ICE detention cases are overwhelming RI’s federal courts. What’s being done?

A surge in immigration cases in Rhode Island has lawyers pleading for relief and has led to out-of-state attorneys being allowed to represent people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge John McConnell Jr., on April 13, suspended for one year a rule requiring local lawyers sign on to any case represented by another lawyer who is not a member of Rhode Island’s federal court bar, but is in good standing.

McConnell waived the rule because of “exceptional circumstances” brought on by the growing number of habeas corpus petitions filed in the court.

Habeas corpus petitions are a legal avenue for people who are detained, including those in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, to seek a judicial review of their detention. In turn, the federal government must justify why the individual is being held.

As of March 6, 2026, about 33 percent of the civil cases filed in federal court were habeas corpus petitions, according to the court. That is up from just shy of 10 percent in 2025, and 2.4 percent in 2024, when just five habeas cases were filed, court records show. And the cases keep coming in.

What does the order say?

• Any attorney must be a member in good standing of the bar of at least one state, territory, or the District of Columbia as well as a federal district court. They must not be currently suspended or disbarred in any jurisdiction.

• The order applies only to civil habeas corpus petitions filed without charge on behalf of detained persons challenging the lawfulness of their detention.

• Any attorney appearing will be bound by the local federal court rules.

• The court is entitled to withdraw the permission of any attorney to appear and practice at any time.

Lawyers appeal for relief

The order came weeks after the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island, the Habeas Project of New England, and Mass Deportation Defense requested relief due to the increasing caseloads.

The groups cited “an unprecedented surge in civil habeas petitions arising from current federal immigration enforcement policies, which has strained and, in many cases, exceeded the capacity of attorneys already admitted to this court.”

They emphasized that the surge presents “precisely the kind of injustice or undue hardship” the court rules are designed to address, and that a temporary suspension of the requirement would “serve the interests of justice and the orderly administration of the court’s docket.”

“The human cost is real. For every detained individual who cannot find an admitted attorney to file a petition on their behalf, liberty is denied without any judicial review of whether the detention is lawful,” they wrote.

What is driving the surge?

The increase in cases in federal court in Rhode Island stem from the wave of ICE arrests in neighboring Massachusetts and Maine that land arrestees in custody at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility. Habeas petitions must be filed in the jurisdiction in which an individual is residing, in this case, Rhode Island.

According to the letter, the volume of habeas petitions “shows no signs of abating,” given the government’s “policy of mandatory detention and denying bond hearings to the large majority of individuals arrested by [ICE], regardless of their length of residence, family ties, or the absence of any criminal history or flight risk.”

The lawyers stressed that few lawyers admitted to the federal bar in Rhode Island have been willing to file habeas petitions. Those that have taken cases on a pro bono basis have done so repeatedly, to the point where the demand has overwhelmed the supply, they said.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: ICE detention cases are overwhelming RI’s federal courts. What’s being done?

Reporting by Katie Mulvaney, Providence Journal / The Providence Journal

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect