In summer 2017, IRAP and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a class action challenge to the detention of asylum-seekers at Batavia, a federal immigration facility in upstate New York. These asylum-seekers had declared themselves at the border and has passed what is known as a “credible fear interview,” establishing that they have a significant likelihood of success on their asylum claims. Nevertheless, the government has continued to hold them in detention, summarily denying them the fair opportunity for parole and refusing to provide them with bond hearings within six months of detention.
On November 17, 2017, the district court issued a preliminary injunction ordering the government to give asylum-seekers in detention at Batavia access to fair parole procedures and to provide those detained for six months or more access to individualized bond hearings.