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Federal Judge Rules that SF Immigration Court Violated Constitution, Wrongfully Depriving San Francisco Father and Husband of a Fair Bond Hearing

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January 30, 2020

Federal Judge Rules that SF Immigration Court Violated Constitution, Wrongfully Depriving San Francisco Father and Husband of a Fair Bond Hearing

This ground-breaking decision marks the first time a federal judge in California held that the government must justify detention in initial immigration bond hearings.

San Francisco, California — On January 23, 2020, Federal Judge Edward Davila for the Northern District of California ruled that the government’s 2018 bond proceeding for Mario Ixchop Perez, a father and long-time San Francisco resident, violated the constitution. The Federal Court ruled the inquiry was improper because it wrongly placed the burden on Mr. Ixchop to disprove he was dangerous. The Court ordered a new bond hearing where the government must bear the burden of proving Mr. Ixchop is a danger to the community.

In 2018, an Immigration Judge held that Mr. Ixchop failed to meet his burden of proving he was not a danger to the community based on alcohol related offenses, the last of which occurred in 2015. Since his last arrest in 2015, Mr. Ixchop has completed extensive alcohol rehabilitation, maintained sobriety, and has been a model community member.

Mr. Ixchop’s deportation proceedings began in 2014 when, he claims, ICE agents violated the law when arresting him outside a hospital while his wife was giving birth. In 2018, ICE ordered him back into custody due to the 2015 arrest, and Mr. Ixchop turned himself in.

This week’s ruling marked the two-year anniversary of Mr. Ixchop’s detention. He is currently detained at a for-profit detention center in Aurora, Colorado, separated from his U.S. citizen wife and three children, ages 5, 4, and 2. All live in San Francisco and are struggling financially and emotionally without him.

Jennifer Friedman, Deputy Public Defender with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, litigated the federal court case. Mr. Ixchop’s new bond hearing is set for Friday, January 31 at 1:00 p.m.

STATEMENTS –

Jennifer Friedman, Deputy Public Defender:

“The Northern District of California now joins a growing consensus across the country, ruling that immigration bond hearings violate due process. Mr. Ixchop should be out of custody at home with his family, and this decision gives him a chance to do just that.”

Mr. Ixchop Perez, from Aurora Colorado:

“I am pleased that they have granted me a new chance at bond. I want to be released to be with my wife and my three children to support them. I think the judge’s decision is fair. After two years of being detained by ICE, all I’m asking for is another chance.”

SF police union calls for federal prosecution of man shot by police

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January 27, 2020

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SF police union calls for federal prosecution of man shot by police

By Michael Barba – SF Examiner – Jan. 27, 2020

San Francisco’s police union urged federal authorities to intervene Monday after newly elected District Attorney Chesa Boudin halted the prosecution of a man shot by police in the Mission.

On Friday, Boudin withdrew the criminal complaint against 24-year-old Jamaica Hampton over his confrontation with police last December, eliciting outrage from the San Francisco Police Officers Association.

The SFPOA, which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads to oppose Boudin during the November election, said the decision sent a message that officers could be attacked with impunity.

“Everything he said during his campaign has now come to fruition,” SFPOA President Tony Montoya told reporters after holding a press conference with law enforcement associations from Los Angeles and San Jose to condemn the decision.

“That should be cause for alarm for everybody in San Francisco, whether you’re a resident, a business owner, a tourist or a police officer,” Montoya said. “He is going to put the suspect’s rights over the rights of real victims.”

Montoya announced that the United Coalition of Public Safety, a national organization of law enforcement associations including the SFPOA, had sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr asking him to “intervene.”

“The criminals-first message this sends is chilling to all law enforcement officers,” the letter reads. “It flashes a green light to every criminal, every suspect, anyone fleeing law enforcement that you can attack, assault and injure officers and nothing will happen to you.”

Boudin previously explained that he withdrew the complaint because the officers who shot at Hampton are also being investigated by the District Attorney’s Office. The office is the lead criminal investigator in all San Francisco police shootings.

“It would be problematic to ask the officers to testify while they are under investigation,” Boudin told the San Francisco Examiner.

Boudin said the District Attorney’s Office will still have at least three years to charge Hampton if necessary. He also noted that Hampton is not a threat to public safety because he remains hospitalized in serious condition.

