New York City has agreed to pay $92.5 million in a class-action lawsuit that accused the city of keeping migrants detained in city jails beyond their scheduled release, some for weeks at time, to allow federal immigration enforcement officers to take the migrants into custody and begin deportation proceedings.
The plaintiffs, who filed the lawsuit over a decade ago, argued that the city unlawfully detained more than 20,000 people after their scheduled release dates between 1997 and 2012, after receiving requests from ICE to temporarily hold them, according to The New York Times.
The money will go to a class of immigrants detained by the Department of Correction, with amounts based on the length of their "overdetention," under the settlement terms, granted preliminary approval Wednesday by State Supreme Court Justice Mitchell J. Danziger.
A claim by one detainee, held an additional 41 days after completion of a five-day sentence for unlicensed driving, will result in a payout of at least $25,000, Gothamist reports. Collectively, the immigrants were held more than 166,000 days beyond their scheduled release, said lawyers with Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP and Benno & Associates, representing the plaintiffs.
In response to the settlement, the city's Law Department said in a statement that city officials had "operated with the assumption that compliance with ICE detainers was mandated under federal law."
"Court rulings eventually clarified that localities could not hold a detainee beyond their release date based solely on the contents of a federal detainer and that a court order is needed. New York City changed its policies in 2012 to conform with these court rulings."
Lawyers will now face a unique challenge: locating those who were detained, many of whom are now scattered across the globe, or have since passed away. Some of the class members are located in countries across the Americas, including Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Ecuador, Cuba, Colombia, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Debra Greenberger, one of the lead lawyers in the case, said her team was "cleareyed that it's going to be hard to find people." She said that people would be able to file online claims and that her team would work with local groups to spread the word.
Under current law and practice, the city significantly limits cooperation with ICE to detainer requests accompanied by a judicial order and where the individual has been convicted of one of 177 crimes, or where the sought individual has been listed on a terrorism watch list. Backers of the "sanctuary" measures help maintain cooperation between the public and law enforcement, according to Gothamist.
The payout also comes as immigration takes the center stage in New York City, as its mayor, Eric Adams, considers using executive orders to remove its sanctuary measures, a decades-long practice along the five boroughs.
The mayor has been vocal about his opposition to the law, as he cozies up to the Trump administration. During an interview on Fox on Wednesday, the Democratic mayor suggested incoming border czar Tom Homan could have a say on whether the measures end up being removed. The two sat down to discuss migrants on Dec. 12.
"We both agreed on: violent individuals should not remain in our country," Adams said. "We have laws here in the city on how that could be handled. My legal team is going to sit down with his legal team to make the determination if an executive order can change that."
Adams also hinted that one thing Homan would like is access to Rikers Island, a city jail facility that houses detainees awaiting trial. Current laws prohibit the city from allowing ICE to use municipal facilities, Politico reports.
"The law that was passed under the previous administration said that no ICE officer can be in any governmental building," Adams said. "There are no exceptions to that. We are looking at those exceptions."
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