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Law360 (March 31, 2020, 7:41 PM EDT ) A Pennsylvania federal judge ordered the release of 10 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees on Tuesday after determining that the state correctional facilities where they were housed were unprepared to protect them from potentially lethal cases of COVID-19.
U.S. District Judge John Jones III said that underlying medical conditions suffered by each of the detainees, whom the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit to free last week, combined with deficient conditions at state correctional institutions mean the group should be set free to ride out the coronavirus outbreak.
"While this deficiency is neither intentional nor malicious, should we fail to afford relief to petitioners we will be a party to an unconscionable and possibly barbaric result," the judge said. "If we are to remain the civilized society we hold ourselves out to be, it would be heartless and inhumane not to recognize petitioners' plight. And so we will act."
The ACLU filed suit on behalf of the group last week, asking that they be freed from facilities where they were being detained in York, Clinton and Pike Counties while awaiting the outcome of pending immigration cases.
The group argued that the facilities where they were being housed were unable to enact social distancing measures aimed at combating the spread of the virus, and that their underlying medical conditions put them at heightened risk for potentially lethal complications from COVID-19.
In their complaint, the detainees described being housed in some instances alongside two other cellmates, using communal sinks and showers that were infrequently cleaned, and sharing meals prepared in unsanitary kitchens.
Since the detainees filed suit last week, three of them had already been released in the run-up to Tuesday's decision.
According to Tuesday's opinion, three of the detainees involved in the suit have already started displaying symptoms consistent with COVID-19, but the facilities had refused to test them or to quarantine them from the fellow prisoners.
In reaching his decision to free the 10 detainees on Tuesday, the judge credited claims from the group about the conditions in the facilities where they were housed.
He also pointed to a report that a correctional officer in the Pike County facilities had tested positive for COVID-19.
In a brief opposing the motion to release the detainees, the government argued that the detainees did not have standing to bring their complaint because they hadn't actually been diagnosed with the virus.
But the judge quickly dispatched this argument.
"Respondents would have us offer no substantial relief to petitioners until the pandemic erupts in our prisons," he said. "We reject this notion."
Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU who helped represent the detainees, praised Tuesday's decision as a "life-saving" move.
"As the number of confirmed cases of people in ICE detention who have tested positive for COVID-19 continues to climb, we are thrilled to see the court take this critical, life-saving step," she said. "It sends a strong message to ICE field offices around the country: now is the moment to release people who are at risk for serious illness or death from COVID-19. We will continue to fight in the courts to ensure that they do."
A spokesperson for ICE did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Tuesday afternoon.
The temporary restraining order issued after the opinion required the detainees to be released by the end of the day on Tuesday, and is set to expire on April 13 with the possibility of further relief as the situation changes.
The detainees are represented by Witold Walczak, Vanessa Stine, Erika Nyborg-Burch and Muneeba Talukder, Eunice Cho, David Fathi, Omar Jadwat and Michael Tan of the ACLU, and Will Sachse, Thomas Miller, Carla Graff and Kelly Krellner of Dechert LLP.
The respondents are represented by Joanne Sanderson of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
The case is Bharatkumar Thakker et al. v. Clair Doll, case number 1:20-cv-00480, before the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
--Editing by Haylee Pearl.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
