A federal judge has declined to take immediate action in the case of a man housed at Aurora’s privately-run immigrant detention center who claims his 469 days in custody without a bond hearing is constitutionally unreasonable.

Attorneys for Abdulai Barrie filed a petition on Aug. 10 alleging the government had not followed its own procedures designed to give mentally-ill detainees an opportunity to be released after six months. Further, they asserted Barrie’s prolonged detention with no end in sight amounts to a violation of his constitutional due process rights.

“Mr. Barrie sometimes hears cries and screams of people who are not there; he also sees pools of blood that are instead puddles of water,” wrote lawyers for the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network to the court. “Mr. Barrie’s mental health symptoms have caused him to be placed in segregation on multiple occasions, including being on suicide watch.”

In a brief order issued on Aug. 16, U.S. District Court Judge Raymond P. Moore responded to Barrie’s request for a temporary restraining order that would direct U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release Barrie under supervision or, at minimum, require a review of his detention. Moore declined to analyze the factors that determine whether a person’s detention is unconstitutionally prolonged, instead declaring that Barrie would not likely succeed on his claims.

Moore would not review the motion for a temporary restraining order “in a vacuum without first having heard from Defendants, who have yet to enter an appearance in this case,” he wrote.

The judge’s rationale contrasts with his treatment of a recent request by pro-gun groups for a temporary restraining order to block certain gun safety regulations in the town of Superior from taking effect. Moore quickly granted that request last month, even though the town had also not yet responded in the case.

Barrie’s petition described rebel forces in Sierra Leone forcing him to be a child soldier and killing his grandparents and other relatives in front of him. He arrived in the United States in 2005 as an asylum-seeker, and reportedly suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, psychosis and major depressive disorder.

The government detained Barrie in late April 2021 in Aurora. Although an immigration judge found Barrie’s claims of torture in Sierra Leone to be credible, the judge reportedly deemed Barrie deportable and detainable because of crimes unspecified in the petition. The immigration judge’s decision is currently on appeal, and Barrie’s lawyers argued it is unclear how much longer he will remain locked up.

“Mr. Barrie’s mental health symptoms are exacerbated by (the government’s) decision to jail him,” they wrote. “Mr. Barrie’s experience while ICE incarcerates him is so difficult that he mentioned a preference to be deported and killed in Sierra Leone rather than staying in ICE detention.”

The petition alleged the constitutional right to due process requires an analysis of Barrie’s dangerousness and flight risk, where the government has the burden of justifying his continued detention. He pointed to data showing only 2% of immigration cases actually involve a person in custody. Barrie also claimed the government violated a 2013 policy requiring bond hearings for detainees with serious mental disorders. 

The U.S. Supreme Court concluded in 2003 that immigration authorities may detain immigrants for the “brief period necessary” to resolve their deportation proceedings. At the time, the government presented statistics suggesting the average time to complete the vast majority of deportation cases was 47 days.

Last year, two other men housed in Aurora’s detention center succeeded in their requests for a bond hearing after years in custody. U.S. District Court Senior Judge Christine M. Arguello, who handled both cases, noted immigrants’ time in detention has grown significantly since 2003. In each instance, however, her determination the detentions were constitutionally unreasonable featured durations far longer than Barrie’s time in custody — 31 and 32 months compared to Barrie’s 16.

Although he declined to issue a temporary restraining order, Moore will proceed to consider whether to grant Barrie a preliminary injunction addressing his continued detention. The judge directed the government to respond to Barrie’s petition by Sept. 6.

The case is Barrie v. Choate et al.