U.S. law enforcement sued for illegally detaining foreign nationals

U.S. law enforcement sued for illegally detaining foreign nationals

 LOS ANGELES, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- The illegal detention¹ of foreign nationals in the United States have angered civil rights groups to file a lawsuit² against the law enforcement.

Six people have brought a landmark³ class-action lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) Friday on grounds they are or were illegally detained in the jails and stations of Los Angeles County Jail for days, weeks, or months after they were entitled to be released because they are the subject of "immigration holds."

Immigration holds, sometimes called "immigration detainers," are notices issued by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requesting that an individual in local custody⁴ be held pending⁵ further action. Unlike warrants, they are issued without any judicial⁶ determination of probable cause, and they are frequently issued in error.

The lawsuit reveals the serious civil rights violations⁷ against tens of thousands of foreign nationals who have been detained in the United States.

Immigration detention in the United States has reached crisis proportions. In 2011, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) held a record-breaking 429,000 immigrants in over 250 facilities across the country, and currently maintains a daily capacity of 33,400 beds, even though, in the overwhelming majority of cases, detention is not necessary to effect deportations and does not make the United States any safer, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Among those unnecessarily locked up are survivors⁹ of torture, asylum¹⁰ seekers, victims of trafficking, families with small children, the elderly, individuals with serious medical and mental health conditions, and lawful¹¹ permanent residents with longstanding family and community ties who are facing deportation⁸ because of old or minor¹² crimes, according to ACLU.

ACLU claimed that the U.S. lock-up system is a massive waste of taxpayer¹³ dollars, costing 122 dollars to 164 dollars to hold a detainee each day, or 2 billion dollars a year. Adding insult to injury, detainees are exposed to myriad¹⁴ abuses -- from a lack of adequate medical and mental health care that has caused unnecessary deaths to rape¹⁵ and sexual abuse.

The lawsuit filed against LASD by ACLU in Los Angeles addresses two related practices of LASD, including detaining people beyond their release date solely¹⁶ on the immigration hold and refusing to allow pretrial detainees to post bail¹⁷ to secure their release from jail if they have an ICE hold.

According to ACLU, some 2,100 inmates¹⁸ each day (or 14 percent of the daily jail population) have ICE holds lodged¹⁹ against them in the Los Angeles County Jails. These inmates spend on average nearly three weeks longer in L.A. County Jails than inmates without immigration holds, despite being, on average, better candidates for pretrial release or other diversion programs.

While immigration holds are requests from ICE that LASD voluntarily hold them beyond their release date to wait for ICE to pick them up, LASD treats them as mandatory²⁰ orders and detains anyone subject to an ICE hold for days after their release date. These detentions²¹ violate the U.S. Constitution and state law, ACLU claimed in the lawsuit.

"Our Constitution guarantees that law enforcement cannot jail residents without probable cause to believe they've broken the law," ACLU staff attorney Jennie Pasquarell said in a statement.

"But LASD holds thousands of people each year beyond their release dates, simply because ICE says they would like to investigate whether they may be removable. In this country, the government can't lock someone in jail at the start of the investigation²², it can only do so if investigates and finds good cause to do so," Pasquarell added.

Until now, LASD has refused to allow detainees with an ICE hold to post bail, even when bail had been set by a court, ACLU claimed.

In response to a pre-filing demand letter sent by plaintiffs' attorneys, LASD recognized that individuals subject to ICE holds should be allowed to post bail, have sent bulletins to watch commanders clarifying this rule, and are working on revising policies and data systems to prevent unlawful detentions in the future, according to ACLU.

According to the lawsuit, Duncan Roy, a noted²³ British filmmaker, spent 89 days in Los Angeles Men's Central Jail because the LASD repeatedly refused to allow him to post bail set by the court because Roy was subject to an erroneous ICE hold.

His bail bondsman attempted countless²⁴ times to post bail to secure his release but each time the LASD jailers told him he could not post bail because of the ICE hold, the lawsuit claimed.

"It's important that people realize that this could happen to anyone," said Roy in a statement.

"It's not just undocumented immigrants. I'm lucky that I can get out and be heard -- many of the people I met in there can't," Roy stressed.

In recent years, LASD has alone detained more individuals on immigration detainers for the purposes of assisting the federal government with its deportation efforts than any other county in the nation, and indeed more than any other state except California and Texas, according to ACLU.

1 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

2 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

3 landmark   

n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标

参考例句：

• The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
• The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。

4 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

5 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。

6 judicial   

adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的

参考例句：

• He is a man with a judicial mind.他是个公正的人。
• Tom takes judicial proceedings against his father.汤姆对他的父亲正式提出诉讼。

7 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

8 deportation   

n.驱逐，放逐

参考例句：

• The government issued a deportation order against the four men.政府发出了对那4名男子的驱逐令。
• Years ago convicted criminals in England could face deportation to Australia.很多年以前，英国已定罪的犯人可能被驱逐到澳大利亚。

9 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

10 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

11 lawful   

adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的

参考例句：

• It is not lawful to park in front of a hydrant.在消火栓前停车是不合法的。
• We don't recognised him to be the lawful heir.我们不承认他为合法继承人。

12 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

13 taxpayer   

n.纳税人

参考例句：

• The new scheme will run off with a lot of the taxpayer's money.这项新计划将用去纳税人许多钱。
• The taxpayer are unfavourably disposed towards the recent tax increase.纳税者对最近的增加税收十分反感。

14 myriad   

adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量

参考例句：

• They offered no solution for all our myriad problems.对于我们数不清的问题他们束手无策。
• I had three weeks to make a myriad of arrangements.我花了三个星期做大量准备工作。

15 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

16 solely   

adv.仅仅，唯一地

参考例句：

• Success should not be measured solely by educational achievement.成功与否不应只用学业成绩来衡量。
• The town depends almost solely on the tourist trade.这座城市几乎完全靠旅游业维持。

17 bail   

v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人

参考例句：

• One of the prisoner's friends offered to bail him out.犯人的一个朋友答应保释他出来。
• She has been granted conditional bail.她被准予有条件保释。

18 inmates   

n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 lodged   

v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属

参考例句：

• The certificate will have to be lodged at the registry. 证书必须存放在登记处。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Our neighbours lodged a complaint against us with the police. 我们的邻居向警方控告我们。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

21 detentions   

拘留( detention的名词复数 )； 扣押； 监禁； 放学后留校

参考例句：

• Teachers may assign detention tasks as they wish and some detentions have been actually dangerous. 老师可能随心所欲指派关禁闭的形式，有些禁闭事实上很危险。
• Intimidation, beatings and administrative detentions are often enough to prevent them from trying again. 恐吓，拷打和行政拘留足以阻止请愿者二次进京的脚步。

22 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

23 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

24 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。