Hampton allegedly attacked police near 23rd and Mission streets on Dec. 7, 2019 while the officers were searching for a suspect in two calls including a hot prowl burglary.

One of the officers was struck over the head with a glass bottle.

After a chase ensued in which one officer unsuccessfully attempted to pepper spray Hampton, officers Sterling Hayes and Christopher Flores fired a total of seven shots at Hampton.

Hampton survived despite being struck three times. He later had his leg amputated.

On Monday, a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office said the Hampton case was “unique” because “there are multiple victims who are seeking, and who deserve, justice.”

“No conclusions about the prosecutorial viability of Hampton’s case should be drawn here,” said Boudin’s spokesperson Paula Lehman-Ewing.

“The assertion by Mr. Montoya that we have given people a ‘green light’ to attack officers is plainly false,” Lehman-Ewing said. “Our decision should only be understood as an effort to deconflict investigative time limits, statutory discovery obligations and to maintain the integrity of investigative leads. It’s absolutely imperative we have internal clarity on charges we file against any individual.”

The news prompted Mayor London Breed to issue a lengthy message to all San Francisco Police Department officers on Monday.

“I have no doubt that this decision has created a great deal of confusion, frustration, and anger within the department,” Breed said in the email obtained by the Examiner. “I have spoken with the district attorney and he made it clear that the investigation into all the circumstances and facts surrounding the incident must be resolved before any decision to file charges can occur to avoid any conflict of interest.”

“I would like you all to know that you have my full support in your efforts to continue to do the excellent work that you are doing,” Breed told officers.

But Breed also said she is “sensitive to the fact that Jamaica Hampton is still recovering from his injuries.”

“I firmly believe there should be an investigation into the shooting that happened,” Breed said. “That said, our Police Department has worked diligently to implement reforms to reduce officer-involved shootings and to be more transparent with the community. I believe holding people accountable in our city starts with holding ourselves accountable.”

Danielle Harris, a deputy public defender who is representing Hampton, said putting the prosecution on hold until an investigation is complete is “exactly the procedure police benefit from routinely.”

“The POA outrage here reflects an institutional belief that the poor and powerless can be summarily jailed on half-information while only those in power deserve the benefit of careful, considered, full analysis,” Harris said. “In a just world, all lives don’t only matter; they matter equally.”

Harris rejected the notion that individuals could now attack police without punishment, noting that Hampton has so far been rendered unconscious, been intubated, suffered major nerve damage and lost part of his leg and right thumb as a result of the shooting.

“If Jamaica’s pain and suffering and lifelong repercussions — from his lost leg and a nonworking arm — doesn’t constitute punishment, I don’t know what does,” Harris told the Examiner. “The police got their pound(s) of flesh here for certain.”

The SFPOA also published a website Monday slamming Boudin.

San Francisco and Alameda County Public Defenders condemn DOJ decision to remove immigration detention cases from San Francisco

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January 17, 2020

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San Francisco and Alameda County Public Defenders condemn DOJ decision to remove immigration detention cases from San Francisco

Immigration Courts Move Bay Area Immigration Cases from San Francisco to Southern California

San Francisco and Alameda County Public Defenders condemn decision to remove detention cases out of San Francisco as interfering with their ability to defend detainees, demand transparency and seek a halt to recent decision

San Francisco, California — The Trump Administration announced this week that the San Francisco Immigration Courts would stop hearing cases of detainees at the Mesa Verde Detention Facility in California, which houses numerous public defender clients.

The decision by the Department of Justice will make it more difficult for San Francisco and Alameda County public defenders to appear in immigration court on behalf of immigrant detainees because those cases will now be heard in Southern California. Until this week, Bay Area immigrants held at the Mesa Verde Detention Center had their cases heard in San Francisco. Now those cases will be heard in a newly constructed courtroom in Van Nuys, Calif. — nearly 400 miles away.

In recent years, many public defender offices, including Alameda and San Francisco, began providing deportation defense services to indigent immigrants. Despite that, immigration courts made this decision without asking for public defender input and without consulting any of the communities impacted by moving these cases out of the Bay Area.

On January 14, 2019, the Alameda and San Francisco County Public Defenders requested the San Francisco Immigration Court meet with them to discuss moving cases. So far, federal authorities have not responded. The federal DOJ runs all immigration courts.

