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Law360 (May 5, 2020, 6:09 PM EDT ) A Florida federal judge on Tuesday agreed to fast-track a request for class certification by detainees who are suing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over "atrocious conditions" at three Florida detention centers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Just hours after the request was filed, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman said he would act quickly on the detainees' request for class certification and ordered ICE to reply to the class certification motion by Saturday.
In their motion, the 34 detainees in ICE custody asked the court to certify a class of approximately 1,400 individuals in civil immigration detention at three Florida centers — the Krome Service Processing Center in Miami-Dade County, the Glades County Detention Center and the Broward Transitional Center in Broward County — who are all at risk of becoming sick in the crowded and unsafe conditions.
They said the members of the proposed class are all bound together by common questions of law and are in similar situations at each of the ICE facilities, making them excellent candidates for a class action.
"All class members face the common risk of COVID-19 infection by virtue of confinement in one of the three ICE facilities at issue here under the same unsanitary and unconstitutional conditions — conditions created by the same deliberate indifference," the detainees said.
The detainee plaintiffs filed their suit April 13, alleging that conditions inside the ICE facilities have created an undue increased risk of severe illness or death.
In their complaint, the detainees allege that the government has violated the Fifth Amendment through its failure to abide by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic. The conditions of their current confinement amount to a "state-created danger" that is excessive and amounts to impermissible punishment, according to the suit.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Marcia G. Cooke ordered ICE to significantly reduce the number of people in its custody at the three facilities and to hand out soap, cleaning materials and masks to all detainees. She ordered ICE to reduce the detainee population at the facilities to 75 percent of capacity within two weeks, after pointing to evidence showing the impossibility of social distancing in the facilities, where bunk beds are often just 12 inches apart.
The judge said ICE has "demonstrated deliberate indifference" with regard to the safety and well-being of immigrant detainees, whose Fifth and Eighth amendment rights are being violated.
The judge also ordered ICE to evaluate each of the 34 named detainees who filed suit over the allegedly inadequate conditions and inform the court within a week which ones can be released promptly. ICE had to provide the masks, soap and cleaning materials to all detainees within two days, according to the order.
"As the virus continues to spread, and as ICE plays the human shell game of transferring people instead of releasing them, the women and men whose lives are at stake deeply appreciate the court's decision to consider the motion for class certification on an expedited basis," Rebecca Sharpless, who represents the detainees, said.
ICE spokesman Nestor Yglesias said the agency does not comment on pending litigation, but said "absence of specific comment should in no way be construed as agreement to anything in a particular lawsuit."
The detainees are represented by Rebecca Sharpless and Romy Louise Lerner of the University of Miami School of Law Immigration Clinic, Gregory P. Copeland and Sarah T. Gillman of the Rapid Defense Network, Mark Andrew Prada and Anthony Richard Dominguez of Prada Urizar PLLC, Paul R. Chavez and Maia Fleischman of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Andrea Montavon-McKillip of the Legal Aid Service of Broward County Inc. and Lisa M. Berlow-Lehner of Americans for Immigrant Justice.
The government is represented by Dexter Lee and Natalie Diaz of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida.
The case is Gayle et al. v. Meade et al., case number 1:20-cv-21553, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
--Additional reporting by Nathan Hale. Editing by Stephen Berg.
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