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Immigrants' bond hearings can proceed
Lawyers argue over jurisdiction

By Yvonne Abraham, Globe Staff | March 22, 2007

Lawyers for workers moved to Texas detention centers after an immigration raid in New Bedford on March 6 argued in federal court yesterday that the detainees' bond hearings should be halted, pending a decision on whether the immigrants should be returned to Massachusetts in the interest of giving them due process.

US District Court Judge Richard Stearns did not put the bond hearings on hold, but said he would allow the case to go forward.

Lawyers for the immigrants argue that Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved the detainees in bad faith, to get them out of state jurisdiction, reducing the chances that they would be freed on bonds or that their deportations would be slowed by a judge.

Lawyers for the government denied that assertion yesterday, arguing that the detainees had to be moved and that the transfer was always part of the plan, because there was insufficient space in local jails.

At the heart of the dispute is whether Stearns has jurisdiction over the detainees, even though they are being held out of state.

Immigrant advocates say that the immigrants are being treated more harshly by Texas courts and that conditions in the detention centers have been difficult, with some immigrants unable to make calls to their families because they have no money to buy calling cards.

According to lawyers at Greater Boston Legal Services, which is representing many of of the workers, 25 of the detainees at a facility in El Paso, Texas, have accepted voluntary removal from the United States, waiving their rights to deportation hearings and agreeing to be sent to their home countries. Another 50 there were denied bonds. They will have to remain in the detention center until their deportation hearings, the lawyers said.

At a facility in Harlingen, Texas, about a dozen people were granted bonds by an immigration court judge, so they can return to Massachusetts to await deportation hearings if they pay bonds of up to $7,500, according to the lawyers. Local activists are trying to raise money to help the detainees pay their bonds.

Marc Raimondi, an ICE spokesman, said that by yesterday, 91 of the 361 workers arrested in New Bedford after they could not prove they were in the country legally had been released on humanitarian grounds, and eight detainees had paid bonds to be released. He could not say whether they had been released from Massachusetts or Texas.

He said 80 of the workers arrested had already been ordered deported before the raid. He said all detainees are allowed to make free calls to their consulates and lawyers.