Bay Area civil rights attorneys have called for an emergency meeting with the federal judge at the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose, alleging that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in San Francisco are violating a court order issued in November requiring them to improve conditions at its immigration holding cells downtown.
Attorneys with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area verbally notified U.S. District Court Judge Casey Pitts on Tuesday alleging that ICE officials have simply moved detainees from the sixth floor of 630 Sansome St., the ICE headquarters in San Francisco that has multiple holding cells, down to the fifth floor as a means to elude the injunction.
“We have some reports that what the government has done is, rather than implement any part of the injunction, close the sixth floor of 630 Sansome,” said Marissa Hatton, a lead attorney on the case.
ICE officials subsequently moved detained immigrants down to the fifth floor, she said, which the attorneys allege is also not designed to hold people.
The Trump administration lawyers denied the workaround. In Pitts’ courtroom, a government attorney said that the allegation came as a “surprise.”
“This is the first time that I’m hearing of this,” he said. After a brief pause, he added: “I’m going to be crystal clear, we are not not complying with the orders.”
The lawsuit that prompted the preliminary injunction challenged ICE’s practice of holding immigrants longer than 12 hours and detailed the conditions they are allegedly experiencing: Freezing temperatures, lack of privacy and loss of access to vital medications, personal belongings, and other essentials.
On Nov. 25, Pitts ordered those conditions remedied.
Attorneys from the Lawyers’ Committee and partnering firms, including the ACLU, contested the government’s claim that it was complying with the judge’s order. Hatton told Mission Local that the relocation one floor down is a government attempt to “circumvent” the injunction, which applies to the entire building.
She added, “The order was clear that the judge was enjoining all activities at 630 Sansome,” not just its sixth floor.
Hatton said the judge indicated he would take the matter seriously and told attorneys he could be available within 24 hours to discuss the development.
While courthouse arrests have slowed, multiple sources have confirmed recent arrests at routine ICE check-ins at 630 Sansome. These include three cases from last week: two people arrested during ICE check-ins, and one arrested at their Bay Area home.
One individual is confirmed to be an elderly woman, previously interviewed by Mission Local, who fell victim to an immigration scam and no longer had funds to hire an attorney for her case.
All three have since been processed through the fifth-floor holding cells.
Hatton said, “It is unconstitutional to hold people in inhumane conditions. It does not matter if you are on the fifth or sixth floor.”