Attorney: Immigrants Held Illegally In Tenn. Jails

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Immigrants are being held illegally in Tennessee jails for days and even months after they have served their sentences, an attorney who represents some of them claims.

Federal regulations allow inmates to be held for 48 hours if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has given notice that it wants to take them into federal custody for possible immigration violations. But immigrant advocates are concerned that the 48-hour rule is being consistently violated.

On Tuesday, a Warren County judge ordered the local jail to release Benigno Guzman-Ornelas, a legal permanent resident who had completed a 6-month sentence Aug. 28 for failure to pay child support, according to his attorney, Elliott Ozment.

ICE had placed an immigration detainer on him, but failed to pick him up before the 48 hours expired Aug. 31 (the 48-hour rule excludes weekends and federal holidays).

Seven days later, he was still in jail. Judge Larry Stanley Jr. ordered Sheriff Jackie Matheny to produce Guzman-Ornelas immediately and answer the charges of illegal detention.

According to Ozment's account, records clerk Teresa King testified on behalf of the sheriff's department that Guzman-Ornelas was being detained after completing his sentence because someone at ICE told jailers to keep him in custody until they could pick him up.

King declined to comment on her testimony and Matheny did not return calls seeking comment.

ICE spokesman Temple Black said the error was a miscommunication.

Another client of Ozment's was held for more than four months in the Rutherford County jail. Ozment filed a lawsuit in federal court in Nashville last week on behalf of Carlos Ramos-Macario, claiming he was arrested June 14, 2009, for driving on a suspended license. In court a few days later, a judge sentenced him to five days in jail and credited him with the four days he had already served. Although ICE had placed a detainer on him, he should have been released when agents did not show up by June 23. Instead, he was kept in jail and until ICE finally picked him up Oct. 27.

During that time, according to the suit, he was not allowed to contact family, friends or an attorney while in jail.

Ozment is seeking class action status for the suit because, in his words, "I believe it is happening with some regularity."

Attorney Roger Hudson, who works with Rutherford County Attorney Jim Cope, had no comment on the suit, which he said was in the process of being assigned to defense counsel in Nashville.

ICE declined to comment because the case is being litigated.

Detention Watch Network Policy Director Jackie Esposito said the problem of immigrants being held beyond the 48 hours allowed by federal regulations is widespread.

"There have been lawsuits settled all over the country about this," Esposito said. "It's a serious problem because people are kept in limbo. They don't have public defenders because their criminal cases are over, but they often don't have immigration lawyers either, because those cases haven't started. So they're just stuck, with no one to advocate on their behalf."

She said her organization has been talking with ICE officials about needed changes to their policies on detainers. The agency has issued a draft of a revised policy, but Esposito has doubts it will solve the problem of people being held past the allowed 48 hours.

The draft policy states that immigration officers should assume custody of aliens in a "timely manner" and not rely on the 48 hour hold period. It also says that they should withdraw a detainer if they decide not to take an immigrant into custody.