Orantes-Hernandez

This action presents a nationwide challenge to certain practices and procedures allegedly employed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”) in the detention, processing, and removal of Salvadoran nationals who have entered the United States. Plaintiffs, on behalf of themselves and a proposed class numbering in the thousands, claim that they fled political persecution, torture and death in El Salvador in the hope of finding refuge in the United States. Instead, the record before the Court indicates that they have been met with a summary removal process, usually carried out by the INS with little or no regard for the procedural or substantive rights of aliens under United States immigration law.

By way of these motions plaintiffs sought provisional class certification and a preliminary injunction restraining the INS from, inter alia, (1) using coercive tactics to cause members of the class to accept “voluntary departure” to El Salvador; (2) failing to advise class members of their right to counsel, their right to apply for political asylum, and their right to a hearing prior to deportation; (3) denying detained class members the effective assistance of counsel by…