OMG OMG OMG!!! COURT OF APPEALS DENIES TRUMP’S REQUEST TO STAY ORDER REQUIRING GEO GROUP TO LET MONITORS INTO FACILITY!
by Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. – attorney, law professor emeritus, and author of Federal law
What a way to start the week! Over the weekend (yes! On a Saturday!) the Court of Appeals slammed the Trump administration for trying to get out from under an order of the lower court *requiring* that court-appointed medical and conditions monitors be allowed access to inmates and the facility at a GEO Group detention center in Adelanto, California! (Full decision and the underlying order included for Notes from the Front members.)
The case was filed early this year alleging, and I quote, “At the Adelanto ICE Processing Center detained individuals face dangerous conditions and pervasive abuses – disease and illness are rampant, mold grows on the walls, and detained individuals are denied sufficient food, clean drinking water, proper medical care, and disability accommodations. This lawsuit seeks to end the inhumane and illegal conditions faced by immigrants detained at Adelanto – one of the largest immigration detention centers in the United States.”
To be very clear, again, Adelanto is a GEO Group facility.
At the end of last month (July 26 to be exact) Judge Sunshine Sykes of the District Court for the Central District of California issued an order and injunction, *requiring* that two independent medical and conditions monitors BE GRANTED ACCESS to the facility!
This is, of course, what states around the country have been running up against – that GEO Group thu..er.. employees are not allowing *anyone* in to see, let alone monitor, the conditions.
Of course Trump’s administration appealed it; the appeal was filed just a bit over *3* weeks ago, and the Court of Appeals has *already* issued their decision – and on a Saturday to boot! They are *clearly* not impressed with any of what the government is putting out.
The administration basically tried to say “Hey, we’re not GEO Group, we can’t be held responsible for what they do, they’re a private organization.”
And the Court of Appeals shot right back saying and, again, I quote, “The district court found that Plaintiffs are subject to punitive conditions, including a lack of consistent access to potable water and adequate medical care. Although the Government asserts that any harm from such conditions was caused by GEO Group, the private company the Government contracts with to operate Adelanto, the Government is directly responsible for placing and keeping Plaintiffs in Adelanto. Even if the Government does not run the facility day-to- day, it is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the conditions of confinement are constitutionally acceptable.”
BOOM!!
But wait! There’s more!! Because the district court *also* certified a class of all people who are or *will* be detained at Adelanto, and the Court of Appeals said *that* was also just fine and dandy because “The class-wide relief the district court ordered does not run afoul of the jurisdictional bar … (because) the injunction does not restrict the Government’s authority to “choose the place of detention for deportable aliens” under 8 U.S.C. §1231…. Rather, the injunction requires the Government to stop imposing punitive conditions of confinement under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, an obligation that extends to all places where the Government may choose to detain people.” ”
How do you like it now??
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P.S. If you actually read all the way to the bottom please leave a sentence in a comment that includes the word “sunshine”. It will show me that my efforts aren’t in vain and that people actually *do* read these things, and it will drive those who just skim crazy wondering just why everyone is talking about sunshine! ;~)
(The above was provided by me, Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. – attorney and law professor emeritus – all me, no AI, the buck stops here.)
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