ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Today, the ACLU of Virginia, Amica Center for Immigrant Rights (formerly known as CAIR Coalition), and the National Immigration Project entered into a settlement agreement in a class action lawsuit resulting in the release of multiple immigrants who were arbitrarily detained – and requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to consider releasing dozens more from its custody in the future.
“If you win your immigration case in Virginia, ICE is supposed to let you go – but instead, it’s been unlawfully detaining dozens of people for months in violation of its own policies,” said ACLU of Virginia Attorney Sophia Gregg. “This is the first lawsuit in the Fourth Circuit since a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2021 narrowed the relief that immigrants can get, making this class action settlement significant not only for the people who are finally getting justice, but for everyone who thought that Garland v. Aleman Gonzalez meant ICE would be above the law.”
Since 2004, it has been the government’s policy absent exceptional circumstances to promptly release people in immigration custody whom judges have granted asylum, withholding of removal, or relief under the U.N. Convention Against Torture (CAT) after deeming them likely to face severe persecution, torture, or death in their countries of origin.
Yet ICE’s Washington Field Office has continued to detain people for months after they had already won their immigration cases, Rodriguez Guerra v. Perry alleged. After judges ruled people could not be returned to their countries of origin, ICE kept them detained while the agency appealed the decision or spent months fruitlessly searching for alternative countries to which it could deport them – ignoring the government’s own data that less than three percent of people granted withholding of removal or CAT relief are ever removed to an alternative country.
“ICE’S practice of detaining non-citizens even after they already won their immigration case is in clear violation of its own policies,” said National Immigration Project Attorney Amber Qureshi. “After vigorously fighting against our clients in this case, ICE finally agreed to end its unlawful practice and honor its own decades-long policy by considering the release of people who’ve already won their immigration cases.”
The settlement agreement comes two years after a ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States that narrowed the relief people can get from ICE. In Garland v. Aleman Gonzalez, the Court ruled that lower courts cannot require ICE to change their detention practices on a class-wide basis, even when those practices violate the Constitution. That decision was a blow to the thousands of immigrants held in prison-like centers – largely without access to a lawyer.
But today’s settlement agreement demonstrates that the courts are still a powerful forum for holding ICE accountable. Unless the agency can show exceptional circumstances warranting their continued detention, ICE will now be required to release all immigrants in its custody in Virginia who have already won their immigration cases. As of June 2024, ICE held more than 34,500 people in its facilities according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, people who typically wait for years for their case to make its way through backlogged immigration courts.
Today’s settlement ensures that those people who finally make it in front of a judge and prevail in their immigration cases will be promptly considered for release instead of unlawfully languishing in the custody of ICE’s Washington Field Office for an additional number of months.
Structured in a three-stage approach to be implemented over the course of two years, the Rodriguez Guerra v. Perry settlement requires ICE‘s Washington Field Office to provide custody reviews for all individuals in Virginia who have been granted asylum, withholding, or CAT relief. Additional detail on the terms of the settlement can be found here.
“Today’s settlement means ICE will think twice about violating its own policies. The lawsuit has not only resulted in the release of many of our clients, but it will also facilitate the release of people stuck in ICE custody in the future even after winning their cases,” said Amica Center’s Immigration Impact Lab Senior Attorney Austin Rose. “Garland v. Aleman Gonzalez may have given ICE a false sense of impunity, but today’s settlement puts the agency on notice that it’s still bound by the law.”
