These cases seek accountability for torture and other cruel and degrading treatment the government inflicted on individuals it held in immigration detention in Louisiana and during and after their deportation flights to Cameroon.

As Human Rights Watch found after an extensive investigation, a group of Cameroonian asylum seekers were brutally retaliated against for advocating for better treatment while in Louisiana immigration detention, subjected to pepper spray, beatings, and solitary confinement. During their trans-Atlantic deportation flights, several were held for hours at a time in “the Wrap,” a full-body restraint device that has been previously called torture by a federal judge. The U.S. government also permitted their asylum applications to be accessed by Cameroonian authorities, who then imprisoned several of them in Cameroon as national traitors.

Why is this a key case?

Black immigrants are especially vulnerable to abuse in immigration detention, as noted with concern by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Black people in immigration detention are more than six times more likely to be locked away in solitary confinement than other racial groups. Black immigrants are also more likely to suffer prolonged and arbitrary immigration detention, including longer periods of detention and lesser likelihood of release on bond or parole than individuals of other races.

What is the status of this Case?

Pending court decision on plaintiffs’ motion for leave to file sur reply to defendants’ motion to transfer or, in the alternative, dismiss.

How is RFK Human Rights supporting?

RFK Human Rights, alongside the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Texas A&M School of Law Civil Rights Clinic and Immigrant Rights Clinic, represents the plaintiffs in their lawsuit.

Name of the case (as it appears in the respective legal mechanism)

J.K.A. et al. v. United States of America et al.,1:23-cv-02273 (D.D.C. filed Aug. 7, 2023)

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Month/Year of filing

August 2023

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Legal mechanism in which the case is being litigated

U.S. Federal District Court, District of Columbia

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Rights and legal instruments alleged violated (or found to have been violated)

Administrative Procedures Act, Federal Tort Claims Act, and laws of the state of Louisiana and District of Columbia

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Procedural stage

Pending

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Counsel

Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Center for Constitutional Rights and the Texas A&M School of Law Civil Rights Clinic and Immigrant Rights Clinic

June 27, 2024

Defendants’ reply memorandum of law in support of motion to transfer or dismiss,

May 20, 2024

Plaintiffs’ memorandum of law in opposition of motion to transfer or dismiss,

February 20, 2024

Defendants’ memorandum of law in support of motion to transfer or dismiss,

January 1, 2024

Amended complaint filed,

August 7, 2023

Complaint filed in District of Colombia district court,

Deported Cameroonian Asylum Seekers Returned to U.S

New federal lawsuit filed to hold U.S. government accountable for abuse and unlawful deportation of Cameroonian asylum seekers

DHS Complaint Details Horrific Conditions, Abuse at Louisiana ICE Jail

WNNO: Formerly Detained Immigrants Claim ‘Abusive, Inhumane, Criminal and Racially Discriminatory Practices’ at Two Louisiana ICE Detention Centers

Nola.com: Tantamount to Torture Complaint Alleges Inhumanity Overuse of Solitary at Pine Prairie Center

Additional Case Documents:

Inside the Black Hole: Systemic Human Rights Abuses Against Immigrants Detained

RFK-Human Rights Pine Prairie DHS Complaint