Did McFarland violate the Brown Act in approving immigration centers? What we know
The ACLU of Southern California is appealing Kern County Superior Court ruling in a case accusing the McFarland city council of violating open meeting laws by “intentionally” capping a meeting to 100 attendees when it approved two controversial immigration centers.
The ACLU of Southern California on Thursday filed its appeal at the 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno after failed attempts to get relief from the Kern County Superior Court in September and November. All five city council members, including Mayor Sally Gonzalez, didn’t respond to a request for comment. One of the attorneys representing them also didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Julia A. Gomez, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Southern California, on Monday, said her organization is seeking an injunction to stay the permits so that McFarland does not allow the GEO Group to start transferring detainees into the Central Valley facility, which is one of the two immigration centers.
A spokesperson for the GEO Group also didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The court intervention would also order McFarland to not allow the GEO Group to continue to transfer individuals into the Golden State facility. However, it would allow the company to keep the facility open to accommodate immigrants already detained there.
“The City excluded scores of concerned members of the public from a virtual meeting where it decided to grant the GEO Group permits to open immigration detention centers in McFarland,” Gomez said in an email to The Bee on Friday.
In late April, the McFarland City Council voted 4-0 to approve two conditional use permits to convert two facilities into immigration detention centers. The facilities will add space to the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Facility in Bakersfield. The immigration centers are operated by the GEO Group, which manages the facility in Bakersfield.
The approval came despite a public outcry and pleas for the council to postpone the decision until after the shelter-in-place orders — at the time — to slow the spread of the coronavirus could be lifted. The council moved forward and held the meeting via Zoom, limiting public participation to 100. As a result, many citizens couldn’t participate in the meeting.
The ACLU of Southern California asked for an injunction on behalf of three citizens, including one from Bakersfield, who couldn’t participate in the meeting. In September, Judge Stephen Schuett denied the request to prevent the city from moving forward, saying the ACLU’s clients “have failed to meet their burden,” according to Kern County Superior Court online records.
Another request for an injunction was denied in October, according to the appeal.
“Despite this clear violation of Plaintiffs’ and the public’s statutory and constitutional right to access public meetings, the trial court erroneously held that Plaintiffs were not entitled to preliminary injunctive relief on the theory that the illegal vote was a past act and injunctive relief operates only prospectively,” the appeal reads.
The cap of 100 participants “wrongly barred countless community members from attending a meeting they had a constitutional and statutory right to attend,” the appeal reads. The videoconferencing could have accommodated up to 1,000 participants.
During the meeting, officials admitted to having “intentionally” capped the number of participants to 100, the appeal reads.
“The trial court’s denial of Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction was an abuse of discretion, and that abuse has permitted Defendants to continue effectuating their conditional use permits, which were granted in violation of Plaintiffs’ rights,” the appeal reads.
The ACLU also says the GEO Group has a history of mismanaging the COVID-19 pandemic at facilities it operates for ICE, putting the McFarland community at risk.
“GEO has a documented history of mismanaging its response to COVID-19 in its facilities, and this recklessness has resulted in multiple outbreaks and the loss of life throughout Southern California,” Gomez said. “The City has nonetheless allowed GEO to continue to transfer individuals into one of its McFarland facilities, in disregard for the health of detainees and of the greater McFarland community, and in violation of our clients’ constitutional and statutory rights of access to public meetings.”
The GEO Group has populated one of the two immigration centers at 80% capacity, and at least three detainees have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the appeal.
In a separate court case against the GEO Group, federal Judge Vince Chhabria on Thursday blasted the private company and ICE officials.
“From the start of the public health crisis until now, the conduct of the key ICE and GEO officials in charge of operations at Mesa Verde has been appalling,” the judge wrote. “These officials knew that they needed a clear and detailed plan to minimize the risk of an outbreak (and to contain an outbreak if one occurred), but nine months later, they still have not created one.”
The ACLU is seeking “immediate relief” on the Brown Act violations appeal and is asking the Court of Appeal to order the Kern County Superior Court to issue a preliminary injunction to stop the “city from further effectuating its April 23 vote to modify GEO’s conditional use permits.”
This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 1:36 PM.
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