OMAHA, Neb. (CN) - Three women held in immigration detention smiled, quietly broke into tears and hugged their lawyers in a federal courtroom Thursday after a judge ordered their release on bond.
"It's so exciting to be able to reunite the individuals with their families," said Grant Friedman, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Nebraska, which represented one of the women. "This order shows the commitment to due process that needs to be respected."
The women - Nicandra Ozuna Carlon, Yurenia Genchi Palma and Felipa Lorenzo Perez - were among those arrested in the June 10 immigration raid on Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha and had been detained despite immigration judges ruling that they could be freed.
Federal authorities had continued their detention, though, citing what plaintiffs describe as a novel interpretation of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy on bond eligibility. Federal authorities now argue that only those already admitted to the U.S. can be released during removal proceedings, while everyone else must be detained under U.S. code.
Plaintiffs in these cases often describe this as a policy reversal. Previously, most individuals subject to removal proceedings who are found not to be a risk to the community could be released.
In Thursday's cases, the women sued, and Senior U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Bataillon ordered their release during a hearing at the Roman L. Hruska U.S. Courthouse in downtown Omaha.
It was not exactly a surprise. Bataillon has issued the same order for at least three other plaintiffs in similar cases related to the raid.
Still, there had been a new development: a decision on Friday by the Board of Immigration Appeals, the senior U.S. immigration law administrative body, which found that those already in the United States who have entered without authorization are subject to mandatory detention and that immigration judges have no authority to change their custody status.
But following arguments by attorneys, Bataillon agreed with the plaintiffs that he should release their clients anyway since they were being held under the same circumstances as earlier plaintiffs and that the board's opinion was flawed.
"I disagree with their analysis, and my holding is the same as it was," Bataillon said.
Eric W. Synowicki, an assistant United States attorney arguing for defendants, had told Bataillon there is a consensus among immigration judges in Nebraska that they can no longer issue bond and that the Board's ruling applied in the three cases.
"Immigration judges lack authority to grant bond," he said. "It applies. It is lawful."
ICE has said many of those arrested engaged in identity theft to get their jobs. Plaintiffs in these cases often point to their own lack of a criminal record in making their claims.
The raid on Glenn Valley Foods rocked Omaha, a city partially built on the backs of immigrant meatpackers since the late 19th century. It came at the heels of video circulating around the city of ICE agents arresting a man in the dining room of a local restaurant in front of patrons during Sunday brunch.
The scene of the Glenn Valley raid was tense, with some throwing rocks at a line of SUVs carrying federal agents, shattering a window, according to some reports.
Immigration has continued to be a contentious issue in Nebraska. One of President Donald Trump's vividly named immigration detention centers is set to be located at the state's minimum-security Work Ethic Camp outside of McCook, in the southwest of the state.
Immigrants from the Glenn Valley raid are not the only ones targeted by the new ICE policy. At least two are suing in the Nebraska U.S. District Court after being picked up during traffic stops. Francisco Torres Aleman, taken into custody in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is set for an order to show cause hearing on Friday in front of Bataillon. Other immigrants have been detained under similar circumstances elsewhere in the U.S.
Source: Courthouse News Service
