After Being Detained Five Years Without Bond Hearing, Immigrant to Get Day in Court

After Being Detained Five Years Without Bond Hearing, Immigrant to Get Day in
Court

BUFFALO, N.Y., July 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A long-time lawful permanent
resident fighting deportation will finally get a bond hearing after being held
in immigration detention for five and a half years. Late Friday, a district
court ordered that the government must provide Errol Barrington Scarlett with
a hearing within 60 days before an immigration judge where the government must
demonstrate that he poses sufficient danger or flight risk to warrant his
continued detention. In his request for a bond hearing, Scarlett was
represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the New York Civil
Liberties Union (NYCLU) and pro bono by Seyfarth, Shaw LLP.

"The court affirmed a basic constitutional principle: no one should be locked
up for prolonged periods of time without a hearing to determine whether such
detention is warranted," said Michael Tan, an attorney with the ACLU
Immigrants' Rights Project. "We are relieved that after five and half years,
Mr. Scarlett will finally get his day in court, but thousands of other legal
residents are still detained for months or years without the most basic
element of due process - a bond hearing to determine if their detention is
even necessary."

The ACLU lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court of the Western District of New
York against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE), charged that Scarlett's prolonged immigration
detention without a bond hearing violates the Immigration and Nationality Act
(INA) and the right to due process under the U.S. Constitution.

Scarlett, originally from Jamaica, has lived in the United States for over
thirty years and has four children and numerous siblings, all of whom are U.S.
citizens. Because of his family ties and longtime legal residence, he is
eligible for cancellation of removal - a permanent form of immigration relief.
There is no evidence that Scarlett poses a threat to the community or a flight
risk, yet the government has subjected Scarlett to years of mandatory
detention while seeking to deport him based on a non-violent, decade-old drug
possession offense for which he had already served his sentence. During his
lengthy detention, the government never gave him a hearing but only a string
of "rubberstamp" custody reviews denying his release.

"We hope that this case will serve as a precedent for the many others who have
been wrongfully detained," said Arthur Eisenberg, Legal Director of the NYCLU.

The ACLU initially submitted a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Scarlett
but then became his primary counsel after the magistrate judge recommended
that Scarlett's request for a hearing be granted.

Over the past few years, the ACLU has filed multiple lawsuits on behalf of
individuals who have been held for prolonged periods of time while fighting
their immigration cases. Recently, the ACLU filed a class action lawsuit in
the Middle District of Pennsylvania on behalf of lawful permanent residents
who are being imprisoned without bond hearings in Pennsylvania jails while
they fight their immigration cases.

Lawyers on the case, Scarlett v. The United States Department of Homeland
Security Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, et al., include Tan
and Judy Rabinovitz of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, Eisenberg of the
New York Civil Liberties Union and Lorie Almon and Jeremi Chylinski of
Seyfarth Shaw LLP.

More information on the case, including the court order, legal briefs and a
podcast with Scarlett are available online at:
www.aclu.org/immigrants/detention/40272res20090128.html.

SOURCE American Civil Liberties Union

Maria Archuleta of ACLU, +1-212-519-7808, +1-212-549-2666; media@aclu.org; or
Jennifer Carnig of NYCLU, +1-212-607-3363