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ACLU goes to bat again for mentally disabled immigrants

By Richard Binder

After having sued successfully for the release of Jose Antonio Franco-Gonzalez, the ACLU of Southern California, along with other civil rights groups, has named him in a new suit among six other plaintiffs. The lawsuit demands that federal officials test immigration detainees for mental competence and provide them with proper representation instead of allowing them to get lost in the system. 

According to a statement from the ACLU, all of the plaintiffs are from California and Washington and have been diagnosed with severe mental disabilities, such as such as schizophrenia, depression, and mental retardation. Several have been found incompetent to stand trial in other court proceedings. "If someone cannot understand the proceedings against them," said Ahilan Arulanantham, director of immigrants' rights and national security for the ACLU Southern California, "due process requires that they be given a lawyer to help them."

Sullivan & Cromwell's Michael Steinberg, whose firm is part of the suit, said, "If a minor enters the system, there are all kinds of efforts made to identify his age, his parents, if he can represent himself. But if you are suffering from delusions and you think God is talking to you in your right ear, there is no one to help you. You may just languish in the system."

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Southern California, said she couldn't comment on pending litigation.

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Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on August 03, 2010 (boomark / email).