A federal judge over the weekend issued a temporary restraining order requiring immigration officials to get rid of guards monitoring an undocumented Guatemalan man who suffered a broken leg during a car wash raid by federal agents in Carson more than a month ago.
U.S. District Judge Cynthia Valenzuela, according to the L.A. Times, also ordered that handcuffs shackling Bayron Rovidio Marin to the bed in Harbor-UCLA Medical Center be removed.
Rovidio Marin had reportedly been under constant surveillance, unable to speak privately with doctors or legal counsel, since he was swept up and seriously injured when a “roving patrol” of Border Patrol agents raided the carwash and later transferred him into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, The Times reported.
“He is presently detained under restrictions that limit his access to counsel, medical providers, and family,” the judge wrote in her Oct. 4 order. “He has been questioned by government officials while in pain and under the influence of medication. He cannot place phone calls and remains handcuffed to a hospital bed despite a broken leg that prevents him from walking.”
So far, ICE has yet to charge Rovidio Marin with violating immigration laws, set bond, issue a Notice to Appear or process him for removal proceedings.
In her temporary restraining order, Judge Valenzuela wrote that the government had failed to prove that the undocumented Guatemalan had “violated any law or regulation” or shown that he was a “flight risk.”
U.S. immigration attorneys told the court that Rovidio Marin’s immigration status would be determined once he was released from the hospital, though attorneys for the undocumented man argued that his detainment for 37 days without charges is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Federal law requires the government to provide a person arrested without a warrant with a reason for their detainment within two days, a regulation only waived under extraordinary circumstances.
Judge Valenzuela referenced the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as “extraordinary circumstances” in delaying due process for noncitizen detainees and said that Rovidio Marin had been held “substantially longer.”
“For 37 days, our client was forced to endure medical treatment and recovery with ICE agents in his room, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Cynthia Santiago, Attorney for CLEAN Carwash Worker Center and Nicolas Thompson-Llera, Attorney for CHIRLA said in a statement obtained by The Times. “ICE agents listened to every conversation between him and his doctors,” they stated. “They interrogated him while he was in pain and under the influence of medication. They did not permit him to see his family and removed his access to phone calls.”
KTLA has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment on the case and is awaiting a response.
The temporary restraining order is scheduled to expire on Oct. 18.
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