News & Commentary

In an important victory for immigrants' rights, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston has ruled illegal a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) policy conditioning the receipt of federal law enforcement funds on municipal collaboration with immigration officials. The ACLU had filed a “friend of the court” brief in the case in support of the cities of Providence and Central Falls, which had filed a suit againstn the DOJ, arguing that the agency had no legal authority to attach these strings to the law enforcement grant program, known as Byrne JAG grants.

The American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants’ Rights Project and the ACLU of Rhode Island have today filed a “friend of the court” brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston in support of a lower court ruling barring the extradition of a man whom the U.S. State Department is trying to return to the Dominican Republic (DR) even though an immigration appeals board found he would likely be tortured if returned there.

The ACLU has filed a “friend of the court” brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston in support of a legal challenge brought by the cities of Providence and Central Falls to a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) policy conditioning the receipt of federal law enforcement funds on municipal collaboration with immigration officials.

In an important decision for the rights of immigrants – and for a humane and fair immigration system – a federal judge in Rhode Island today ordered the release of a man whom the U.S. State Department is trying to extradite back to the Dominican Republic (DR) even though an immigration board found he would likely be tortured if returned there.

A U.S. Department of Justice memo, formally released yesterday as a result of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of RI and RI Legal Services (and also obtained independently by the Boston Globe), contains a blistering critique of the Providence school district’s (PSD) treatment of English language learner (EL) students.  But, the ACLU and RILS said today, release of the memo does more than document a systematic violation of EL students’ rights by the PSD. Specifically, it also highlights a blatant abuse of the Access to Public Records Act by the Providence school district, and underlines the RI Department of Education’s (RIDE) own failure to require PSD’s compliance with federal and state law obligations regarding the legal rights of EL students.

Attorneys for the ACLU of Rhode Island and R.I. Legal Services (RILS) today filed a lawsuit against the Providence School District for hiding information about its extensive violations of the rights of English Language Learner (EL) students that led to a settlement agreement between the school system and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) more than a year ago.

ACLU of Rhode Island executive director Steven Brown issued the following statement today in response to last night's incident outside the Wyatt Detention Center where protesters were pepper-sprayed and one person was seriously injured by a pickup truck used by a correctional officer to try to break up protesters blocking the facility's parking lot:

The South Kingstown School Committee has approved an ACLU of RI-drafted resolution clarifying that SK schools will not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) absent a valid judicial warrant that has been verified by the district superintendent and its legal counsel.  A similar policy was approved by the Central Falls School District in June 2017. Although an ICE policy purports to restrict enforcement actions in “sensitive locations” such as schools, churches and hospitals, that policy has not been uniformly followed, and immigration enforcement actions across the nation have been unpredictable. The motion to approve the resolution was unanimous. “We applaud the SK School Committee for passing this important resolution to protect immigrant students and families.  We hope other school committees in RI will follow their lead,” said Steven Brown, ACLU of RI executive director.

A recently-filed ACLU class-action lawsuit challenging the government’s practice of denying due process to detained immigrants could directly affect the continued jailing of some of the immigrant detainees now being held at the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls.