(Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has denied the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's attempt to sever and transfer to Georgia a lawsuit alleging deliberate denial of access to counsel for immigrants being detained while seeking asylum.

The Southern Poverty Law Center filed the lawsuit April 4 over immigrants detained in three locations—two in Georgia and one in Louisiana. First, Homeland Security lawyers asked to break the case up into three separate lawsuits, then move them to different courts.

On Friday, Judge Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said no.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)

“Defendants would have the Court transfer the respective cases as follows: the case involving LaSalle Detention Facility, in Jena, Louisiana, to the Western District of Louisiana; that regarding Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, to the Middle District of Georgia, Valdosta Division; and that concerning Stewart Detention Facility in Lumpkin, Georgia, to the Middle District of Georgia, Columbus Division,” Kollar-Kotelly said. “The main reason that Plaintiffs oppose the severance and transfer is their insistence that this case is about Defendants' administration of detention policies—in particular, the Performance Based National Detention Standards (“PBNDS”)—that apply to all three facilities. Those Defendants are predominantly located in this jurisdiction.”

The judge also denied the defense's alternative request to transfer the whole case to the Middle District of Georgia.

She said the Southern Poverty Law Center has “styled this as a case focused on national issues of immigrants' access to counsel during detention; accordingly, the local interest in conditions at the individual detention facilities weighs less heavily than the national interests involved. Those national interests include, at the least, the proper nationwide enforcement of standards governing access to counsel for detained immigrants. The Court is not persuaded that the public interest factors warrant transfer of this case.”

Geography is central to the complaint as well.

“For decades, the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and their officials (“Defendants”) have deliberately detained people in immigration prisons far away from legal resources,” the complaint said. “Consistent with this longstanding practice, Defendants have contracted with local municipalities and private prison companies to detain noncitizens in some of the most rural and remote locales in the Southeast—far from major cities, law firms, nonprofit legal organizations, and professional interpretation services.”

At the same time, immigrants represented by counsel are 10 times more likely to succeed in their cases, the Southern Center said.

Lisa Graybill of the Southern Poverty Law Center said Friday's decision was important to the case.

“It's fundamental that these complaints be litigated collectively,” she said.

Attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security could not be reached immediately.

The complaint said the federal government “currently detains hundreds of thousands of noncitizens in civil immigration prisons each year,” and, “These detainees include both documented and undocumented people. Many have been in the United States for years and have strong family and community ties. Others have arrived more recently, frequently after fleeing persecution in their home countries.”

The complaint contends that the basis for detention is civil, not criminal.

“Many of these detained people have claims that would allow them to remain in the United States, and many also have viable claims that they should be released on bond or parole pending completion of their removal proceedings,” the complaint said. “Legal representation often ensures that such people are not unnecessarily detained for long periods of time, and also frequently makes the difference between whether they are allowed to remain safely in the United States or are permanently separated from family and returned to danger or even death.”