Judge calls 'zero tolerance' immigration policy 'cruel'

A New York judge, who ordered an Ecuadorean immigrant who delivered pizza to an Army installation freed from an immigration detention camp, has said the government was applying its "zero tolerance" policy toward illegal entry in a "thoughtless and cruel" manner.

US District Judge Paul Crotty explained yesterday 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 Villavicencio was told to sign before he was freed that set special conditions he must follow.

In the opinion, Crotty took a swipe at 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."

Instead, he wrote, 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.

In a footnote, Crotty said the behaviour reminded him that Thomas Jefferson cited in the Declaration of Independence how colonists were tried in "remote locations" to obstruct the laws for naturalization of foreigners.

"Immigration was even then a critical issue," Crotty said.

Villavicencio, 35, who is married to a US citizen with two young girls who also are citizens, is trying to establish legal residency. He was arrested and detained June 1 after delivering pizza to the Army garrison in Fort Hamilton.

When he arrived at the installation, guards requested identification, and he produced a city identification card. A background check showed he had been ordered to leave the U.S. in 2010 but stayed.

He unlawfully entered the country in 2008.

Crotty ordered him freed a week ago and said he would explain his reasoning later.

Crotty wrote that there was no justification for Villavicencio's detention and said the man had earned a right to apply to stay in the country legally under a special programme set up for individuals in his situation.

"It should not be difficult to discern that families should be kept together rather than be separated by the thoughtless and cruel application of a so called 'zero tolerance' policy," Crotty wrote.

"This is especially so where the organization seeking removal has also provided a pathway for a person in petitioner's position to regularize his immigration status with minimal disruption to his family life."

He added that Villavicencio "deserves it due to his hard work, his dedication to the family, and his clean criminal record."

The judge called Villavicencio's arrest a "mercurial exercise of executive power."

He said the government had given Villavicencio no explanation or justification to deny him a chance to apply through a program it had established.

"It is not unlike giving a person a job, and then taking away the tools necessary to perform the job. It is simply not right," Crotty said.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered the "zero tolerance" policy in April.

Through a spokesman, government lawyers declined comment yesterday.