Kelvin Hernandez Roman v. Chad F. Wolf

District Court, C.D. California·Decided September 29, 2020·No. 5:20-cv-00768·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 nites States District Court 9 Central District of California 10 Western Dibision 11 12 KELVIN HERNANDEZ ROMAN, et ai., EDCV 20-00768 TJH (PVCx) Petitioners-Plaintiffs , Hlovditied y. Preliminary Injunction CHAD F. WOLF, et al., ans 17 Respondents-Defendants. Advsitional Findings of Fact

19 20 The Court has reviewed the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ Memorandum 21 || Opinion affirming, in part, and vacating, in part, this Court’s Preliminary Injunction. 22 || The Court, previously, deemed Petitioners’-Plaintiffs’ ex parte application for 23 || reconsideration of the Court’s denial of their ex parte application for a temporary 24 || restraining order to be an ex parte application for the Court to issue a Modified 25 || Preliminary Injunction, and ordered the parties to file supplemental papers on an 26 || expedited basis. The Court has received and considered those supplemental papers. 27 || The Court’s references herein to the Government are applicable to Respondents, the 28 | GEO Group, and their employees, agents, and contractors.

Modified Preliminary Injunction — Page 1 of 15

1 In its Memorandum Opinion, the Ninth Circuit unanimously affirmed that this 2 Court, indeed, had jurisdiction to consider the constitutional challenges raised by 3 Petitioners-Plaintiffs, and that this Court, indeed, possessed the authority to grant the 4 injunctive relief it ordered, including the reduction of the detainee population at the 5 Adelanto Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center [“Adelanto”], to 6 remedy the unconstitutional conditions of confinement that existed at Adelanto at the 7 time the Court issued its Preliminary Injunction on April 23, 2020. 8 Moreover, the Ninth Circuit “agree[d] with ... [this] court that the conditions at 9 Adelanto in April violated detainees’ due process right to reasonable safety.” The 10 Circuit’s agreement was premised on the following conclusions: 11 The Government was aware of the risks the conditions posed, especially 12 in light of high-profile outbreaks at other carceral facilities that had already 13 occurred at the time, yet had not remedied the conditions. Its inadequate 14 response was objectively unreasonable. The district court therefore rightly 15 concluded that [Petitioners-Plaintiffs] were likely to prevail on the merits. 16 ... The district court was also correct in its conclusion that [Petitioners- 17 Plaintiffs] were likely to suffer irreparable harm absent relief given 18 COVID-19's high mortality rate. Finally, the district court rightly 19 concluded that the equities tipped in Plaintiffs favor, particularly in light 20 of the lack of criminal records of many of the detainees and the alternative 21 means available to prevent their absconding if they were released, such as 22 electronic monitoring. 23 Because the circumstances at Adelanto have changed since April 23, 2020, and 24 the Preliminary Injunction was tailored to the conditions that existed at that time, the 25 Circuit vacated the specific measures ordered in the Preliminary Injunctions, vacated 26 the motions panel’s stay of the Preliminary Injunction forthwith, and remanded with 27 instructions to this Court to craft Preliminary Injunction provisions based on the 28 conditions that currently exist at Adelanto. 1 Back in April, Adelanto held approximately 1,370 detainees, whereas, now, there 2 are approximately 770 detainees. Further, as of April 23, 2020, the Government did 3 not require Adelanto’s staff to wear masks while working in detainee housing units or 4 when interacting with detainees, whereas, now, apparently, Adelanto’s staff is required 5 to wear masks while working in detainee housing units or interacting with detainees. 6 Even with the reduced detainee population and the mandatory staff mask rule, we 7 find ourselves in the middle of a COVID-19 outbreak with 81 detainees having 8 confirmed positive cases spread across four of Adelanto’s housing units – West 4B, 9 West 5A, West 5C and West 5D. The outbreak likely started between September 5, 10 2020, and September 10, 2020, and has grown to 81 confirmed positive cases of 11 COVID-19 among the detainees, including 20 Fraihat sub-class members, and 9 12 detainees who required hospitalization. The Government’s supplemental papers did not 13 inform the Court of the current number of Adelanto staff who have tested positive, but 14 earlier papers stated that 8 staff members had confirmed positive cases. 15 Both the Government’s expert, Murray Owen, D.O., and the Petitioners’- 16 Plaintiffs’ expert, Todd Schneberk, M.D., agree that the outbreak was most likely 17 caused by a staff member who reported to work at Adelanto infected with COVID-19. 18 But, as far as the Court has been informed, contact tracing has not been completed and 19 the source of the outbreak has yet to be identified. Nevertheless, the Government, in 20 its supplemental papers, hypothecated that an attorney representing a detainee in the 21 Immigration Court attached to Adelanto could have, theoretically, been the source of 22 the outbreak, rather than an Adelanto staff member. 23 Even if the Government’s hypothetical scenario were true, the Government is, 24 ultimately, in charge of the facility, which includes the Immigration Court, and 25 responsible the safety of its civil detainees, regardless of where they may be in the 26 facility. Moreover, the Government provided no evidence that it had imposed, or is 27 enforcing, a mandatary mask wearing rule for all people – including judges, attorneys, 28 staff, etc. – in common areas inside of the attached Immigration Court. The 1 Government can easily, and will, impose and enforce such a rule, if one does not 2 currently exist 3 The clear truth of the matter is that even with a reduced detainee population, and 4 even with staff, supposedly, wearing masks under Adelanto’s current staff mask 5 mandate, an outbreak still occurred. The current outbreak teaches the Court that, inter 6 alia, Adelanto’s detainee population has not been reduced sufficiently to prevent a 7 COVID-19 outbreak from occurring, and that further reductions in the detainee 8 population are needed to prevent another outbreak from occurring. While the Court 9 understands that a further reduction will not guarantee that another outbreak will not 10 occur, a further reduction is a reasonable step that must happen to ensure the detainees’s 11 reasonable safety guaranteed by the Constitution. 12 On August 10, 2020, the Petitioners-Plaintiffs filed a motion to enforce the CDC 13 guidelines provision of the Preliminary Injunction that was not stayed by the Circuit. 14 The Court, ultimately, denied that motion because the Ninth Circuit, in its 15 Memorandum Opinion, vacated the CDC provision. Nevertheless, in that motion, the 16 Petitioners-Plaintiffs brought to the Court’s attention the fact that Adelanto was not 17 testing symptomatic detainees for COVID-19 even though there was on-site testing 18 capacity since May, 2020. Indeed, Adelanto had received approximately 1,900 swab 19 test kits at one point by overnight delivery. The Government argued that all detainees 20 who complained of potential COVID-19 symptoms were evaluated by medical personnel 21 and referred for a test only if medical screening determined that testing was medically 22 appropriate. However, the Court is not concerned that symptomatic detainees must be 23 medically screened to determine whether their symptoms warrant a diagnostic COVID- 24 19 test. 25 Rather, the Court is concerned because it was informed, in the motion to enforce 26 the Preliminary injunction, that a plan to universally test all Adelanto detainees was 27 quashed for an unjustified and arbitrary reason.

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