ORDER
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge said Friday that the U.S. government continues to violate the constitutional rights of detained migrants by limiting their access to lawyers at a Los Angeles detention center and ordered President Donald Trump's executive branch to remedy the situation.
Migrant rights groups filed the lawsuit in July, accusing the government of systematically targeting black people in Southern California during an anti-immigration campaign. They also accused immigration officials of detaining people based on their race, making warrantless arrests and denying detainees access to legal counsel at a detention center in downtown Los Angeles.
Judge Maame E. Frimpong of Los Angeles said the decision was based on a temporary order from July that requires the government to give detainees access to free, confidential phone calls with their lawyers.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to an email seeking comment.
The judge said the plaintiffs had presented evidence that the government had not fully complied with the July ruling.
This required that the detention center be open for legal visits seven days a week, a minimum of eight hours a day on weekdays, and a minimum of four hours on weekends and holidays. While the federal authorities adhered to this clause, the court also required the authorities to notify the plaintiffs within four hours if they needed to close the facilities for any reason, and that the closures not be extended longer than “reasonably necessary.”
“The court reviewed all new evidence presented by both sides and once again found that the federal government was partially blocking access to counsel,” Frimpong wrote in his order.
Mark Rosenbaum, an attorney for Public Counsel, said at the Oct. 23 court hearing that attorneys continue to have trouble meeting with their clients.
Lawyers began to be notified of the closure of the institution only on September 10. Often they had to meet their clients with the door open and security present, which prevented them from having private conversations. According to Rosenbaum, there have been instances where the center has closed because of peaceful protests in another city kilometers (miles) away.
Detainees were also frequently transferred without warning from downtown Los Angeles to locations where legal representation was not permitted.
“By issuing this injunction, the judge made clear that the government cannot imprison people and deny them access to lawyers,” Rosenbaum said in a statement after the ruling.
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor using a generative artificial intelligence tool.
