Massachusetts lawyers are seeking to release a unlawfully detained man by the federal immigration officials while they try to find a country in order to deport the man.
Case involves 32 year-old Sreynuon Lunn, who has been born during a Thai refugee camp to the Cambodian parents and he was brought to the United States while he was just a seven-month-old child. Lunn was legally allowed into the United States as a refugee and was given a lawful permanent resident status.
In the last October, Lunn was charged in the case of unarmed robbery and was held in custody until the month of February for a trial date. The charges against Lunn were ultimately dismissed, but the court ordered that Lunn is to be held on a so-called Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer’s request, overruling all the requests by his lawyers that he must be released.
The immigration agents have arrived several hours after the charges against him were dismissed in order to take Lunn into their custody.
The detainer requests typically ask the federal, state, local and also the tribal law enforcement agencies to give the notice at least 48 hours before the individual is released from the jail, or to hold the individual for up to 48 hours after the individuals would be normally released.
In the last month, before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the lawyers for Lunn have argued that practice of holding the individuals on the detainer requests violates both the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which bars against the unreasonable searches and also seizures of individuals, and the similar provisions in the Massachusetts Constitution.
The Department of Justice defends the use of requests by detainer. That case is still in pending.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts filed a petition on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts seeking the release of Lunn.
They also said that the Department of Homeland Security has designated Cambodia as the Lunn's country of origin even though the government officials there have denied Lunn as a citizen of Cambodia for nine years and also have refused to issue the travel papers to Lunn. The Thai officials have also said that they do not consider Lunn as a citizen of Thailand.
"If the government cannot deport Mr. Lunn, it has to let him go," said the legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts, Matthew Segal.
Lunn’s attorneys also want the court to order immigration officials not to take Lunn back into custody unless they have a country to deport him to.
Shawn Neudauer, a spokesman with the Homeland Security, said that ICE "declines comment at this time as the matter is currently pending before the courts."
It is not just the first time, when the government has attempted to deport Lunn, who has raised the two children, who were born in the United States.
Immigration officials first tried to deport Lunn in the year 2009 after he was convicted for a aggravated felony.
Lunn's lawyers said that Lunn has been contacted multiple times by the Cambodian Embassy in Washington, D.C., but the embassy personnel told him that they were unwilling to issue the necessary travel documents because Lunn was not a Cambodian citizen.
The Homeland Security officials have ultimately released him.
The pattern would be repeated two or more times, according to the court records.
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker in the last year allowed the state police to temporarily detain some people, who are wanted by the federal immigration authorities, reversing the previous policy put in place during the administration of by the former Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick.
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Mrudula Duddempudi.
