A settlement agreement may lead to the release of several people in Virginia caught up in the immigration system. A judge is set to consider the agreement in the next few weeks.
That would lead to a handful of immigrants being released from detention in Virginia, the result of a class-action lawsuit between immigration officials and the American Civil Liberties Union. The immigrants already won their court cases in Virginia, but the ICE Field Office in Washington was detaining them anyway.
"These are people who won their cases," says Austin Rose, an attorney at the Amica Center's Immigration Impact Lab. "The judge said, ‘Yes, this person has provided evidence to prove that they will be persecuted or tortured in their country, and therefore they cannot be deported to that country.’ Yet, until now, ICE has continued to detain the vast majority of those people."
Sophia Gregg is an immigrants' rights attorney with the ACLU of Virginia.
"This is about holding the government accountable when they’re violating people's due process rights as well," Gregg says. "There is a process by which people seek legal status in this country. Should they win, they should be afforded the right to be free."
Four detainees have already been released, and dozens more could follow. They are expected to be released if a judge signs off on the agreement.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