“Our program has provided vital legal services to hundreds of detainees who were unable to afford a lawyer, and this move will deprive immigrants of legal services they need,” said Francisco Ugarte, head of the immigration unit at the San Francisco Public Defender. “Given our considerable role and the dramatic impact immigration proceedings have on immigrant communities throughout the state, the immigration courts have an obligation to consider our input, involve us in court planning, and meet with vital stakeholders.”

The Department of Justice has not provided a rationale for its decision. There does not appear to be a demonstrable change in the number of immigrant detainees in Northern California. The administration has also constructed a new immigration court in Sacramento, Calif. These new courts were built on the heels of successful efforts in the Bay Area to significantly expand the capacity for removal defense representation before San Francisco’s detained immigration courts.

“Moving cases away from legal resources is a step away from justice rather than a step towards it. The role of public defender offices in protecting due process and access to justice cannot be overstated,” said Raha Jorjani, head of the Alameda County Public Defender’s immigration unit. “We are indigent legal defense experts serving some of the most marginalized members of our communities. Rather than seeking input and getting the benefit of that expertise, the Court chose to lock us out of the process. And we will all lose as a result.”

The Alameda and San Francisco Public Defender offices seek a halt to the Court’s decision to move cases out of San Francisco and continue to seek a meeting with the San Francisco Immigration Court to discuss the upcoming changes and what deliberate steps if any have been taken to protect the due process rights of the individuals directly impacted by these decisions.

SFPD officers who shot Jamaica Hampton have been assigned back to active duty

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January 17, 2020

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SFPD officers who shot Jamaica Hampton have been assigned back to active duty

By Julian Mark – Mission Local – Jan 17, 2020

The two San Francisco Police officers who shot Jamaica Hampton, a man armed with a glass bottle on Mission and 23rd streets in December, critically injuring him, are returning to regular duty, the San Francisco Police Department said Thursday.

Officer Sterling Hayes, a field training officer at Mission Station, and Officer Christopher Flores, a rookie, “are being returned to duty in the Field Operations Bureau,” David Stevenson, a department spokesman, wrote in an email.

The “field operations bureau” can mean any district station, such as Mission or Tenderloin stations. The decision on which station or stations Hayes and Flores are being sent to, as well as their roles, “has not been made at this time,” Stevenson wrote.

Following the shooting of Jamaica Hampton on Dec. 7, both Hayes and Flores were assigned to “nonpatrol duties,” per a department spokesperson.
Chief Bill Scott, together with the SFPD’s “return-to-duty” panel — composed of higher-ups who assess an officer’s fitness for duty if the officer shoots someone — made the decision leading up to Wednesday’s Police Commission meeting. Scott announced the decision to commissioners Wednesday night in closed session.

“Speaking in general terms, the Chief considers all facts available at the time that a decision is made,” Stevenson wrote regarding the decision-making process. “The Chief will also take into account the status of administrative and criminal investigations into an officer-involved shooting.”

“The process also includes consideration for the well-being and due process rights of the officer(s) involved in the incident,” Stevenson added.

On the morning of Dec. 7, Hayes, a training officer, and Flores, his trainee, stopped Hampton on the corner of 23rd and Mission streets. Police allege, and video footage shows, that Hampton moved to attack Hayes and subsequently assaulted Flores with a glass bottle. A foot chase on 23rd Street ensued.

As Hampton ran in the direction of Hayes, the officer fired at Hampton six times, striking him twice. While Hampton was crawling on the ground, incapacitated, Flores fired once at Hampton, striking him in one of his limbs.

“Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!” Hayes shouted at his trainee Flores after Flores fired the final shot at Hampton.

The District Attorney subsequently charged Hampton with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault on a police officer, threat to an executive officer, and vandalism.

Hampton’s left leg was amputated last Thursday. Danielle Harris, the deputy public defender representing Hampton in his criminal case, said at Wednesday’s Police Commission hearing that her client has also suffered “massive nerve damage in his left hand and arm,” his dominant side, and a portion of right thumb was amputated. Harris confirmed that Hampton was shot in his right and left legs, and in his left arm.

Harris, who is also the director of public policy and the lead homicide attorney at the Public Defender’s Office, told Mission Local on Friday that she was “dismayed” to hear that Hayes and Flores will be “back on the street after they severely injured Jamaica and endangered everyone in the area that morning.”

“The decision to put these cops back on the street suggests that SFPD condones the use of excessive force against unarmed persons, devaluing the safety of those it serves,” she added.

