Tacoma Immigration Court only in nation denying residents bond hearings, lawsuit claims

A longtime Washington resident detained at the federal immigration detention center in Tacoma filed a class-action Thursday that challenges what the lawsuit calls the Tacoma Immigration Court’s policy of refusing to consider releasing people on bond who have lived in the country for years.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, alleges the policy is a “draconian” interpretation of federal law and that no other immigration courts in the United States have adopted a similar policy.

The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, which is representing Ramon Rodriguez Vasquez, said in a press release Thursday that Rodriguez has lived in Grandview in Yakima County since 2009. The NWIRP said he has no criminal history, owns a home in Grandview and has been married for more than 40 years with children and grandchildren.

According to a copy of Rodriguez’s motion for a preliminary injunction, he was detained by immigration authorities at his home Feb. 5 after agents invaded his residence “virtually unannounced.”

Leila Kang, a supervising attorney at the NWIRP, said in the release that Rodriguez’s case exemplifies “all that is wrong” with the Tacoma Immigration Court’s policy.

“There is no justification for him being locked up for months, away from his loved ones, while his immigration proceedings are ongoing,” Kang said. “The court’s categorical denial of bond for this group of individuals defies the law, as well as common sense, because people like Mr. Rodriguez pose no danger to the community or risk of flight.”

The lawsuit also challenges prolonged delays in appealing an immigration judge’s decision to deny a person’s release on bond. NWIRP Staff Attorney Aaron Korthuis said Rodriguez, who was denied a bond hearing by the Tacoma Immigration Judge John Odell on March 12, has no meaningful chance to challenge that outcome.

“When someone is forced to wait six months to get a decision on their appeal challenging their detention, that all but denies any chance for relief,” Korthuis said. “The Supreme Court has made clear that in such situations, decisions must be issued quickly, or relief is pointless.”

A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday that the agency does not comment on litigation proceedings or outcomes. The Executive Office for Immigration Review declined to comment, the office’s press secretary, Kathryn Mattingly, said Friday.

A representative for the GEO Group, the federal contractor that runs the Northwest ICE Processing Center, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Tacoma Immigration Court hears cases at the Northwest ICE Processing Center where Rodriguez is held, 1623 E. J. St, and it is assigned three immigration judges and a supervisory immigration judge who can adjudicate cases.

The Northwest ICE Processing Center has enough bed space for 1,575 detainees. It’s the only immigration lockup in the Pacific Northwest and is among the largest in the nation.

Rodriguez’s prolonged detention at the facility has had emotional and financial harms, according to the lawsuit, and it has made it difficult to defend his immigration case.

Without an injunction, the lawsuit claims Rodriguez has no hope of being reunited with his wife and the rest of his family who live nearby. Without his income as an agricultural worker, Rodriguez said in a declaration filed in the case, his wife has to keep his family afloat.

“[T]here is no day that I do not cry just thinking about [my family],” Rodriguez said, according to the lawsuit.

Rodriguez has also allegedly had difficulty getting daily medication for his high blood pressure at the Northwest ICE Processing Center. The lawsuit claims the facility has failed to provide him that medicine for at least a week, resulting in headaches, stomach pain, trouble sleeping and swollen feet.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are Seattle Field Office director Drew Bostock, warden of the Northwest ICE Processing Center Bruce Scott, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi and acting director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review Sirce Owen.

The federal law that Rodriguez’s lawsuit says the court is basing its bond denials on is the Immigration and Nationality Act, which according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was enacted in 1952 and has been amended many times in the years since.

Rodriguez’s lawsuit alleges that immigration judges in Tacoma treat people like him as if they are subject to mandatory detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2), which, according to the lawsuit, applies to persons arriving to the country and who are seeking admission.

“Mr. Rodriguez’s lawsuit alleges that this interpretation is contrary to longstanding practice across the country, recognizing that persons like Mr. Rodriguez have the right to be released on bond,” the NWIRP said in its press release.

The Tacoma Immigration Court didn’t always have this kind of policy, according to the lawsuit. After the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 was passed, people who were detained in the United States after having entered without inspection had a type of detention applied to them that included a right to a bond hearing.

This practice continued for 25 years, according to the lawsuit, but in the past few years the Tacoma Immigration Court has allegedly applied mandatory detention provisions of 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2) to all persons who allegedly entered the United States without inspection, regardless of how long those persons resided in the country.

That policy shift has been “catastrophic” for noncitizens detained in Tacoma, according to the lawsuit, many of whom are longtime residents of the Washington.

“Hundreds of people have been denied bond as a result, forcing them to litigate their cases from detention or to give up altogether,” the motion for preliminary injunction states.

Immigration judges in Tacoma are denying bond hearings at extraordinary rates, the lawsuit alleges. Referencing Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, the suit states Tacoma immigration judges granted bond in just 3 percent of cases where bonds were requested in fiscal year 2023. The suit claims this is “by far the lowest grant rate” for any immigration court in the country.