Document rush urged by ACLU

NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union has urged a federal judge to force the U.S. government to quickly turn over documents it needs to help change a system in which thousands of immigrants are detained for months or years.

The ACLU told U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in a letter this week that the government should be forced to follow his orders so the public can see if foreigners are subject to “prolonged” detention as their immigration statuses are reviewed.

The judge had asked for the ACLU’s opinion a day after government lawyers insisted they needed 15 months to deliver 385 out of 22,000 files.

The ACLU called the government’s request for a conference with the judge “a last-minute attempt by the defendants to avoid their obligations” under the judge’s orders and the Freedom of Information Act.

The ACLU sued in U.S. District Court in Manhattan in 2011 seeking from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement documents it had requested two years earlier.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 12/28/2013

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