A federal judge has ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to cease detaining immigrants at its downtown San Francisco facility due to unsanitary and inhumane conditions in the facility.
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.
Judge Pitts agreed with the plaintiffs that putting detainees in cold holding cells with "thin foam mats that are no more than one inch thick and thin sheets of plastic or metal to use for sleep" is inhumane and "likely punitive."
He ordered that ICE must provide beds to any detainees held for more than 12 hours, along with clean blankets, sheets, pillows, soap, and they must be provided with restrooms that are separate from sleeping areas. He also ruled that lights must be dimmed from 9 pm to 7 am, and temperatures must be kept comfortable in the holding areas.
In a statement, ACLU attorney Neil Sawhney said of the decision, "The Court’s order affirms that the government cannot use detention as a tool of punishment."
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