Antonio Ocampo Released in New Orleans

From the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice:

VICTORY IN NEW ORLEANS!

FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS RELEASE OF IMMIGRANT DETAINEE FROM SHERIFF’S ILLEGAL CUSTODY

Community pressure defeats Sheriff’s attempts to bring ICE into the courtroom, wins Antonio Ocampo’s release after 97 days

We are thrilled to announce that Antonio Ocampo walked out of the New Orleans federal courthouse a free man on Monday, November 15, after spending 97 days in illegal custody on an expired immigration detainer. The Chief Federal Judge ordered his immediate release after Antonio filed a writ of habeas corpus from inside Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) Friday. Antonio was embraced by cheering community members after a coordinated legal and organizing strategy won his release and beat back Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s attempts to drag ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) into the courtroom.

“Inside, I knew they were violating my rights. I complained to jail officials. I filed five written grievances. But no one listened,” said Antonio on the steps of the federal courthouse moments after being released.

Antonio is a member of the Congress of Day Laborers, a project of the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice. The Orleans Parish Criminal District Court ordered Antonio’s release on August 12 based on time he had already served on misdemeanor charges. He should have been set free immediately. Instead, Antonio was held in jail because ICE had placed an immigration detainer on him (commonly known as an ICE hold). That gave ICE 48 hours to investigate, charge, or detain Antonio. ICE never did. According to law, Sheriff Gusman should have set Antonio free at the end of 48 hours. Instead he continued to hold Antonio illegally for 97 days, in violation of his Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

As soon as our Legal Department filed the petition for writ of habeas corpus on Antonio’s behalf on Friday, the Sheriff attempted to turn him over to ICE – effectively trying to deport the evidence of his own violations of the Constitution. We stopped him.

Then, soon after U.S. Marshals served him with papers ordering him to federal court, Sheriff Gusman attempted to drag ICE into the courtroom. He announced through his lawyers that he would be asking ICE to attend and testify at the federal hearing. Organized day laborers, clergy, and community members faced off with the Sheriff all day in protests and negotiations and forced him to back down. At the end of a long, tense meeting just an hour before the hearing, Sheriff Gusman relented and ordered his lawyers to call ICE off.

Antonio’s case makes it very clear that ICE detainers lead to violations of constitutional rights. Sheriff Gusman effectively suspended the Constitution in relation to Antonio. If Antonio Ocampo had not filed a writ of habeas corpus from the jail, his illegal detention would have been indefinite. When advocates and an organized community bring egregious civil rights violations to light and attempt to hold Sheriffs accountable, Sheriffs use even the expired detainers to immediately attempt to deport the evidence – as Sheriff Gusman did on Monday. The recent expansion of the federal Secure Communities program into Orleans Parish Prison is likely to make these routine constitutional violations even more pervasive.

What do we want now? First, ICE should set Sheriff Gusman free. ICE should allow Sheriff Gusman to decide not to submit to ICE detainers and allow him to opt-out of Secure Communities. Second, Sheriff Gusman should run his jail in line with the Constitution. He should affirmatively decide to end the use of detainers in OPP and throw Secure Communities out of his jail.

“When the Constitution says ‘We, the people,’ that includes Antonio,” said Jose Zelaya, a member of the Congress of Day Laborers, at the triumphant press conference on the courthouse steps Monday. “We, the people includes me. We, the people includes all of the residents of New Orleans and all of the communities in the United States,” said Mr. Zelaya.

He’s right.

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