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Public Defenders Nationwide Announce Plan for Immigration Justice, Provide Ten-Point Plan to Biden Administration

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January 13, 2021

Public Defenders Nationwide Announce Plan for Immigration Justice, Provide Ten-Point Plan to Biden Administration

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 13, 2021

MEDIA CONTACTS: Valerie Ibarra – San Francisco Public Defender’s Office – (628)249-7946 – Valerie.Ibarra@sfgov.org; Lindsey Hortenstine – New Orleans Public Defender’s Office – (404)520-3087 – LHortenstine@opdla.org; Bob McGovern, Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services, rmcgovern@publiccounsel.net; Daniel Ball, Brooklyn Defender Services, dball@bds.org

Public Defenders Nationwide Announce Plan for Immigration Justice, Provide Ten-Point Plan to Biden Administration

Public Defenders Urge Federal Government to Take Bold Steps to Reverse and Repair Damage of the Outgoing Administration

SAN FRANCISCO – Today, the Public Defenders’ Coalition for Immigrant Justice, a nationwide coalition of public defender offices, released a 10-point plan for addressing the injustices of the criminal legal system and its pipeline to deportation. The plan urges the Biden administration and new Democratic majority in Congress to act swiftly and decisively for immigration justice to undo the unjust, harmful and destructive tactics of the outgoing administration.

Public defenders are direct witnesses to the devastation that unjust state and federal laws cause our clients, their families, and their communities. The draconian policies of the last four years exposed the cruelty of the immigration enforcement machine, leading to a sharp rebuke at the polls, and public disenchantment with mass deportation. The Biden Administration has an opportunity to take a fresh approach to these important issues with immediate and bold action on behalf of our immigrant community members.

The Ten-Point Immigration Program recommends the Biden Administration immediately halt deportations for a year, reverse the inhumane Trump-era policies, and establish due process protections in the immigration courts. The plan implores the Biden Administration to guarantee legal representation for people in removal proceedings, to end the jail-to-I.C.E. pipeline, and to restore pathways to lawful immigration status. The plan urges an end to immigrant detention, a sharp reduction in funding to ICE and the U.S. Border Patrol, and an increased investment in our communities.

The Public Defenders’ Coalition for Immigration Justice consists of 39 offices across the country who represent immigrants in criminal and/or immigration proceedings — including the National Association for Public Defense (NAPD) and public defense offices from Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Nebraska, Oregon, Tennessee, and Texas.

Mano Raju, Public Defender of San Francisco

“We have lived four chaotic years of inhumane and antidemocratic immigration policies that have criminalized immigrants, wreaked havoc on families, and betrayed the very principles of inclusivity and tolerance that must guide our nation. The time is now to make change. As a first order of business, the Biden Administration must immediately end the jail to ICE pipeline, guarantee legal representation for all, and end the inhumane practice of detaining immigrants, which has no demonstrable effect on public safety, and has endangered the lives of those in custody.”

Derwyn Bunton, Chief Defender for Orleans Parish and Chair of the National Association for Public Defense

“Representation remains one of the most fundamental principles in our legal system. As public defenders, we know all too well the cruelty and injustice Black and brown people and communities of color receive in the name of justice. The increased criminalization of immigration the last four years has not only been misguided, it has furthered the harm caused by a mass incarceration system disproportionately focused on Black, brown, and poor communities. The time for change is now.”

Wendy Wayne, Director of Immigration Impact Unit, Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services

“As public defenders who represent immigrant clients, we have witnessed firsthand how the “War on Drugs” and decades of over-policing of communities of color, coupled with immigration laws and enforcement policies that disproportionately target immigrants with criminal histories, have resulted in unjust deportations, separation of families and untold damage to our communities. We urge the Biden administration to think beyond “good” or “bad” immigrants and adopt policies which recognize that all individuals deserve fair treatment, due process, and the opportunity for rehabilitation and meaningful participation in our society.”