Harris argued to commissioners Wednesday night that Hayes and Flores should not be returned to regular duty. “Officer Hayes proved he could fend off Mr. Hampton without shooting him, and without injury to either one of them,” she said. “Mr. Hampton was not attacking Officer Hayes when Officer Hayes shot him.”

Moreover, she told Mission Local that she was “extremely concerned” at returning the rookie Flores to duty. Flores, she argued, shot Hampton “when he was down on his knees, critically wounded, unarmed, and non-threatening — which is why Officer Hayes ordered Flores to, ‘Stop! Stop! Stop!’ and has repeatedly said that he gave those orders because there was no threat at that time.”

Flores is still within his probationary period, and he could have been summarily dismissed by Scott.

Both Hayes and Flores’s actions are still subject to investigations by SFPD’s Internal Affairs Division, the District Attorney, and the Department of Police Accountability. A determination on whether Hayes and Flores’s use of deadly force followed department policy — and whether they will be disciplined — will be decided by SFPD’s Firearm Discharge Review Board.

This will happen “at a later date,” according to Stevenson.

Trump administration abruptly moves hundreds of immigrant hearings out of San Francisco

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January 17, 2020

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Trump administration abruptly moves hundreds of immigrant hearings out of San Francisco

Attorneys representing detained immigrants fear move will in effect deny legal counsel to thousands

By Darwin BondGraham – The Guardian U.S. – Jan. 17, 2020

Northern California immigration attorneys are reeling after learning of a controversial Trump administration decision to move hundreds of immigrant detainees’ court hearings out of San Francisco and to a new courthouse in Van Nuys, a neighborhood in north Los Angeles.

Legal aid attorneys and public defenders who represent the majority of detained immigrants in northern California say the government did not consult with them about the move.

They are concerned the transfer will in effect deny legal counsel to thousands of people facing deportation while undoing years of work by Bay Area not-for-profit organizations and local governments to provide more robust legal services for immigrants in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention.

“It’s a clear step away from justice,” Raha Jorjani, director of the immigration representation unit of the Alameda county public defender’s office, said.

Under the new plan, starting 3 February, detainees held at the Mesa Verde Ice processing facility in Bakersfield will have their cases heard before judges in the Van Nuys immigration court, which opened last November.

Since Mesa Verde first opened in 2015, its detainees’ cases have been heard before judges in San Francisco’s immigration court. In recent years, most detainees have started appearing via video conference, rather than being transported to the court.

Responding to the growing numbers of detainee cases on the San Francisco immigration court’s docket, dozens of not-for-profit groups and government agencies teamed up to build a network of free legal resources, said Valerie Zukin, who coordinates the Northern California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice.
One effort Zukin oversees is the “attorney of the day” program, which ensures that an immigration attorney is in the courtroom whenever detainees at Mesa Verde and other Ice jails have their first hearings in San Francisco.

Zukin said that in 2017, only about 2% of these hearings in San Francisco’s court were being attended by an attorney to assist detainees. Today, her network of 35 legal aid groups covers more than 80% of hearings.

“We’ve been spending years training people and fundraising to make these programs possible,” said Zukin. “I can say with confidence there is no program like this in southern California yet.”

Studies have shown that detainees who have access to legal counsel are much more likely to obtain a bond for release and avoid being deported.

The Executive Office of Immigration Review did not immediately respond to questions from the Guardian about why the agency is transferring cases out of San Francisco. A spokesperson for Ice wrote in an email that it did not comment on “pending procedural changes”.
However, several immigration attorneys in the Bay Area confirmed the EOIR’s decision by sharing emails the federal agency had sent in the past few days to legal aid groups.

“We were hearing conflicting information from different sources over the past few months,” said Jorjani. In December, immigration attorneys asked EOIR officials if they were in fact considering the move.

“We were told not to worry,” said Jorjani.

But the rumors persisted. On 14 January, the Alameda county and San Francisco county public defenders sent a joint letter to the EOIR asking again about the possible move.

“We just received notice the court was moving all Mesa Verde cases to Van Nuys,” said Francisco Ugarte, the managing attorney for the San Francisco public defender’s immigration unit. “It would be one thing if they communicated to us this was their plan,” Ugarte said. “These are secretive decisions made by a secretive administration.”

