MoProBono Human Rights Edition

3 MoProBono | Human Rights Edition no longer be allowed to violate the Constitution.” Following a seven-day trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, the Honorable David C. Bury found that about one-third of migrants are held longer than 48 hours in CBP facilities and that, despite being civil detainees, they are “confined under conditions substantially worse than those imposed on detainees who are criminally convicted or confined in immigration detention facilities.” He particularly noted surveillance videos that showed “overcrowding so severe that, at times, detainees have no place to sit, much less lie down on mats; detainees (including children) sleep in toilet stalls for lack of space; detainees (including mothers holding children) are forced to climb over benches to reach toilets and drinking water; and detainees are forced to sleep sitting up.” “Civil detainees in Border Patrol stations have suffered for too long, and this decision will pave the way for systemic change across the country,” added Colette, who was joined on the trial team by MoFo partner Jack Londen , as well as associates Aaron Bray, John Douglass , and Pieter de Ganon ; paralegals Anne Lepore, Gary Stenger, and Ethel Villegas; and former associate Elizabeth Balassone. Reacting to the outcome, a former detainee who had testified at trial said, “I feel very happy to know that things are going to change in these detention centers and that people will not have to spend much time under the conditions I was detained in. I am very happy to know that I helped make things better for all of the people who follow; so many people will benefit from being treated better during the time they have to be detained there.” To secure the precedent-setting verdict, MoFo worked closely with co-counsel from the ACLU of Arizona , the American Immigration Council , the National Immigration Law Center , and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area . – MOTHER TERESA I ALONE CANNOT CHANGE THE WORLD, BUT I CAN CAST A STONE ACROSS THE WATERS TO CREATE MANY RIPPLES. “