News & Commentary

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island has shared this week with the presidents and general counsel of Rhode Island’s colleges and universities a detailed letter from the National ACLU that outlines their responsibilities and rights when dealing with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

RILS and the ACLU of RI have filed a brief in R.I. Superior Court seeking to overturn a decision issued last year by the Council of Elementary and Secondary Education that the groups claim violate the rights of English Language Learners.

Our lawsuit has led to the conditional release of more ICE detainees than are currently being held at the facility.

In advance of bail hearings beginning at 10 AM today before U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy to consider the release of ICE detainees at the Wyatt Detention Center, the judge has released a 15-page decision explaining her decision to order the hearings.

In response to a class-action lawsuit filed by ACLU attorneys two weeks ago seeking urgent relief for immigration detainees at the Wyatt Detention Center facing the increasing spread of Covid-19 at the facility, a federal judge today ordered expedited bail hearings for the detainees.

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating attorneys Deborah Gonzalez and Jared Goldstein, and lawyers from the firm Morgan Lewis filed a class-action lawsuit today against federal immigration officials and the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls. The suit, filed as a habeas corpus petition, seeks urgent relief for a class of over 70 immigration detainees at the facility by calling for their conditional release. The suit was filed as the count of detainees at the facility infected with COVID-19 more than doubled in three days.

Ruling on an emergency ACLU lawsuit, U.S. District Court Judge William Smith this morning issued a temporary restraining order providing for the release by 5 PM today of two immigrants being detained at the Wyatt Detention Center who are at high risk for serious illness or death in the event of COVID-19 infection. The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island and the National ACLU had filed the lawsuit less than a week ago seeking their release, as well as that of one other detainee whom ICE released hours before the judge heard arguments in the ACLU’s petition on Wednesday.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island and the National ACLU have today filed an emergency lawsuit seeking the immediate release of three immigrants being detained at the Wyatt Detention Center who are at high risk for serious illness or death in the event of COVID-19 infection.

Rhode Island Legal Services and the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island have today filed a lawsuit in R.I. Superior Court challenging a decision issued this month by the Council of Elementary and Secondary Education (CESE) that upholds a method of providing services to English Language Learners (EL) that the two groups claim clearly violates federal and state law and significantly shortchanges the educational rights of EL students.