Bernal Gutierrez v. Decker

What the filing requested

The petitioner submitted a memorandum supporting motions for leave to amend his immigration-detention petition, to make additional findings based on newly available evidence, and to amend the existing judgment. The memorandum also refers to requests for new or amended filings and for emergency injunctive relief.

The memorandum states that the court had previously denied the petition and an emergency motion on June 10, 2020. According to the filing, the earlier ruling concluded that the conditions at Orange County Correctional Facility did not violate the petitioner’s substantive due-process rights and that he had not identified a constitutionally defective review of his detention.

Proposed new allegations

The petitioner sought to add allegations that he had an abscess that had not received adequate medical treatment while detained. The memorandum argued that this alleged lack of treatment violated the Fifth Amendment’s protection against unconstitutional conditions of confinement for civil detainees.

The petitioner also sought to add a claim that the immigration court improperly placed on him the burden of proving that he was not a danger to society during proceedings to reconsider his bond under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a). The filing argued that placing that burden on him violated due process, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act. These arguments were the petitioner’s positions in support of the motions, not findings made in this order.

What Judge Caproni ordered

Judge Valerie Caproni ordered the government to respond no later than July 15, 2020. The petitioner was permitted to reply no later than July 17, 2020. The order did not grant or deny the motions, accept the amended petition, make new findings, or amend the earlier judgment.

Classification

This is a procedural order because it sets a briefing schedule for pending motions and does not decide the underlying detention claims or the requested amendments.