The exterior of the main ICE detention center in Los Angeles.
Archive image.
(Credit: MARK RALSTON / AFP via Getty Images)
(CNN Spanish) ––
More than 18,500 immigrants will distribute US $ 14 million that the County of Los Angeles will pay them as compensation for their detention without legal justification, while they were investigated by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE for its acronym) in English) between October 2010 and June 2014.
The payment of these compensations is the result of an out-of-court settlement that the county Board of Supervisors approved Tuesday.
This, after a class action lawsuit sponsored by several pro-immigrant organizations.
Among them, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU, for its acronym in English).
Under the agreement approved Tuesday, immigrants held in county jails on behalf of ICE will receive between $ 250 and $ 25,000.
The figure depends on the length of time they were detained and other circumstances.
The lawsuit filed on October 19, 2012, argued that the detainees suffered two practices that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department found to violate state law.
At that time, the Los Angeles County Sheriff was Lee Baca, who is now serving a three-year sentence in federal prison for obstructing a federal investigation.
CNN is finding out if it has legal representation.
ICE Practices Against Immigrants Cited in Lawsuit
One of the practices cited in the lawsuit was the alleged refusal of thousands of immigrants to be released on bail.
Even when the benefit was guaranteed by the order of a judge.
The other practice was the holding of some immigrants for 48 hours or more after they had been acquitted of the criminal charges for which they had been detained.
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Those measures were reportedly in place while the county Sheriff's Department complied with requests for transfer to ICE custody and pending immigration investigations, according to court documents.
ICE spokesperson in Los Angeles, Alexx Pons, told CNN in a statement that the federal agency does not comment on ongoing or concluded legal litigation.
However, he added that "ICE maintains that cooperation with local authorities and that the community is an indispensable component to promote public safety."
The current Los Angeles sheriff pronounces
The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department agreed in 2014 to stop serving ICE arrest warrants.
However, the current sheriff, Alex Villanueva, posted on his Facebook account Tuesday while in a virtual meeting with the Board of Supervisors, that he was "dismayed" that the $ 14 million would come from his budget and not from the county general fund.
Villanueva added that previous sheriffs were responsible for creating such conditions that led to the lawsuit.
“I took ICE out of jail and prohibited all transfers of inmates to ICE custody.
It is morally indefensible to slap the current sheriff for what previous sheriffs and previous representatives to the Board of Supervisors did, ”added Villanueva.
CNN has not been able to independently verify Sheriff Villanueva's comments.
Jennie Pasquarella, director of Immigrant Rights for the ACLU in Southern California, told CNN that the money will begin to be distributed as soon as a judge approves the agreement.
A decision that could take two to three months, he estimated.
Pasquarella added that part of the methods for distributing the money to the victims will be through the website www.iceholdcasela.com
The ACLU attorney warned that "this agreement should be a wake-up call to all law enforcement agencies nationwide that today continue to imprison people unjustifiably at the request of ICE, without a warrant."
ICELos Angeles