Judge rules against detaining asylum seekers for more than seven days (2018)

On July 2, 2018, Judge Boasberg issued a preliminary injunction barring the federal government from detaining asylum seekers at five U.S. field offices in Detroit, El Paso, Los Angeles, Newark, and Philadelphia. Boasberg ruled that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) violated its own policy of granting a hearing or releasing asylum seekers within seven days if they have established a credible fear of persecution in their native country. Boasberg ordered the government to release or grant hearings for more than 1,000 asylum seekers who had been detained for more than seven days. He also said that while the lawsuit was ongoing, ICE could not detain asylum seekers for more than seven days without providing written explanations for an individual's detention following a personalized review of their claim.[19]

The ruling responded to a lawsuit, Damus v. Nielsen, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in March 2018 on behalf of nine detained asylum seekers. Senior staff attorney for the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, Michael Tan, said the ruling "means the Trump administration cannot use indefinite detention as a weapon to punish and deter asylum seekers." The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment.[19]

https://ballotpedia.org/James_E._Boasberg