Andrea Sàenz, Attorney-in-Charge of the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP) at Brooklyn Defender Services

“Our platform calls for universal representation of immigrants facing deportation, because when the stakes are often literally life, death, or permanent family separation, no one should be deported simply because they couldn’t afford an attorney. We need to change, shrink, and defund the deportation system and reinvest in our communities. ICE enforcement, detention and other cruel immigration policies tear apart families, and we urge the Biden administration and the new Democratic majority congress to listen to our neighbors’ voices.”

Edwin Tineo, former client of Brooklyn Defender Services’ NYIFUP, Fellow with the New Sanctuary Coalition

“This immigration system has done so much harm to so many people living in this country, including myself. With the new president, we need to make sure that no one goes through what I went through. Not one more person should be forced to suffer in immigration detention for months and years just because of where they were born. ICE puts fear into our community by terrorizing our hard-working immigrant neighbors and locking people away and deporting them away from their families. This agency should no longer exist. Instead, the Biden administration should keep our families and communities together by allowing people to live here legally with equal rights.”

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Here is the link to the Public Defenders’ Coalition Ten-Point Immigration Program which includes all signatories.

Here is the link to the recording of the press conference held on January 13, 2021.

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ICE Ordered To Protect Detainees From COVID-19 In Calif. Jail

Media

Valerie Ibarra

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January 6, 2021

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ICE Ordered To Protect Detainees From COVID-19 In Calif. Jail

Jennifer Doherty in Law360 reported on the latest in the Zepeda-Rivas joint class action lawsuit against ICE. Federal Judge Vincent Chhabria extended court oversight of ICE over their ongoing failure and avoidance to plan and carry out safety protocols to protect people’s health at the Mesa Verde Immigration Detention center in Bakersfield, CA, which is operated by the private prison corporation, GEO Group.

“By refusing to contest the injunction here, ICE recognized what it must — that it had not acted to protect those in its custody from the unreasonable risk of harm from COVID, and that the measures ordered by the court are the bare minimum required,” [deputy public defender] MacLean said in a statement to Law360.

SF Public Defender Mano Raju’s Statement on the Arrest of Troy McAlister

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January 5, 2021

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SF Public Defender Mano Raju’s Statement on the Arrest of Troy McAlister

January 5, 2021

Media Contact: Public Information Officer – Valerie Ibarra – (628)249-7946 – Valerie.Ibarra@sfgov.org

SF Public Defender Mano Raju’s Statement on the Arrest of Troy McAlister

“Tragically, two lives were lost in our midst on New Year’s Eve. Our hearts go out to the families of Hanako Abe and Elizabeth Platt.

My office represents Troy McAlister, the man arrested in response. We are just beginning to receive information to make legal determinations in this case, and hold to our legal duty to uphold the principle of innocence unless and until proven guilty. What seems clear already is that this painful set of circumstances has illuminated larger, multi-system, societal failures.

We have learned from decades of failed “tough on crime” rhetoric and policies that focusing primarily on whether the system could have incarcerated someone longer, more often, or more severely is how we find ourselves in the current scenario. We cannot let opponents of a more fair and just criminal legal system exploit this loss-of-life to convince others that the system we’ve long relied upon is the best we can do.

I also want to make clear that Chesa Boudin never represented Troy McAlister. Some are misinterpreting court minutes that show Mr. Boudin as “special[ly] . . . appearing for the attorney of record” on a “motion to continue,” but this was strictly an administrative appearance that lawyers routinely make when a colleague is unavailable on an uncontested matter. On the date at issue here, Mr. McAlister’s lawyer was in trial in another case and she filed the motion to continue as a result. It is common for attorneys to make “stand-in” appearances on behalf of an unavailable colleague. Mr. Boudin was apparently such a “stand-in” on an uncontested postponement of the case to a new date. He would not have had any confidential information nor presented any arguments on Mr. McAlister’s behalf. Our overburdened courts could scarcely function without such courtesies.

