The New York Immigrant Family Unity Project ensures that everyone in ICE custody in New York City is guaranteed access to an attorney, regardless of their criminal legal status. “We never wanted to play into the rhetoric of the ‘good, deserving’ immigrant versus the less deserving person who may have had contact with the criminal legal system,”…
Josie Duffy Rice and guest co-host Zak Cheney-Rice talk with Emma Ketteringham, the managing director of the Bronx Defenders Family Defense Practice, about the relationship between the criminal justice system and family court, and how together they can wreak havoc on American families. Listen to the full podcast here
NYIFUP Demands Answers from ICE On How NYC-Area Detention Centers Will Respond to Coronavirus Crisis FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 9, 2020 CONTACT: Alejandra Lopez, The Legal Aid Society, 917-294-9348, AILopez@legal-aid.org Ryan Karerat, The Bronx Defenders, rkarerat@bronxdefenders.org Dan Ball, Brooklyn Defender Services, dball@bds.org (NEW YORK, NY) – The Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Defender Services, and The Bronx Defenders – New…
Momentarily put aside your positions on immigration policy, if you will, and consider this case of alleged algorithmic rigging. Whatever your feelings on people seeking legal status in the US, you may find cause for concern about humanity’s growing reliance on machines to determine liberty. Last week, the Bronx Defenders and New York Civil Liberties Union…
The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is going to undergo legal proceedings for the improper processing of immigrants. The migrants were supposed to stay idle and wait for their court hearings without being locked up, but ICE did otherwise. ICE is facing a lawsuit that was filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU)…
March 6, 2020 Thomas Decker New York Field Office Director Immigration and Customs Enforcement 26 Federal Plaza, 9th Floor New York NY 10278 Warden Steven Ahrendt Bergen County Jail 160 S. River Street Hackensack, NJ 07601 Director Ronald P. Edwards Hudson County Correctional Facility 30-35 Hackensack Avenue Kearny, NJ 07032 Sheriff Carl E. DuBois Orange…
From 2013 to June 2017, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s New York Field Office determined that about 47 percent of detainees designated as “low risk” should be released while they waited for their immigration cases to be resolved, according to FOIA data obtained by the New York Civil Liberties Union. But something changed in the…
The NYCLU and Bronx Defenders sued the federal government this week, claiming ICE is unlawfully keeping thousands of New Yorkers jailed for non-criminal immigration offenses. Nearly everyone ICE apprehended over the last three years remains in lockup, the lawsuit alleges, despite a federal law mandating individualized custody determinations be made by ICE officials within 48 hours…
It is the job of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to determine — case by case — whether people arrested for immigration offenses ought to be detained, released on bond or just trusted to show up in court. For years, ICE has used an algorithm to help make this decision, one that weighs factors…
Mayor Bill de Blasio and the NYPD reported a major spike in crime for the second straight month and doubled down on blaming the jump on bail reform — even as public defenders charged police may be manipulating the stats to push their agenda. Major crime jumped by 22.5 percent in February compared with the…
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began using an algorithm in 2013 that recommends or denies the release of those arrested for immigration violations –and a new lawsuit claims the technology is rigged. Filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and Bronx Defenders, the allegations say ICE officials in New York City tampered with…
The New York Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, claiming ICE rigged its software to migrants behind bars longer than ordinarily allowed. The class action, filed by the NYCLU alongside Bronx Defenders, centers on ICE’s Risk Classification Assessment system. The RCA software, writes Gizmodo, uses algorithms to determine…
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began using an algorithm in 2013 that recommends or denies the release of those arrested for immigration violations –and a new lawsuit claims the technology is rigged. Filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and Bronx Defenders, the allegations say ICE officials in New York City tampered with the software to eliminate the…
A lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union and Bronx Defenders alleges that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses a rigged algorithm to detain virtually everyone ICEs New York Field Office brings in, even when the government itself believes they present a minimal threat to public safety. According to The Intercept the suit asks that ICE’s…
Marventz Sulfradin didn’t know his date had a gun until police began pulling them over after they bought chicken nuggets and fries from a Brooklyn McDonald’s drive-thru in November. When the cops flashed their lights, the date, who was driving, pulled the firearm from his jacket, plopped it in Sulfradin’s lap and told him to…
A decrease in the number of criminal cases city prosecutors are pursuing suggests that the crime spike recently reported by the NYPD could be a ruse to incite fear over criminal justice reforms, a coalition of public defenders said Tuesday. “Since the NYPD controls how, when, and where they arrest people and what they charge an arrested…
A new class-action lawsuit accuses U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of keeping nearly all arrested immigrants locked up instead of releasing them to wait for their court dates. Bronx Defenders and the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) partnered on the lawsuit against the agency. ICE is legally mandated to evaluate cases individually and release people…
A new lawsuit claims Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rigged software to create a “secret no-release policy” for people suspected of breaking immigration laws. ICE’s New York office uses a risk assessment algorithm to recommend that an arrestee be released or detained until a hearing. But the New York Civil Liberties Union and Bronx Defenders say the…
IN 2013, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement quietly began using a software tool to recommend whether people arrested over immigration violations should be let go after 48 hours or detained. The software’s algorithm supposedly pored over a variety of risk factors before outputting a decision. A new lawsuit, however, filed by the New York Civil Liberties…
This has had a massive effect in New York, the lawsuit alleges: In the four years prior to the algorithm change, about half of immigrants arrested in New York who were regarded as low risk were released until their trial. Now 96% of them are held in jail for as long as three months, the…
Lawsuit: ICE Office in NYC Has Secret No-Release Policy Exclusive Data Shows ICE’s New York Field Office Denies Release in Virtually All Cases FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 2, 2020 CONTACT: Ben Schaefer, bschaefer@nyclu.org, 212-607-3372; Ryan Karerat, rkarerat@bronxdefenders.org, (347) 842-1251 NEW YORK – The New York Civil Liberties Union and The Bronx Defenders today announced a…
The New York Civil Liberties Union and The Bronx Defenders today announced a federal class-action lawsuit challenging a recently-enacted policy of New York City-area federal immigration officials of jailing virtually all of the thousands of people they have arrested over the last three years. Before this policy, nearly half of those arrested on civil immigration…
New York City Council Committee on Immigration and Committee on Hospitals Hearing re: Oversight – ICE’s Escalated Attacks on NYC Policies Protecting Immigrants February 28, 2020 Written Testimony of The Bronx Defenders By Sophia Gurulé, Policy Counsel, Immigration Practice Good afternoon Chairs Rivera and Menchaca, my name is Sophia Elena Gurulé and I am Policy…
Justine Olderman, of the Bronx Defenders, agreed. “One of the strongest lessons we’ve learned so far is just the fact of the backlash,” she said. “The drive to detain is so powerful, the drive to detain and punish mostly black and brown people from low-income communities is so strict, that it doesn’t matter how careful…
If Alvin Linton’s landlord gets her way, the ailing 67-year-old will soon be evicted from the northeast Bronx home he’s lived in for nearly 40 years. Situations like Linton’s — where a senior with limited income faces the threat of homelessness — aren’t novel in New York. Recent city data shows the number of senior citizens in homeless…