Abrar Hussain: A New York judge, who had ordered an Ecuadorean immigrant freed from an immigration detention camp, commented on Wednesday that the government was applying its “zero tolerance” policy toward illegal entry in a “thoughtless and cruel” manner.
US District Judge Paul Crotty explained in a written opinion why he ordered Pablo Villavicencio freed last week from a detention center in New Jersey. He also nullified a “supervised release” order that set special conditions
and which Villavicencio was told to sign.In the opinion, Crotty criticized the government’s decision to separate some children from their parents at the Mexican border and then transport the children to New York, saying he did not believe “this is accidental or random.”He instead wrote that the government may be trying to break detainees’ connections to their support system of families and friends and frustrate their ability to retain competent legal representation and effectively participate in legal proceedings. In Villavicencio’s case, the government tried to move the case to a New Jersey court.-Source: Arab News