The Supreme Court today requested preliminary opposition to the writ petition filed Friday that asks for a moratorium on transfers to federal immigration custody of persons detained in California prisons or jails. The petition — in California Attorneys for Criminal Justice v. Newsom — accuses the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency of an “abject failure to protect the lives of people in its custody from the deadly COVID-19” and faults California for continuing transfers, which the petition says are not legally required, even while being “aware of the unconscionable conditions” in the five ICE detention centers in the state.
A preliminary opposition is due this Thursday, April 30, and a reply can be filed the next day. That makes at least three COVID-19-related writ petitions with briefing due this week. The other two concern the legality of emergency state funding for undocumented immigrants (here) and whether more people should be released from jails and juvenile facilities (here).
