The Legal Aid Society filed this lawsuit jointly with the other New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP) providers to challenge a sudden Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy in which ICE refused to produce people in person for their immigration court appearances and instead required all removal proceedings be conducted over video teleconference (VTC) hearings. We argued that the “Refusal to Produce” policy violated immigrants’ rights to counsel, full and fair hearings, access to courts, and due process, and is particularly harmful for people with disabilities.

In June 2019, a federal trial judge dismissed the case, finding that it did not have subject matter jurisdiction over ICE’s production policy.