Haitian Man: Immigration Judge and Mass Transit

haitian man: The man has been detained since September, when he was held for deportation on the grounds that he had two misdemeanour convictions for trying to ride mass transit for free, the ACLU said, according to Metro News. The ACLU and the Brooklyn organization asked the judge to declare that members of the designate class must receive a hearing before an immigration judge within six months. The ACLU and the Brooklyn Defender Services want to bring class-action status to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court recently on behalf of a detained 60-year-old Haitian man who became a permanent resident as a child in the 1970s and has lived in the U.S. for 46 years. The immigration judge would then decide whether the individual is a flight risk or a danger to the community before deciding whether freedom is appropriate while the case proceeds.A message sent to a Justice Department spokesman was not immediately returned. The bond hearings previously allowed some immigrants to remain free while their deportation cases proceeded because the government was unable to show they were a risk to flee or a danger to the community. The ACLU and the Brooklyn organization that provides free legal services to some immigrant detainees said in court papers that immigrants are being denied bond hearings because of a February change in federal policy following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a California case. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.