Of much greater importance is the recognition that we have a collective responsibility – as justice partners in the legal system locally and statewide – to redirect our efforts and resources. We must rethink our current responses to harm by centering people who have been harmed, ensuring they are cared for, and working to understand why the harm happened. We must commit to trying to prevent harm, not by attempting to mercilessly punish it away, but by disrupting the pathway to harm and violence through systems of support and care. This is what is actually needed for our communities to be safe. We as a society must delve into understanding how our systems fail people in ways that lead to tragedy and how we can learn from these mistakes to promote more healing, rather than more misery. That is what my office has begun to do and what every agency that has an opportunity to intervene should do, not just with more punishment but with more support, in order to prevent these kinds of tragedies.”

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Attorneys urge Gov. Newsom to stop involuntary transfers from San Quentin prison

Valerie Ibarra

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December 14, 2020

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Attorneys urge Gov. Newsom to stop involuntary transfers from San Quentin prison

After a Federal Judge ordered the population of San Quentin State Prison to be reduced by 50% in order to protect people from the coronavirus which has claimed the lives 28 incarcerated people and 1 corrections officer at the facility, advocates learned that some were now being forced to transfer to other prisons despite infections present in every other facility statewide. Lisa Fernandez of KTVU FOX2 reported on a letter attorneys sent to Governor Newsom to direct the CA Department of Corrections to halt these transfers.

“The ruling said that people at San Quentin should be released or transferred, only if the transfer can be done safely and there is nowhere safe to put people right now,” said [danica rodarmel, state policy director at the san Francisco public defender’s office]. “Every prison has an outbreak.”

Grand jury indicts SFPD officer in connection with 2019 shooting

Valerie Ibarra

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December 7, 2020

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Grand jury indicts SFPD officer in connection with 2019 shooting

Megan Cassidy reported in the SF Chronicle that a grand jury had indicted SFPD Officer Christopher Flores for shooting Jamaica Hampton while he was on the ground after another SFPD officer had shot him on a Mission District street. The injuries resulted in Jamaica Hampton having one of his legs amputated and suffering a debilitating injury to his dominant left arm. The grand jury also indicted Jamaica Hampton with assault on the officer. Deputy Public Defender Danielle Harris responded to the charges.

“The amount of punishment that Jamaica has already received as a result of his conduct a year ago … has been so severe, far more severe than anything that could lawfully be done to punish him,” Harris said. “It just seems wholly unnecessary and performative, I would say.”

Amid virus outbreaks, majority of medically high-risk prisoners were not considered for release

Valerie Ibarra

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December 7, 2020

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Amid virus outbreaks, majority of medically high-risk prisoners were not considered for release

In an SF Chronicle Exclusive, Nora Mishanec reported that despite calls from health officials and activists to reduce the state prison population in the midst of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, the state did not prioritize the medically-vulnerable who are often older and have a low risk of recidivism.

“In this moment, with what has been happening in these prisons, if we are not willing to get creative to save lives and save human dignity, it sends the message that we just don’t care to change,” said Danica Rodarmel, state policy director for the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office.

Mesa Verde detention center must keep testing detainees for COVID, over ICE’s objections

Valerie Ibarra

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December 4, 2020

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Mesa Verde detention center must keep testing detainees for COVID, over ICE’s objections

Bob Egelko reported in the San Francisco Chronicle on the latest development in an ongoing joint class action lawsuit against I.C.E. regarding its response to the COVID-19 pandemic at two California immigrant detention facilities. On December 3, 2020, Federal Judge Vincent Chhabria called the conduct of officials at I.C.E. and GEO Group – the private corporation which operates the Mesa Verde facility in Bakersfield – “appalling.” They lied and avoided protections against COVID-19. Judge Chhabria noted that they “cannot be trusted” and ordered continued oversight, weekly testing, reporting, and other safety measures at Mesa Verde.

“there is no safe way for ICE to detain people during a pandemic and no justification for doing so.” – San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju

The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office is working in partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern and Southern California, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, Lakin & Wille LLP, and Cooley, LLP, in the ongoing Zepeda Rivas lawsuit.

