Name: Federal judge orders release of additional ICE detainees from Geauga County Jail due to coronavirus
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Federal judge orders release of additional ICE detainees from Geauga County Jail due to coronavirus

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NEW!914sharesCLEVELAND, Ohio — A judge in Cleveland released two more federal detainees from the Geauga County Jail, overruling objections from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and saying their medical conditions left them vulnerable to serious illness from the coronavirus.Jonas Nsongi Mbonga and Elvira Pascalenco were freed on electronic monitoring following a ruling Thursday by U.S. District Judge Dan Polster. Their releases were part of to reduce the risk of immigrants contracting and spreading the virus while in ICE custody.Mbonga, 30, and Pascalenco, 51, are the seventh and eighth detainees to be released in Ohio following the ACLU’s filing of two lawsuits.“Honestly, these are just two really wonderful people that are finally getting out,” ACLU attorney Elizabeth Bonham told cleveland.com on Saturday. She added that their releases were contingent on staying at their homes for two weeks to prevent the spread of the virus.Mbonga, who fled the Democratic Republic of Congo because of political violence, has been in various detention centers since he surrendered at a U.S. point of entry in Laredo, Texas in July 2018, seeking asylum. His lawyers said he suffers from latent tuberculosis.He said in a statement Saturday that is grateful to be free for the first time in 21 months. The statement was released by attorney Brian Hoffman, who agreed to have Mbonga stay at his house outside of Wooster upon his release.“Now that I have been released I finally feel peace,” said Mbonga, who speaks several languages, but is not fluent in English. “God has blessed me with many people who are helping me here in the U.S. and my trust in them has finally paid off.”Pascalenco, a citizen of Moldova, came to the U.S. in 2007 and is fighting the U.S. government’s attempts to deport her. The government said ICE started looking into her because the European law enforcement agency Interpol issued a wanted person notice for her. She has been in jail since January.Her attorneys said she suffers from asthma and other ailments. Bonham said she is now at the home she shares with her son in Lyndhurst.The ACLU’s efforts have been a sort of piecemeal approach that highlighted a larger concern that the organization and others have emphasized in recent weeks: that inmates in jails and prisons are more vulnerable to the virus because they live in close quarters and often lack access to adequate health care. ICE has faced criticism for not taking precautions to protect detainees from the virus, though the agency has said it was working to do so and also reviewing cases to see who can be released on bond. to house people with pending Immigration Court cases. As of Friday, seven inmates at a jail in Morrow County, about 50 miles north of Columbus, have tested positive for the virus. An ICE employee working at the Butler County Jail outside of Cincinnati also tested positive.However, mass testing in several Ohio prisons has shown that the virus quickly spreads in lockups. In the Marion County Correctional Institution, 1,999 had the virus as of Saturday, and nine prisoners had died. At the Pickaway prison in Orient, 1,456 inmates had it and 21 had died.U.S. District Judge James Gwin in Cleveland to identify and move or release at-risk inmates from Federal Correctional Institution Elkton, where seven inmates have died. The prisons bureau, which identified more than 800 inmates eligible for release under Gwin’s criteria, .Gwin’s ruling in the Elkton case was in response to another ACLU lawsuit. The Ohio organization’s legal tactic against ICE, in contrast, was not to seek mass releases of detainees, but rather identify certain ones with pre-existing conditions that leave them vulnerable from the coronavirus.The ACLU represented 13 ICE detainees . Polster declined to release four of them , including Mbonga and Pascalenco. He overrode concerns from ICE that any of them would abscond.Separately, two other detainees. In a separate ruling, U.S. District Judge Sarah Morrison in Columbus of three other immigrants from jails in Seneca and Butler counties.It was not immediately clear, though, whether any of the immigrants would have to return to jail. Morrison has a hearing set for May 11, and Polster will hear arguments in August as to whether the threat from the virus in jails has abated.On Saturday, Hoffman said Mbonga is getting used to freedom after spending many months behind bars. He said they went for a walk in the woods on Friday and plan to eat barbecue on Saturday.Hoffman, who practices immigration law, noted that many asylum seekers spend years in jail not for a criminal case, but rather because they couldn’t convince a judge that they were not a flight risk.“He’s in good spirits, but adapting to a whole new world,” Hoffman said of Mbonga.This story was updated to clarify that the two detainees released Thursday are required to self-isolate for 14 days.Read more:Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.

NEW!914sharesCLEVELAND, Ohio — A judge in Cleveland released two more federal detainees from the Geauga County Jail, overruling objections from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and saying their medical conditions left them vulnerable to serious illness from the coronavirus.Jonas Nsongi Mbonga and Elvira Pascalenco were freed on electronic monitoring following a ruling Thursday by U.S. District Judge Dan Polster. Their releases were part of to reduce the risk of immigrants contracting and spreading the virus while in ICE custody.Mbonga, 30, and Pascalenco, 51, are the seventh and eighth...

Federal judge orders release of additional ICE detainees from Geauga County Jail due to coronavirus

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