Immigration

The policy prohibits individuals detained at Moshannon from appearing virtually at criminal court hearings in New Jersey by barring access to Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and the telephone—even though that technology is used at the facility to allow these same individuals to participate virtually in their immigration proceedings. Instead, the policy requires detained individuals to navigate the criminal legal system in New Jersey and apply to the state criminal courts for judicial orders for in-person production, known as “writs”—frequently without counsel and without phone or video access to these courts. And the policy requires in-person production even though many municipal courts only operate virtually.

Under this policy, state and municipal authorities must use limited resources to transport people back and forth hundreds of miles across state lines to Moshannon. Courts therefore rarely issue orders for in-person production; detainees from Moshannon were produced for their criminal proceedings using the writ process only eight times during the past two years. As a result, most detained individuals with pending charges in New Jersey are prevented from appearing either virtually or in person at state court criminal proceedings, and those same unresolved charges are then used by immigration authorities to deny release requests and prolong the detention of noncitizens.

Recognizing the significant harm that the policy is causing, we asked the federal court to issue an order that would require the defendants to immediately provide virtual access to the New Jersey court system and halt this unlawful and unconstitutional policy while the case proceeds. The court granted a preliminary injunction that requires ICE to ensure that people detained at Moshannon have access to New Jersey courts.