Barbecho v. Decker
- Alison Nathan
- 1:20-cv-02821
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Barbecho v. Decker, Judge Nathan granted four petitioners a preliminary injunction and continued their release from immigration detention.
Felipe Diaz Presbot, Fredy Olaya Lugo, Jose Molina, and Oliver de Jesus Garcia Alejo remained released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, subject to conditions to be set by the court. The parties had to propose those conditions by June 17, 2020.
What happened
In Barbecho v. Decker, four petitioners sought release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody because of COVID-19 risks at Bergen County Jail. The court had previously ordered their release temporarily.
The court concluded that the petitioners were likely to succeed on their claims that officials were deliberately indifferent to those risks. It also found irreparable harm, that the balance of fairness favored the petitioners, and that release served the public interest.
Judge Alison J. Nathan granted the motion and converted the temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction. The four petitioners—Felipe Diaz Presbot, Fredy Olaya Lugo, Jose Molina, and Oliver de Jesus Garcia Alejo—were to remain released under conditions to be set by the court.
The detailed version
- Barbecho v. Decker · No. 1:20-cv-02821
- Alison Nathan
- June 12, 2020
Background
Petitioners Felipe Diaz Presbot, Fredy Olaya Lugo, Jose Molina, and Oliver de Jesus Garcia Alejo had previously been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Bergen County Jail. The opinion states that the facility had confirmed COVID-19 cases among detainees, inmates, and staff. The petitioners filed and later amended a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 seeking release from immigration custody because of the risks posed by COVID-19.
On May 15, 2020, the court granted the petitioners’ request for a temporary restraining order and ordered their immediate release from Bergen County Jail on reasonable conditions. The court later extended that temporary order for 14 additional days, through June 12, 2020. The parties informed the court that they did not believe additional briefing was necessary and relied on their earlier submissions.
Reasoning
The court considered the petitioners’ motion for a preliminary injunction based on the same record considered in its earlier orders. A preliminary injunction is an order providing temporary relief while a case continues. The court concluded that the petitioners were likely to succeed on the merits of their deliberate-indifference claims and had established two separate irreparable harms. It also found that the balance of the equities and the public interest clearly favored them.
The court further stated that, even if the petitioners had not satisfied every preliminary-injunction factor, it would still order them to remain released because it had previously released them on bail pending final resolution of their petitions under Second Circuit precedent.
Ruling
Judge Alison J. Nathan GRANTED the petitioners’ motion and CONVERTED the temporary restraining order covering Diaz Presbot, Olaya Lugo, Molina, and Garcia Alejo into a preliminary injunction. The court ordered that they remain released, subject to conditions to be set by the court. It also ordered the parties to meet and confer and propose reasonable release conditions for each petitioner by June 17, 2020.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.