The ACLU of Nevada has launched a legal challenge against the federal government over what they say is an immigration policy that infringes upon the rights of detainees. The class-action lawsuit, backed by the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project and the UNLV Immigration Clinic, takes issue with a policy that denies bond hearings to immigrants who entered the U.S. without inspection, as reported by 8 News Now.
Historically, individuals could request release on bond while their immigration cases progressed. However, this policy has shifted under new rule, which mandates that anyone who entered the U.S. without inspection is to be held in mandatory detention. ACLU of Nevada's executive director, Athar Haseebullah called the policy change "cruelty dressed up as bureaucracy," in a statement obtained by 8 News Now.
Immigrants in Las Vegas are the focus of this lawsuit, particularly surrounding the automatic detention policy of the Department of Homeland Security and Las Vegas Immigration Court. The ACLU alleges that this policy, introduced last year, disregards previous practices that provided detainees the opportunity for a hearing while their cases are adjudicated. The ACLU is voicing concerns that this violates not just immigration laws and the Administrative Procedure Act, but also due process.
"The federal government's approach is harmful to Nevada as a whole and those who continue to defend this lunacy, even as international tourism is down statewide, no longer seem to care about the Constitution and have turned into proponents of federal overreach," Haseebullah said, according to a statement from News 3LV. Echoing these sentiments, Michael Kagan, director of the UNLV Immigration Clinic, hopes the lawsuit can bring forth a systemic solution, noting that residents of Southern Nevada have been adversely affected by the new policy.
With the filing of this lawsuit against the Trump administration, the ACLU is pushing to see the bond hearings reintroduced for the affected immigrants. Kagan underscored the plight of numerous community members, "Our staff and student attorneys have been encountering countless people who, under the law and under consistent government policy until a few weeks ago, would have been released," he told News 3LV.
