Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP, Dec. 18, 2024
“Beneath a authorized settlement offered to the court docket right this moment by ECBAWM and Benno & Associates, P.C., New York Metropolis has agreed to pay as much as $92.5 million to resolve claims by people who have been unlawfully detained by the NYC Division of Correction between April 1, 1997 and December 21, 2012. The Settlement permits greater than 20,000 Class Members detained past their scheduled launch dates on the premise of U.S. Division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer requests to hunt a Settlement award. Relying on the size and date of their overdetention, Class Members could also be eligible to obtain awards of as much as tens of hundreds of {dollars}. The Settlement acquired preliminary approval by Justice Danziger of the New York State Supreme Court docket right this moment.
ICE detainers are requests issued to state and native regulation enforcement companies to carry a person for as much as 48 enterprise hours past their scheduled launch so ICE can take custody of the immigrant. In some circumstances, nevertheless, people have been detained for days or even weeks past that two-day interval. For instance, Oscar Onadia, who filed this lawsuit in February 2010, was held in jail for 41 days after he had already accomplished a five-day sentence for unlicensed driving. Collectively, Class Members–some now residing the US, others residing in international locations together with Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Ecuador, Cuba, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, Honduras, and Guyana–have been detained greater than 166,000 days past their scheduled launch dates.
Detainers impose double punishment on immigrants alone by forcing them into the ICE detention system after they’ve already served their sentences. Furthermore, ICE makes errors and locations ICE maintain requests on U.S. Residents and people with authorized standing who will not be deportable. New York Metropolis has largely stopped honoring ICE detainer requests. The Metropolis’s prior observe was criticized as a result of it discouraged immigrants from cooperating with regulation enforcement to resolve crimes on account of concern of being reported to ICE. New York courts have additionally made clear that the Metropolis couldn’t lawfully maintain individuals primarily based on ICE detainers as a result of ICE detainers don’t set up possible trigger {that a} crime was dedicated.
“We’re proud to carry a measure of justice to the people who skilled a lack of liberty and a disruption of their lives on account of this unwarranted and extreme detention,” mentioned Debbie Greenberger, companion at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP. “This Settlement needs to be a reminder that every one people are entitled to due strategy of regulation.”
Should you consider you might be within the Class of people coated by this Settlement, please go to https://www.NYCICEsettlement.com/.
The plaintiff class is represented by ECBAWM attorneys Debbie Greenberger, Matthew Brinckerhoff, and Vasudha Talla, and paralegal, Carlos Martinez-Montes.
Press: “New York City to Pay $92.5 Million to Improperly Detained Immigrants,” The New York Instances.”
