In a small courtroom on the third floor of a nondescript building in downtown Chicago on February 5, Judge Samuel B. Cole called case 849.
Add the novel coronavirus pandemic, and the situation becomes untenable. Even as much of the country has shut down and many civil and criminal proceedings are on hold, immigration courts hearing cases for immigrants held in detention are still operating. This makes Cole and many of his colleagues furious. Even after Governor J.B. Pritzker issued a stay-at-home order, hearings proceeded as usual in Cole’s courtroom. Judges, lawyers, clerks, security staff, and family members of detainees were all risking exposure to the virus.
But court officials have pushed back at pleas from the judges, prosecutors, and immigration lawyers to cancel all in-person hearings. “Most federal courts have continued to receive filings and to hold critical hearings for detained individuals as they have postponed other hearings,” said a statement from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which added it was “committed” to protecting all of those in immigration court from coronavirus.
The government says immigrants have a right to an attorney in immigration court, but it won’t pay for one. That applies to all except those with mental or developmental disabilities. Juveniles, the elderly, non-English speakers, recent arrivals still dealing with the trauma they fled, immigrants in detention with little access to the outside world—they all need to find a lawyer, which can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, or go it on their own through a byzantine, arbitrary, and opaque system.
“Because it is so overwhelming, we don’t [even] have a waiting list,” said Mary Meg McCarthy, head of the Chicago-based National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC). “We can’t even find enough immigration attorneys to do the work. Even if you have all the money in the world, there’s not enough attorneys.”
NIJC in late March documented reports from detainees at regional jails who said they had not been told about the virus, that they lacked basic hygiene supplies, and that they were being kept in crowded facilities with no social distancing. In response to the virus, ICE has limited detainee intake, released a small number of potentially vulnerable immigrants, reduced the population at all facilities to improve social distancing, and provided needed health and safety products, according to an ICE official and statements from the agency. But officials and advocates alike say it’s not enough.