For the press bulletin and to read the judge’s order, please visit our media page.

Court Slams ICE for Handling of COVID at Mesa Verde

Office of the Public Defender

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December 3, 2020

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Court Slams ICE for Handling of COVID at Mesa Verde

December 3, 2020

MEDIA CONTACTS:

San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, Valerie.Ibarra@sfgov.org, (628)249-7946

ACLU SoCal Communications & Media Advocacy, communications@aclusocal.org, 626-755-4129

Court Slams ICE for Handling of COVID at Mesa Verde

Blistering Order Cites Lies and ‘Deliberate Indifference’ to the Safety of Detainees

SAN FRANCISCO — In a blistering federal court decision handed down today on the treatment of people imprisoned at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center that resulted in a horrific outbreak of COVID-19 infections, a federal judge condemned actions by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that showed a “deliberate indifference to the safety of the detainees.”

Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California slammed ICE and the private GEO Group, Inc., which operates the facility, not only for their dangerous inactions, but also for issuing numerous false statements.

“From the start of the public health crisis until now,” Chhabria wrote, “the conduct of the key ICE and GEO officials in charge of operations at Mesa Verde has been appalling. These officials knew that they needed a clear and detailed plan to minimize the risk of an outbreak (and to contain an outbreak if one occurred), but nine months later they still have not created one.”

The judge criticized in particular their handling of COVID-19 testing, saying there was a “conscious avoidance of widespread testing for fear that positive tests would require them to take measures to protect the safety of detainees that they preferred not to take.”

The testing delays were a major factor in Mesa Verde being a tinderbox for the spread of the virus. At the height of the outbreak, the judge noted, 57 of 103 people detained at Mesa Verde tested positive.

Nearly one-third of the facility’s staff members have also been infected, including 15 infected in the past two weeks, according to court documents.

The people imprisoned in the facility were represented by legal teams from the American Civil Liberties Union Foundations of Northern and Southern California, the San Francisco Office of the Public Defender, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of San Francisco Bay Area, and the law firms Lakin & Wille LLP and Cooley LLP.

The judge rejected ICE’s request to loosen restrictions he previously placed on Mesa Verde, maintaining requirements for weekly COVID testing for all people detained there and all staff. And the court added new restrictions requested by the detainees’ representatives, including that two dorms be reserved for people who test positive, protective intake procedures, and that the detainee population for each dorm be capped at 26.

Even with this win in court, the people detained within the walls of Mesa Verde remain gravely concerned about their well-being.

“We don’t feel safe; we all are afraid we will die here,” said Willian Mattias Rauda, who has been detained by ICE since November 2018. “We want to return to our children, our wives, and our communities. We should not be in this dangerous facility.”

“There is no safe way for ICE to detain people during a pandemic and no justification for doing so,” said Manohar Raju, the elected Public Defender of San Francisco. “It is past time for authorities to prioritize human lives and safety — for the benefit of those in custody as well as surrounding communities.”

“ICE has both refused to keep people safe and repeatedly misrepresented its actions to the court,” said Bree Bernwanger, senior staff attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. “The new administration should take heed of the court’s observation that ICE and GEO have lost the right to be trusted.”

“Even as the pandemic spreads to unprecedented levels throughout California, ICE continues to seek a free pass to detain people without even basic protective procedures or oversight,” said Sean Riordan, senior staff attorney at the ACLU NorCal. “By requiring critical protections for those who ICE insists on detaining, the court has sternly rebuked ICE.”

Read the court order here.

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SF Public Defender Launches “CopWatch SF” Database to Ensure Public Access to Available Police Records

Office of the Public Defender

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November 18, 2020

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November 18, 2020

Press Contact: SF Public Defender’s Office – Valerie.Ibarra@sfgov.org – (628)249-7946

San Francisco Public Defender Launches “CopWatch SF” Database to Ensure Public Access to Available Police Records

SAN FRANCISCO – This morning, the San Francisco Public Defender’s “CopWatch SF” database went live, making available hundreds of public records about police and sheriffs. What began as a data collection tool for public defenders fighting cases for individual clients has grown into a database accessible to all.

