused to halt an immigrant class action lawsuit, ruling that the government shutdown does not eclipse the “safety of human life.”