JC Fellow Lee Ann Felder-Heim at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area fights to protect immigrants from ICE abuses
JC Fellow Lee Ann Felder-Heim at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area has been part of a litigation against Management & Training Corporation (MTC) – owner and operator of Imperial Regional Detention Facility (IRDF), which subjected client Mr. Murillo Vega to 14 months of solitary confinement.In late April 2023, the United States District Court of the Southern District of California found that Plaintiff Carlos Murillo Vega’s claim that MTC engaged in “outrageous conduct” and acted with “reckless disregard” by subjecting him to over a year of solitary confinement could proceed.According to a press release issued by Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, MTC subjects everyone in protective custody at IRDF to administrative segregation, which amounts to solitary confinement. In denying MTC’s motion for summary judgment, the Court rejected MTC’s arguments that ICE policy permitted the blanket use of segregation for Mr. Murillo and opined that reasonable jurors could find MTC’s practices inflicted emotional harm to Mr. Murillo.“The evidence in this case shows that MTC has been unlawfully subjecting people to solitary confinement at IRDF with impunity, in violation of the law and its contract with ICE, for years,” said Justice Catalyst Fellow Lee Ann Felder-Heim. “It is time for ICE to stop sponsoring this abuse and end its contract with MTC.”
Read below to learn more:
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area Press Release
Featured fellow