'Risk to public safety': Courts speed release of illegal immigrants

Jose Beltran-Araujo, an illegal immigrant, stands accused of beating his girlfriend’s head with a glass bottle, knocking her unconscious, in front of her three children. He had been sitting in an ICE detention facility in Massachusetts awaiting a deportation decision — but on Friday a federal judge ordered him released, citing the coronavirus crisis. Same with Kevin Corleto, convicted of cocaine trafficking; Marvin Arreaga, arrested last year on charges of enticing a child, and assault and battery; and Carlos Carangui, an illegal immigrant ousted once before, who snuck back into the country and whom police say they caught stalking a woman. All of them are in good health and aren’t high-risk for COVID-19, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says. Yet all were ordered released on bail by Judge William G. Young, part of more than 40 releases he’s ordered so far as he works his way through nearly 150 detainees held at the Bristol County House of Corrections. “The government’s quarrel is not with the court but with the vigorous recommendations of infectious disease experts worldwide, including in the federal government, to maximize social distancing,” he wrote in certifying a class action. Judge Young is the most aggressive, but he’s hardly the only judge ordering releases. Across the country, immigrants in detention are rushing to federal courts to demand that judges release them, and by and large they’re winning their cases...MORE