Immigration Judge Ana Partida faced significant challenges during hearings due to technology issues such as frequent software restarts and dropped videoconference calls with detainees from various facilities. Attorneys reported that ICE has been transferring detainees away from their local facilities despite them having attorneys and pending cases. This contradicts ICE's own guidelines from 2012. While ICE claims these transfers are nonpunitive, the increase in relocations raises concerns about the implications for detainees' rights and access to legal representation and fair hearings.
During two afternoons, Capital & Main observed the judge having to restart the videoconference software multiple times and struggling with dropped calls from detainees held at other facilities.
ICE started transferring an unusually high number of detainees who already had attorneys out of the facility back in the spring of 2024, according to many attorneys who regularly represent clients there.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials use a network of detention facilities for the intake of individuals detained by the agency and assert all transfers are nonpunitive.
This has become a very big problem,
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