Federal Judge Orders ICE to Stop Holding Immigrants at 630 Sansome Due to Inhumane Conditions

"On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts a Biden appointee to the federal bench in 2023 ruled that the federal government is violating the civil rights of immigrants at its detention facility at 630 Sansome Street in San Francisco. And, as the Chronicle first reported, the judge ordered that ICE stop holding detainees at the facility until conditions there are improved."

""The government makes no effort to explain why depriving detainees held at 630 Sansome of sleep, basic hygiene, and medical care furthers its interest in enforcing the immigration laws," Judge Pitts writes in his ruling. He adds that the Supreme Court "has long held that the Constitution forbids the government from subjecting even duly convicted criminals, who may be legitimately detained, to inhumane conditions of confinement.""

"The ruling came in response to a lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Northern California, along with the Central American Resource Center of Northern California, and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. "The administration is using courthouses as bait for immigrants seeking asylum and dragging them to a makeshift jail as punishment, despite them engaging in no wrongdoing whatsoever," said Marissa Hatton, senior staff attorney at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, in an earlier statement about the case."

U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts ruled that the federal government is violating the civil rights of immigrants detained at 630 Sansome Street and ordered ICE to stop holding detainees there until conditions improve. The ruling found detainees deprived of sleep, basic hygiene, and medical care and characterized those conditions as inhumane and likely punitive. The decision cited Supreme Court precedent that the Constitution forbids subjecting detained persons to inhumane confinement. The case arose from a lawsuit by the ACLU of Northern California, the Central American Resource Center of Northern California, and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. The judge ordered ICE to provide beds, clean blankets, pillows, soap, and other basic necessities to detainees held longer than 12 hours.

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