My Client has been held in the Elizabeth, N.J. Detention Facility for approximately six months.  The moment he was taken into ICE custody at the border crossing at Buffalo, New York he advised the detaining officers that he has a medical condition that requires ongoing treatment. 

After being taken into custody in Buffalo, ICE moved my client to the Detention Facility in Batavia, New York.  Approximately one week later they moved him again to the Detention Facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey.  The facility in Batavia is about a thirty minute drive from my office in Buffalo, New York, and is both clean and professional.  The Detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey is approximately 400 miles from my office, and is a vile and disgusting windowless warehouse. 

The move was made by ICE despite the fact that the Court with jurisdiction over the port of entry where my client was taken into custody was in Buffalo, and that ICE was on notice that my client was being represented by counsel in Buffalo, New York. 

Since being taken away from his lawyer and being moved to New Jersey my client's medical condition has worsened. The Detention Facility in Elizabeth has ignored his repeated requests for treatment, and continues to hold him despite an urgent medical need. 

As a result of the deprivation of medical care my client has been unable to assist in his own defense, thereby depriving him of his right to a fundamentally fair hearing.  We filed a motion to terminate his case which was denied by the Immigration Judge. 

We are scheduled for another hearing this week on the issue of political asylum.  My client has no criminal convictions, and has established a preliminary fear of persecution, and yet he languishes in immigration custody without his medicine.

It is both shocking and disgusting that this type of barbarism is allowed to continue and is covered up by the very animals that hold the keys to the cages.

What has our country come to?