Ugarte oversees a team of nine attorneys who defend indigent clients facing immigration cases that are often triggered after a person is arrested and charged with a crime. He estimated that over the past couple years, possibly 100 of the San Francisco public defender’s clients had been held in detention at Mesa Verde.

Jorjani said the abrupt decision would probably disrupt existing attorney-client relationships and would cut off detainees from access to the Bay Area’s robust legal community.

Some assistance is provided with public funding. In July 2018, the city of Oakland and Alameda county allocated a little over $1m to hire immigration attorneys to represent detainees. San Francisco allocated over $800,000 the same year to expand its public defender’s immigration unit.

Starting in 2016, Jorjani led a movement among Bay Area immigration attorneys to more aggressively challenge decisions made by immigration judges by filing petitions in federal district court. In recent cases, Jorjani’s team has succeeded in winning new bond hearings and the release of detained clients.

She said the transfer of cases to southern California would make it much more difficult for her team to provide this type of advanced defense.

“They need to halt this decision right now and get input from community stakeholders,” said Ugarte.

Jury Acquits Man After Public Defender Calls Delayed SFPD Investigation & Identification Into Doubt

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January 10, 2020

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Jury Acquits Man After Public Defender Calls Delayed SFPD Investigation & Identification Into Doubt

SAN FRANCISCO – On Monday, January 6, 2020, a jury acquitted Vihn Tran, 38, of felony charges related to a nighttime attack near Union Square in October 2018. Deputy Public Defender Seth Meisels presented evidence undermining the identification of Tran during what Meisels called a poorly run investigation by the San Francisco Police Department.

After a man suffered an unprovoked attack where he was punched, kicked, and robbed of his phone while walking home from work one night in October 2018, the victim ran to police to report the incident, describing the assailant as a slim Vietnamese man, age 25-30. Six months later, police finally reviewed local surveillance video which yielded images of the assailant, and circulated those images to all officers in an internal crime alert bulletin. Sergeant Terence Saw (who was involved in a controversial shooting of a wheelchair-bound man in 2011) claimed that he recognized the man in the surveillance as Tran, a person with whom he had a 5 to 10 minute interaction two months earlier. Officer Kimberly Ng was then assigned as the investigator, and pulled an old photo of Tran to include in the lineup which she presented to the victim at the end of May 2019.

Ng testified that when composing the photo lineup, she chose Asian men with hair similar to Tran’s. She did not consider age, build, or specific ethnicity. As a result, Tran was the only man of Vietnamese origin included in the lineup. The victim noted Tran was the “closest,” and the only one with a “Vietnamese face,” but asked, “What if it’s not the guy?” The victim was told not to worry, because police would continue to investigate. That further investigation never materialized, and the District Attorney’s office, under previous DA George Gascón, filed charges against Tran.

During testimony, the victim conceded that he was not completely sure Tran was the assailant, and that he had seen another man in a different social setting who looked identical to the assailant.

Meisels called an expert witness who testified to the inherent unreliability of memory and eyewitness identification, and the fallibility of police identification. In this particular case, the gross delay in presenting a biased lineup to the victim provided much doubt that Tran was the assailant.

“Police investigators did not conduct a timely investigation, and as a result they lost the opportunity to figure out who the real perpetrator was,” Meisels said. “Mr. Tran was erroneously charged because one officer thought he resembled the perpetrator – but a resemblance should be the beginning of an investigation, not the end.”

According to the National Registry of Exonerations, mistaken eyewitness identification is one of the leading causes and contributing factors of wrongful convictions. Thanks to a hardworking public defender and a careful jury, Tran avoided becoming another troubling statistic of a flawed justice system.

Trans woman sues after surprise Christmas move to Texas ICE facility

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January 6, 2020

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Trans woman sues after surprise Christmas move to Texas ICE facility

By John Ferrannini – Bay Area Reporter – Jan. 6, 2020

The San Francisco Public Defender’s office filed a lawsuit in federal court January 3 on behalf of a transgender woman who is fighting deportation.

Lexis Hernandez Avilez, 41, was brought to the United States from Mexico as a child and has been in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for about 14 months, according to court documents obtained by the Bay Area Reporter.

In a statement January 3 from the public defender’s office, Avilez said, “The conditions of my detention have worsened and have had a huge impact on my mental health and my ability to move forward. I think this has been so cruel to me. ICE and the other officers know how difficult the last 14 months have been for me and yet have had no compassion for the way they detain me and move me around like I mean nothing.”

