Plaintiffs Move For Immigrant Mental Disabilities Settlement

Plaintiffs of an immigrants with mental disabilities class action lawsuit have recently asked a California federal court to move forward with final approval of a proposed settlement reached between the plaintiff immigrants and the United States, stating that they find the proposed deal to be fair.

U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee was asked by the plaintiffs in their recent court filing to “swiftly and finally approve” the partial class action settlement. This proposed deal was reached between the parties in March of this year. According to reports, the approval of this class action settlement may allow many Class Members who have been slated for deportation to have their cases reopened and revisited.

According to the plaintiffs, both parties intended to file a joint motion for final approval of the immigrants with mental disabilities class action settlement, but could not agree on the content. However, the motion for final approval goes on to say the U.S. government does not oppose the plaintiffs’ motion and has stated their plan to file a separate document declaring their nonopposition to the proposed settlement.

Back in 2010, plaintiff Jose Antonio Franco Gonzalez and others filed this immigrants with mental disabilities class action lawsuit alleging the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement neglected to protect individuals with mental disabilities who were entrenched in immigration proceedings, and by doing so violated the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Due Process Clause.

In their class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs argue that both federal law the U.S. Constitution mandate that the government perform competency evaluations for individuals who may not be able to represent themselves. If they cannot, based on the results of the evaluation, then the government must appoint a legal representative for those individuals.

Class certification was granted for this immigrants with mental disabilities class action lawsuit in November 2011. A couple years later in 2013, the court ruled that the U.S. government had violated both the Rehabilitation Act and the INA, resulting in Judge Gee ordering a stop on all immigration proceedings involving individuals with mental disabilities unless these immigrants were given free representation.

In January of this year, the final part of the injunction order was enforced, requiring immigration judges to conduct competency reviews for affected Class Members of this immigrants with mental disabilities lawsuit.

According to the proposed immigrants with mental disabilities class action settlement, any individual who was detained without representation in the states of Arizona, California and Washington after Nov. 21, 2011 and were later slated for deportation without legal representation and absent of a judge’s competency evaluation will have the ability to reopen their immigration case.

Furthermore, ICE has agreed to help with the return of all eligible Class Members who were deported and who have also been granted their motion to reopen their immigration case.

In their motion for final approval of the class action settlement, the plaintiffs state the government has not raised objections to the plaintiffs’ counsels’ request for increase in attorneys’ fees, which has been estimated at over $11,634,582 with an additional $79,990 in out-of-pocket costs to be paid by the government.

The plaintiffs are represented by Ahilan T. Arulanantham and Carmen Iguina of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and Michael H. Steinberg of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, among others.

The Immigrants with Mental Disabilities Class Action Lawsuit is Franco-Gonzalez, et al. v. Holder, et al., Case No. 2:10-cv-02211, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.