“This database was designed by our Integrity Unit to shine a light on police conduct and encourage greater accountability. Everything included is available publicly, but nowhere else is it consolidated into an easily searchable online resource,” said Mano Raju, Public Defender of San Francisco. “We believe this is a model that can and should be replicated across the state.”

The CopWatch SF database is now available on the Public Defender’s website – sfpublicdefender.org/copwatch – and contains a list of local cops with records that have so far been released under the 2019 law SB 1421, plus other publicly available documents like civil lawsuits, news articles, and known findings of complaints filed with the Department of Police Accountability.

SB 1421, authored by Senator Nancy Skinner, made public police conduct in four categories: shooting a gun at a person, use of force causing great bodily injury, sustained allegations of dishonesty, and sustained allegations of sexual assault. In January 2019, the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office requested records on over 2,000 active SFPD officers from agencies including the SFPD, DPA, the District Attorney, and the SF Police Commission; the records so far received are in this database.

“It’s been almost two years since the new law took effect and we have received less than 10% of what exists. At this rate, it will take twenty years to get records on all current cops,” said Danielle Harris, Managing Attorney of the Integrity Unit. “We have worked to make what is available easily accessible to all. The database unfortunately does not tell the full picture because many police records are still shielded from public view under confidentiality laws, because police agencies have no incentive to prioritize the records’ release, and because there has not yet been the political will to create that incentive. Despite these limitations, CopWatch SF is a living database that will grow and expand for all who care about transparency and accountability in policing, including the community at large, activists, journalists, civil rights attorneys, and public officials.”

California State Senator Nancy Skinner attempted to expand those categories this year with SB 776, but the bill did not make it through the legislative cycle.

“I commend the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office for creating this important database and making records on police use of force and serious misconduct available in an easy-to-use format. This tool will make it far easier for the public to obtain records that were made accessible with the passage of SB 1421,” said Senator Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, author of SB 1421. “Transparency builds trust between the public and police. My office is committed to expanding public access to law enforcement records and to building the trust that public safety in every community relies on.”

Adriana Camarena, a local community advocate for families whose loved ones have been killed by SFPD officers, has been frustrated by the limited amount of information that families can find. “The Public Defender’s Office has radically increased transparency by aggregating public records on officers into one searchable and public database, but this should and could have been done long ago by the City agencies in charge of these records,” said Camarena. “We are sitting in the cradle of the information economy with a myriad of solutions available for open government, and the SFPD has failed to provide user-friendly, easily relatable, open data sets that allow the public and media to find the real story behind the data and to support public policy change.”

The Public Defender’s Integrity Unit tracks police officer misconduct and advocates for systemic change; it also assists community members in filing complaints against SFPD and Sheriff’s deputies. “We consider this our duty because our clients’ freedom often depends on systemic accountability and because the community trusts us to stand up for their rights,” said Raju.

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California ICE Detention Center Officials Ignored COVID-19 Protocols: Attorneys

Valerie Ibarra

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November 12, 2020

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Lisa Fernandez of KTVU FOX 2 reported: California ICE detention center officials ignored COVID-19 protocols: attorneys after attorneys in the ongoing Zepeda-Rivas class action lawsuit against ICE discovered new documents showing how staff at the Mesa Verde detention center in Bakersfield, CA – operated by the private prison corporation GEO Group – failed to follow safety protocols to protect the health and safety of people in the facility amid an outbreak of COVID-19.

“These documents show that high-level ICE officials were fully aware that their facilities were a powder keg for COVID infection,” said Deputy San Francisco Public Defender Emi MacLean. “Not only did they fail to take steps to avoid an outbreak, they made it worse and misled the public about what they were doing.”