The public defender’s office — which has been representing Avilez — brought the suit after Avilez was moved unexpectedly from the Yuba County Jail outside of Sacramento (which works with ICE on detaining people in the U.S. without legal permission), where she’d been detained, to an ICE facility in Texas on Christmas, without counsel being notified and after she was told she was about to be released, according to court documents.

“We represent people who have their immigration proceeding in San Francisco because the immigration court is here,” said Avilez’s attorney Hector Vega during a January 6 phone call with the B.A.R. There are only three immigration courts in California, the other two being in Los Angeles and Sacramento.

Vega is seeking Avilez’s release, saying that the petition for a temporary restraining order is to “compel ICE/Yuba to take more immediate action on the case” either through releasing Avilez or by granting her a bond hearing in California.

“We are seeking ICE immediately release Lexis due to the conditions of her confinement,” Vega wrote in an email to the B.A.R. January 6. “Alternately, to transfer her back to Yuba and grant her a bond hearing to determine whether her continued detention is warranted.”

The conditions of Avilez’s confinement include her being treated as male, referred to using male pronouns and her former male name, and given male clothing, according to court documents.

“Ms. Avilez now sits in a segregated cell, thousands of miles away from her pro bono attorney, her family, her treating medical professionals, and community members who have provided critical support throughout her gender transition,” the complaint filed by the public defender’s office said. “She continues to be detained indefinitely under conditions that imperil her health and safety.”

Avilez has resided in California since 1979, according to court documents. She presented gender-nonconformity from a young age, for which she was reprimanded by her father.

She got married in 2000 and became a permanent resident of the U.S. (Federal law allows the spouses of U.S. citizens to become permanent residents. After three years they can apply for U.S. citizenship.)

In 2005, Avilez, then 26, was convicted of a gang-related assault.

“In prison and away from her brother’s grip, Ms. Avilez immediately began the process of disavowing her gang ties,” the complaint stated. “For the first time, she began to explore and embrace her sexual attraction to men.”

Avilez identified as a bisexual man, which Vega said on a January 6 phone call with the B.A.R. was the result of a “lack of understanding and acceptance” of trans identities on the part of the wider culture. In 2019, Avilez began to openly identify as a transgender woman and started receiving treatment for depression.

She got her name legally changed. By that time she had been transferred to Yuba County and charged with being a permanent resident who was removable from the U.S. While Yuba medical staff recommended hormone therapy, and ICE said the request had been approved, Avilez never received it, according to court documents.

Since her move to Texas, Avilez has been having thoughts of suicide, according to court documents.

Before she was sent to Texas, Avilez had been told she was going to be released and called her family to share the good news, according to court documents.

“It comes down to human rights,” Vega said. “My client’s rights have been violated and ICE is holding her in a deplorable manner, in isolation, not using her name and gender.”

ICE has until Tuesday, January 7, to respond to the complaint, after which a date will be set for a hearing.

In the release, Vega said that Avilez “poses no danger to society and deserves to be released from custody and have her human rights respected.”

The San Francisco ICE enforcement and removal operations office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

How ICE treats transgender people — a horror story

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January 5, 2020

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How ICE treats transgender people — a horror story

Court filing says Salinas woman has been denied medicine, appropriate clothing, and access to lawyer after being unexpectedly moved from Yuba County to Texas.

By Tim Redmond – 48Hills – January 5, 2020

Lexis Avilez thought she was going home on Christmas.

It seemed, she later said, like a miracle when Yuba County sheriff’s deputies took her Dec. 25 from the cell where she had been confined for 13 months on an immigration hold. They told her, court documents show, that she was going to be released.
Instead, the transgender woman was handed over to ICE officials, who put her on a plane to a remote detention center in Texas, 2,000 miles from her lawyer, her supporters, and her community – a place where, court filings say, she is unable to get the medicine she needs, is forced to wear men’s clothing, is called by her former name and gender, and is in solitary confinement.

At first, she couldn’t even call her attorney.

“This is an example of how ICE is treating transgender people,” Hector Vega, an attorney with the SF Public Defender’s Office, told me.

Lexis was born in Mexico, but came to the US as an infant. She was given a male identity at birth, but has never felt comfortable with that gender, Vega said, and suffered abuse and discrimination throughout her childhood in Salinas.

