Order on Motion to Enforce in Fraihat COVID PI

Elizabeth Jordan writes:

"I am pleased to report that we, along with co-counsel SPLC, DRA, Orrick, and Willkie, just got the attached order on our motion to enforce our Fraihat COVID preliminary injunction. We are working on developing guidance for detained folks, their families, advocates and allies. We encourage you to read it through if you’re interested because there are a lot of gems in there, but did want to flag these four big takeaways ASAP: 

1. Defendants shall mandate more widespread and regular testing of medically vulnerable people, consistent with CDC guidelines and above the level provided by the BOP and state prisons.
2. Defendants shall mandate that medical isolation and quarantine are distinct from solitary, segregated, or punitive housing, that extended lockdowns as a means of COVID-19 prevention are not allowed, and that access to diversion and to telephones must be maintained to the fullest extent possible.
3. Defendant shall provide more protective, and more concrete, transfer protocols to protect medically vulnerable people, including a suspension of transfers with a narrow and well defined list of exceptions consistent with CDC guidance.
4. On custody redeterminations, blanket or cursory release denials are prohibited. Only in rare cases should a medically vulnerable detained individual who is not subject to mandatory detention remain detained, and any exceptions must be supported by specific justifications. With respect to people who are subject to mandatory detention, defendants must perform an individualized assessment, and should only continue to be detained after consideration of the risk of severe illness or death, with due regard to the public health emergency.

Many thanks to the many of you on these various lists for your reporting of on-the-ground conditions and results of release requests for class members, for evidence you provided in support of this motion, and for your thought partnership and tireless advocacy on these issues. Free them all!

Elizabeth Jordan*

(she/her/ella)

Director, Immigration Detention Accountability Project (IDAP)

Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center (CREEC)

1245 E. Colfax Ave., Suite 400

Denver, CO  80218

303.757.7901

ejordan@creeclaw.org

www.creeclaw.org 

*Not admitted in Colorado; practice limited to federal and immigration courts."