Lawsuit filed against ICE use of contractors to arrest immigrants for deportation

Ny Nourn upon her release from ICE custody.

A private contractor which arrests immigrants released from state and local custody only to put them back behind bars in federal facilities faces a class action filed by a woman who has lived in the United States since she was 2-years old and fears being arrested and deported after serving 22 years in state custody.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus and the ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a class-action lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on behalf of Gabriela Solano.

The suit asks a judge to find that policies by ICE allowing private contractor G4S Secure Solutions to arrest immigrants for deportation violates the Immigration and Nationality Act, which prohibits using private security companies to make immigration arrests.

“Fully aware that ICE’s use of contractors is unlawful and dangerous, Governor Newsom has refused to stop collaborating with ICE,” said Jenny Zhao, a litigation staff attorney at Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus.

“Instead, he vetoed a bill in 2019, that would have prohibited state prisons from facilitating these arrests. We don’t need more rhetoric about California’s leadership; we need the Governor to take action and stop criminalizing immigrants and refugees."

Solano is a 48-year-old lawful permanent resident and survivor of domestic violence who was granted parole because of her demonstrated rehabilitation during her 22 years of incarceration. However, because of ICE’s unlawful private contractor policy, she faces imminent arrest by G4s once released from prison.

"I've been dreaming of being reunited with my family and community for so long, and now it could finally happen. But the fear of being arrested by G4S, locked in an ICE detention center, and possibly deported to Mexico, keeps me up at night,” Solano said. “I was brought here to the U.S. at the age of two and my closest family is here. This is where I hope to build a new life with the second chance I've been given."

According to the complaint, since at least 2016, ICE has sent G4S contractors to prisons and jails throughout most of California to arrest hundreds of people and transfer them from state and local custody to immigration custody. Many have been cruelly ripped away from their families and sent to out-of-state ICE prisons ravaged by COVID-19.

Many of those arrested have been children from refugees families who fled war-torn Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Some have been deported even though they have never set foot in those countries.

Ny Nourn was born in a refugee camp in Thailand after her mother fled genocide in Cambodia. She was sentenced to life in prison for failing to stop a murder committed by her abusive partner weeks after she turned 18. In May 2017, after the state of California deemed her suitable for release, she was arrested by a G4S employee and detained by ICE for six months.

She was granted protection from removal by an immigration judge and was later granted a full and unconditional pardon of her conviction by Governor Newsom. Nourn currently works at Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus as a community advocate.

“For weeks up until my release, I was overwhelmed with stress and fear that I was going to be re-arrested all over again by ICE, face worse prison conditions in immigration detention, and may never see freedom in America again, the only home I’ve known since I was 5 years old,” Nourn said.

“On the day of my release, instead of being reunited with my family, I was arrested by a G4S officer who placed me in chains and an unmarked vehicle. All I could do was hold back my tears with feelings of shock, fear, numbness, and disappointment.”

The State of California is aware of G4S’s abusive practices yet continues to voluntarily collaborate and turn Californians over to G4S, claim the public interest attorneys. Further, state officials’ practice of continuing transfers to ICE during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the widely documented, gruesome conditions in ICE detention centers, exhibits a blatant disregard for their constitutional obligation to safeguard the welfare of those in their custody.

“Government funds shouldn’t be used to break up California families,” said Vasudha Talla, Immigrants' Rights Program Director at the ACLU of Northern California. “The Biden administration should revisit the current policies and ultimately cut off these pathways to deportation.”