gAlienLifeform

[The] 2021 settlement agreement between the county and immigrant groups was meant to shield some undocumented immigrants in county jails from being handed over to federal immigration authorities if they were victims or witnesses of a crime, exceptions explicitly allowed by state law. The county runs the jails system.

But since 2022, according to U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Williams, the county has not abided by that agreement. The result is dozens of residents potentially being transferred to federal custody and facing deportation.

The judge, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, said it would be a "gross understatement" to say she is disappointed by the Levine Cava administration's conduct in violating the settlement agreement. Plaintiffs agreed.

"Unfortunately, what we see is that our local government continues to try to do the work of federal immigration enforcement in a way that makes our communities less safe," said Oscar Londoño, co-executive director at the immigration non-profit WeCount!, one of the groups that brought the original court case.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250422113135/https://www.wusf.org/courts-law/2025-04-20/miami-dade-breached-settlement-protecting-undocumented-immigrants-from-being-handed-over-to-ice

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill is pushing forward with her efforts to force Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson to drop a longtime policy that generally prohibits deputies from directly engaging in federal immigration enforcement within the city’s jail.

...

A federal court will now determine whether to allow the state of Louisiana to join a 2011 federal suit that resulted in the policy and whether to throw out the policy altogether. A hearing has been set for April 30.

...

The sheriff’s policy stems from a 2013 federal court settlement in a civil rights case involving two New Orleans construction workers picked up on minor charges in 2009 and 2010.

Mario Cacho and Antonio Ocampo sued after they were allegedly illegally held in the city’s jail past the completion of their sentences. The two were held at the request of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agency issues such “detainer” requests to local law enforcement agencies, asking them to hold onto arrestees who are suspected of immigration violations.

Local agencies are only supposed to honor the hold requests for 48 hours, after which they should let detainees free. But in 2009 and 2010, then-Sheriff Marlin Gusman detained Cacho and Ocampo for months, according to legal filings in their case against the office.

Ocampo and Cacho settled the case with the Sheriff’s Office in 2013, and Gusman agreed to adopt a new policy on immigration investigations. The resulting policy blocks the agency from investigating immigration violations and from detaining immigrants for ICE without a court order, except in certain cases where they are facing charges for a small number of serious violent crimes.

Archived at https://archive.is/Kic4y

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250422113535/https://californiahealthline.org/news/article/california-medical-parole-critically-ill-prisoners/

The city of Leavenworth is suing CoreCivic to block it from reopening the detention center. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, came after the company backed out of a permitting process required under local zoning laws that would have put the ICE proposal through several rounds of scrutiny at public meetings.

City officials insist the lawsuit is about its permitting process, not Trump’s deportation agenda.

“This is not a statement on the current administration. It is not a statement on immigration at all,” Leavenworth City Manager Scott Peterson told a resident who asked about the private prison at a recent State of the City event.

But the local debate over CoreCivic’s plans has clearly been caught up in larger fights over deportations and immigration.

Archived at https://ghostarchive.org/archive/N3YOI

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250422113013/https://www.jurist.org/news/2025/04/lawyers-for-venezuelan-immigrants-ask-us-supreme-court-to-block-removals/

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250421121334/https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/17/politics/ed-martin-failed-to-report-media-appearances-senate/index.html

In October, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office conceded in a 10-page letter that there was evidence of “actual innocence.” A day later Jacke overturned Duran’s conviction.

But before agreeing to the defense team’s request to have Duran formally declared innocent — a finding that clears the way for state compensation for the years he spent wrongly imprisoned — prosecutors wanted to investigate further. Earlier this month, the D.A.’s office filed a letter agreeing with Baca’s request.

“While justice often arrives at arrest, conviction and sentencing, there are cases where justice has to set aside a conviction,” Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman told the court Friday, thanking his prosecutors and the diligent work of Duran’s defense team.

“It’s a pleasure to be here,” he said. “We don’t get too many days like this.”

Duran is the third person found factually innocent of murder since Hochman took office last year.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250421121217/https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-04-18/his-lawyers-said-he-was-framed-after-3-decades-in-prison-a-judge-just-declared-him-innocent

Archived at https://archive.is/o2VVl

A Wisconsin teenager accused of murdering two family members and plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump was inspired by Terrorgram, a white supremacist network that operated on the Telegram messaging and social media platform for half a decade, according to federal court records.

The Terrorgram community, which has been linked to around three dozen criminal cases around the globe, including at least three mass shootings, was profiled last month in stories and a documentary produced by ProPublica and FRONTLINE.

The court documents allege that Nikita Casap, a 17-year-old from Waukesha, Wisconsin, wrote a three-page manifesto calling for the assassination of Trump in order to “foment a political revolution in the United States and ‘save the white race’ from ‘Jewish controlled politicians.’”

In his manifesto, Casap allegedly encouraged people to read the writings of Juraj Krajčík, a longtime Terrogram figure who murdered two people in an attack on an LGBTQ+ bar in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 2022, according to the court records. Casap also allegedly recommended two publications produced by the Terrorgram Collective, a secretive group that produced alleged hit lists, videos and written publications — including instructions for building bombs and sabotaging critical infrastructure — and distributed them throughout the Terrorgram ecosystem.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250421120620/https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-assassionation-plot-nikita-casap-terrorgram-wisconsin-frontline

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250421120455/https://gothamist.com/news/lawyers-find-overpolicing-of-black-hispanic-parents-in-nyc-child-welfare-investigations

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250421120329/https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/criminal-justice/freddie-gray-10-years-later-baltimore-CD3R6IAPQVFS7JN6TV54WNGHKY/

During a rare tour of the facility on Jan. 24, the concrete floors showed enormous patches of paint worn off. An empty basketball court didn’t have a goal.

On a TV screen in the women’s area, Rocky Balboa carried Adrian in his arms on their wedding day, an allusion to happiness and protection. Offscreen, there was little space to walk around. A crack in a light fixture was taped with a maxi pad.

A woman named Fontana Sneed hollered through a nearby cell door. She got the attention of Tammy Ross, who had temporarily taken the helm after former Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah’s abrupt departure.Sneed said she wasn’t supposed to be locked up anymore.

“Let me check on it,” said Ross, jotting the woman’s name down on her hand as a reminder.

Sneed, 43, said in a short interview with The Marshall Project - St. Louis during that tour that she hadn’t been able to shower or exercise in the past three or four days.“They are just being ornery,” she said.

Court records showed that Sneed was to be released on her own recognizance three days prior. She had been arrested in early January for allegedly headbutting and spitting at an EMS worker at an addiction treatment center. Sneed was eventually transferred from the jail to the state prison system for a parole violation.

In another area, one man cried out, pleading for his wedding ring. Ross said he should have been able to keep the ring on him, an exception to the no-jewelry policy.

The rest of the men on the wing were quiet. A few lucky ones had their hands on a short supply of computer tablets. Others held blank stares. Ross looked on with approval, describing the silent men as “seasoned.”

“You can pretty much tell,” Ross said, “they know how to jail.”

Rising tensions between the jail administration and the sheriff’s office later culminated with Ross in handcuffs.

On Feb. 14, Sheriff Alfred Montgomery directed a deputy to arrest Ross for not allowing them to interview a detainee who had accused a deputy of sexual assault. They marched Ross out of the jail and across the street to the courthouse, where she was released. Ross filed a subsequent lawsuit accusing the sheriff of battery, unlawful arrest and violating her civil rights.

Archived at https://ghostarchive.org/archive/gkCFv