Sanika Deshpande
Published On: October 21, 2021 at 11:00 IST
A Federal Appeals Court in San Francisco decided to overturn a nationwide order which required federal Immigration Authorities to monitor and release high-risk detainees suffering from long term complications of COVID-19.
In its ruling, the panel said a Federal District Judge overreached in 2020 when he had issued a preliminary injunction requiring the monitoring.
The Trump Administration had appealed that ruling whereas Biden’s Justice Department continued to argue against it when he took office in 2021.
Judges Daniel Bress and Eric Miller (Trump appointees) ruled to scrap the order, whereas Judge Marsha Berzon (Clinton appointee) differed.
“That the plaintiffs and district court may have desired more detainees be released, and on a potentially quicker basis, does not mean that the government’s approach — which involved early release determinations — reflected reckless disregard on a national basis,” wrote Judge Daniel A. Bress.
One man who was detained at the Etowah County Detention Center in Alabama said last spring that he ate three meals a day side by side with 70 other people.
That man spent four hours every day in a group area with no room for social distancing as per covid norms and shared a small cell with another detainee. He also had received only one mask to reuse and a bar of soap every one to two weeks.
“We’re heartbroken & infuriated to report that the 9th Cir. reversed the Fraihat preliminary injunction- the basis for the release of 1000s of medically vulnerable immigrants throughout the pandemic,” tweeted the Civil Rights Education and Advocates for immigrants.
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