Documents filed in federal court tell a horrifying (but all too common) story:

Growing up, she struggled to understand her identity and chafed at masculine norms. She liked sneaking into her mother’s room to try on her clothes, shoes, and jewelry, and shaved her arms so they could be smooth. (“I always thought my mother was really pretty and I wanted to be pretty like her.”). When her family noticed her gender nonconforming behaviors, she was insulted and punished. (“My father called me a faggot and reprimanded me harshly.”).

Attempting to fit her family’s expectations that she be male and tough, she joined her brother’s gang. She became a legal permanent resident at 18, but then ran afoul of the law – giving ICE grounds to deport her. After serving a 14-year term in prison for assault with a gang enhancement (where she cut her ties with the gang), she was transferred to Yuba County, under an ICE deportation hold, where she was able to connect with a therapist and came out as trans.
Vega, who took her case when she was in immigration court in SF, was able to get her medical attention and a diagnosis that even ICE agreed should allow her to receive hormone treatments and official recognition of her chosen gender.

“I thought it was going to be okay,” he said. “They were looking for the right medical provider, and we were appealing her immigration case.”

But the hormone treatments never started, and Lexis was never allowed to wear women’s clothes. She was either in solitary confinement or in a men’s pod.

And then, suddenly and for no apparent reason, she was sent to Texas, where the conditions are even worse.

In a federal court filing Jan. 3, Vega is asking for a restraining order that would force the feds to release her and allow her to get medical treatment.

In a statement from her solitary cell in the Prairieland Detention Center, Lexis said:

The conditions of my detention have worsened and have had a huge impact on my mental health and my ability to move forward. I think this has been so cruel to me. ICE and the other officers know how difficult the last 14 months have been for me and yet have had no compassion for the way they detain me and move me around like I mean nothing.

Vega notes:

We are gravely concerned for Lexis’s health and safety. The few times that we have been able to talk since Christmas, she has been in tears and asking me to help her come back. This was a callous act from a heartless agency and we demand that ICE release Lexis from custody. She deserves to finally truly express herself and her gender identity with the support of her community. She poses no danger to society and deserves to be released from custody and have her human rights respected.

Vega told me that Lexis was suicidal when she was formerly in solitary confinement, and he’s worried that she won’t survive in the conditions she’s now facing.

The filing notes:

Ms. Avilez now sits in a segregated cell, thousands of miles away from her pro bono attorney, her family, her treating medical professionals, and community members who have provided critical support throughout her gender transition. She continues to be detained indefinitely under conditions that imperil her health and safety.

This isn’t just one horror story – it’s another example of how ICE operates, how it dehumanizes people and put them at risk of danger and even death.

And it’s going on every day.

No date has been set for the hearing on the restraining order.

SF Public Defender’s Office Takes on ICE Over Transfer of Client to Texas

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January 4, 2020

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SF Public Defender’s Office Takes on ICE Over Transfer of Client to Texas

By Michelle Wiley – KQED – Jan. 4, 2020

The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office is requesting an immediate hearing to have a transgender woman, who was transferred out of California on Christmas Day, released or returned to the state.

The public defender’s office filed a motion on Friday for a temporary restraining order against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office on behalf of their client, 41-year old Lexis Avilez.
Defendants have until noon on Jan. 7 to respond.

For nearly 14 months, Avilez has been held at the Yuba County Detention Center while lawyers worked on getting her a bond hearing, according to court documents filed on Friday.

According to the public defender’s office, on Christmas 2019, officials at Yuba led Avilez to believe she was being released.

“She was extremely happy,” said Deputy Public Defender Hector Vega, who represents Avilez. “She called it a ‘Christmas miracle’ and called her family to tell them she was going to be released and be home soon.”

But Vega said later that night, after she was transferred to the ICE processing facility in Sacramento, officials told her she was, instead, being transferred to the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, nearly 2,000 miles away from her family and legal counsel.

“I received no notice of the transfer until it happened,” said Vega.

Once Vega finally got in touch with ICE officials, they explained that they moved Avilez to the Texas facility because it was better suited to her needs.

But Vega’s concerned that’s not the case.

“Now that she’s in the new detention center, I’ve been in talks with the new medical staff who have also not provided the hormonal treatment, and have given me no assurances that Ms. Avilez will receive the medication she needs,” said Vega.

