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Law360 (April 8, 2020, 7:19 PM EDT) -- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement must give two vulnerable detainees at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, New York, their own cells to protect them from the coronavirus, a New York federal judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo said that female detainees Gomatee Ramsundar and Patricia Cedeno-Larios meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's definition of individuals vulnerable to injury or death from COVID-19 — individuals who are older or have pre-existing medical conditions — warranting them to be separated from the general detention center population.
"[The court] therefore ordered the respondents to remedy the ongoing constitutional violations with respect to petitioners Gomatee Ramsundar and Cedeno-Larios," Judge Vilardo said.
The court already determined in a separate case, Jones v. Wolf, that holding detainees at the Buffalo facility without protection against the novel virus is a violation of their due process rights to safe confinement conditions, the judge said.
However, in that case, the court wasn't persuaded the detainees should be released and instead ordered them to be allowed to practice social distancing, Judge Vilardo said.
The other two detainees in this case, Shane Ramsundar and Remy Antonio Espinoza, who are both males, were given their own separate cells after they filed an emergency petition last week seeking their release.
But ICE informed the court that its Buffalo detention facility doesn't have individual cells for female detainees where Gomatee Ramsundar and Cedeno-Larios could be confined, Judge Vilardo said.
If ICE doesn't place Gomatee Ramsundar and Cedeno-Larios in individual cells by Thursday morning, the agency must explain to the court why they shouldn't be released, he said.
Earlier this week, Democratic House leaders urged DHS to release nonviolent detainees, saying the fact the agencies don't have a plan for limiting the spread of COVID-19 raises concerns that detainees' lives are in jeopardy if they remain in detention centers.
Advocacy groups including the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and the American Civil Liberties Union have expressed similar concerns in recent lawsuits filed in Washington, Louisiana, New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania asking for detainees who are older or have pre-existing medical conditions to be released.
The lawsuits have had mixed results. In Washington and Louisiana, federal judges refused to order ICE to release such detainees, but federal judges in New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts instructed that a total of 27 detainees be let go.
Counsel for ICE and the detainees did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The detainees are represented by Robert F. Graziano of The Law Office of Robert F. Graziano.
The government is represented by David M. Coriell of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York.
The case is Ramsundar et al v. Wolf et al, case number 1:20-cv-00402, in the U.S. District of Western District of New York.
--Editing by Philip Shea.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
