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By Hillary Davis, Policy Associate

By Johanna Kaiser, Development & Communications Associate

My name is Michael Thomas and I am a second year law student at Roger Williams University School of Law. My goal in coming to law school is to become a Public Defender. 

In the space of a dozen years, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials issued to Rhode Island Department of Corrections’ (DOC) administrators 462 “immigration detainers” against individuals who are identified in the ACI’s computer system as U.S. citizens. That is one of the many facts disclosed in briefs (motion for summary judgment brief against the Federal Defendants, motion for summary judgment brief against Defendant Wall) filed on Friday by the ACLU in its lawsuit on behalf of Ada Morales, a North Providence resident who has twice been the target of baseless immigration detainers as a deportable “alien” even though she is a U.S. citizen. The lawsuit, filed in 2012, alleges ICE and Rhode Island officials often bypass Constitutional requirements and safeguards when they detain individuals on immigration grounds. As a result of these detainers, as happened in Ms. Morales’ case, individuals have been held at the ACI for no other reason than to allow ICE officials to investigate their immigration status.

The two pitbulls seized in October by North Kingstown officials despite the owner’s compliance with all relevant state laws will be returned home while the American Civil Liberties Union court case challenging the seizure of the dogs moves forward. A Washington County Superior Court judge Friday found that the ACLU had a likelihood of success its claim that the state law establishing detailed procedures for dealing with "vicious dogs" preempts a local ordinance barring any “vicious” dog from being housed within a mile of a school or day-care facility. The judge therefore ordered the return of the dogs, Balou and Ozzy, to Kristy Miserendino and her family. The ACLU filed the case, Defenders of Animals v. Sunderland, after town officials seized the dogs under the local residence restriction despite a ruling by a state panel that the family could keep the dogs if they took specified precautionary measures. A Town official informed the Miserendinos of the residency restriction only after they had decided not to appeal the hearing panel’s decision. The dogs have been held at the town shelter, which, the lawsuit points out, is also within a mile of a school.