The public defender’s office also stated in a press release that Avilez is being detained in “segregated confinement, forced to wear male clothes, and denied the ability to call her lawyer at no cost.”

“i think this has been so cruel to me,” said avilez in a statement. “ice and the other officers know how difficult the last 14 months have been for me and yet have no compassion for the way they detain me and move me around like i mean nothing.”

Avilez has lived in California for the past 40 years after being brought to the United States as a baby. After struggling with her identity for years, she began to identify as female after being taken into ICE custody in 2018. Federal officials are seeking to deport her due to a past felony assault charge.

In June 2019, during her time at Yuba, Avilez was diagnosed with gender dysphoria. At that time, Avilez’s lawyers began communication with ICE and Yuba officials regarding her healthcare, but she still did not receive necessary medication while there.

ICE officials said they had no comment regarding the case. The Yuba County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SF Public Defenders File Restraining Order Against ICE for Christmas Night Transfer of Transgender Detainee to Texas Isolation

Office of the Public Defender

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January 3, 2020

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SF Public Defenders File Restraining Order Against ICE for Christmas Night Transfer of Transgender Detainee to Texas Isolation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 3, 2020

SF PUBLIC DEFENDERS FILE RESTRAINING ORDER AGAINST I.C.E. FOR CHRISTMAS NIGHT TRANSFER OF TRANSGENDER IMMIGRANT DETAINEE TO TEXAS, WHERE SHE IS BEING HELD IN ISOLATION

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — On Friday, January 3, 2020 the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office filed a Motion for Temporary Restraining Order against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office with the U.S. Federal District Court, Northern District of California, requesting an immediate hearing on behalf of a female transgender immigrant who was illegally transferred on Christmas night to a remote detention facility in Texas. She has since been detained there in segregated confinement, forced to wear male clothes, and denied the ability to call her lawyer at no cost.

BACKGROUND:

Lexis entered the U.S. as a baby and has resided here since 1979. She was assigned male at birth, yet has struggled throughout her life to understand her identity, chafed at masculine norms, and sustained verbal and physical abuse from her immediate family into adulthood. In 2018, she was taken into ICE custody, placed in removal proceedings, and has been detained in immigration custody ever since.

In January 2019, San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Hector Vega took on Lexis’s case and helped her obtain some critical support she needed, including medical treatment, therapy, legal recognition of her female name and gender, and legal representation in her pending immigration case. *

However, on Christmas night 2019, officials at the Yuba County Detention Center approached Lexis in her cell and misled her to believe that she was being fully released and going home. Instead, Yuba deputies released Lexis directly to ICE, which took her to an airport and forcibly transferred her to a remote detention facility in Texas, where she is now detained nearly 2,000 miles away from her lawyer and community. Lexis was denied the ability to call her attorney prior to arriving in Texas. She has remained in segregated confinement at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, ever since, where she has no connections, no support, and no lawyer. ICE continues to punish Lexis, forcing her to wear male clothes, identifying her by her previous name and gender, and refusing to provide her gender reassignment treatment.

The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office is challenging ICE’s transfer and detention of Lexis as cruel and inhumane, and demands her release in a Temporary Restraining Order filed today with the Northern District of California.

*The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office launched a deportation defense unit in 2017 to remedy the lack of right to court-appointed counsel in deportation proceedings.

STATEMENTS:

Lexis (from Prairieland Detention Center, Texas):

“The conditions of my detention have worsened and have had a huge impact on my mental health and my ability to move forward. I think this has been so cruel to me. ICE and the other officers know how difficult the last 14 months have been for me and yet have had no compassion for the way they detain me and move me around like I mean nothing.”

Hector Vega, SF Deputy Public Defender:

“We are gravely concerned for Lexis’s health and safety. The few times that we have been able to talk since Christmas, she has been in tears and asking me to help her come back. This was a callous act from a heartless agency and we demand that ICE release Lexis from custody. She deserves to finally truly express herself and her gender identity with the support of her community. She poses no danger to society and deserves to be released from custody and have her human rights respected.”

Genna Beier, SF Deputy Public Defender:

“Lexis bravely began her gender transition while in ICE custody, and yet at every turn the agency has denied her medical care and basic human dignity. ICE’s actions betray a complete lack of humanity and disregard for the law. We stand with Lexis in her fight, we affirm her inherent worth and strength, and we hope that the District Court will mete out some justice.”