This case challenges the arbitrary and abusive immigration detention of a 51-year-old woman with severe disabilities.

Ermine Nersisian fled persecution in Russia to seek asylum in the United States. When she presented herself at the U.S.-Mexico border alongside her daughter, son-in-law, and young grandson, she was separated from her family and sent to a Louisiana immigration detention center. Though she passed an initial screening for asylum eligibility known as a credible fear interview, she remained detained for half a year.

The government claims that Ermine is a flight risk. But due to severe physical disabilities, she can barely walk. Meanwhile, her physical and mental health have rapidly deteriorated in a privatized detention center incentivized to maximize profits by cutting costs on minimally adequate health care.

Why is this a key case?

Ermine’s case embodies the arbitrary nature of U.S. immigration detention, where decisions to lock people in indefinite detention occur without explanation or accountability. In Ermine’s case, government officials released her family but kept her detained, despite their common asylum claim. They labeled Ermine a flight risk, even though her disabilities left her barely able to walk. And they refused to follow a government policy requiring individualized consideration for release, instead issuing cursory denials of release over the course of her prolonged detention.

Ermine’s ongoing detention violates her right to a reasonable accommodation for her disabilities under the Rehabilitation Act. The government’s refusal to give her individualized consideration for release violates the Administrative Procedures Act and the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

What is the status of this case?

Dismissed after the government settled the case by releasing Ermine.

October 22, 2024