Along with ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, the ACLU of New Jersey filed a class action petition and a motion seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent the long-distance transfer of Plaintiff Juan R. and a putative class of individuals held in ICE custody at the Essex County Correctional Facility (ECCF). Following ECCF’s decision to depopulate all people in ICE custody from the facility, and ICE’s refusal to release people in their custody at the jail, attorneys and advocates learned that ICE planned to transfer people to out-of-state detention facilities. These transfers not only separate individuals from their families and communities, but harm existing attorney-client relationships, presenting a serious due process violation.
