Disabled Costa Mesa man released from ICE custody
Published: March 31, 2010
Updated: 5:23 p.m.
Disabled Costa Mesa man released from ICE custody
BY CINDY CARCAMO
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
"I'm happy,'' he said in Spanish in a timid voice. "I was sad. I don't want to return there."
Franco was given an ankle-monitoring device and will have to report to officials every couple of weeks, said his attorney, Talia Inlender, who works for Public Counsel's Immigrants' Rights Project.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said the release of Franco and another mentally disabled man was appropriate. The agency reviewed their cases, including custody status, medical conditions and assurances from the families, the official said.
Franco still faces a deportation hearing, Inlender said.
The release comes on the heels of an announcement Friday that the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and other civil-rights organizations had filed federal petitions seeking the release of Franco and the other detainee, Guillermo Gomez-Sanchez.
The petitions accuse the government of holding the men without due process and in violation of federal discrimination laws meant to protect people with disabilities.
Inlender called Franco's release bittersweet.
"Today, we're obviously very glad that we've been able to reunite Jose with his family after five years of being lost in the system,'' she said. "But we're cognizant of the fact that there are other people like him who have disabilities and have been lost in the immigration detention.. who are not with their families."
Franco is part of an estimated 15 percent of all immigration detainees who have mental disabilities, according to the ACLU.
Unlike the nation’s criminal justice system, the immigration system has no standard procedures to resolve cases against detainees with mental disabilities who have been ruled incompetent to follow the proceedings against them.
On Friday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they could not speak in detail about the two immigration cases because of pending litigation.
However, spokeswoman Virginia Kice did say the agency is working on "sweeping reforms" that will "enhance medical and mental health conditions" for immigration detainees.
"We don't detain for punitive reasons," she said.
Franco was in the process of obtaining permanent residency, according to the ACLU petition. He was arrested in April 2004 and accused of throwing a rock during a fight between two gangs. His family says he was not involved with either of the gangs.
He pleaded guilty to a charge of assault with a deadly weapon, spent a year in jail and then was transferred to immigration custody for removal proceedings in April 2005, according to the ACLU.
About a month later, a psychiatric evaluation concluded that Franco “had no clueâ€
