San Francisco – June 22, 2022 –
Cooley, alongside the American Civil Liberties Unions of Northern
and Southern California, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil
Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Francisco Public
Defender's Office, and Lakin & Wille secured a decisive
victory when US District Judge Vince Chhabria of the US District
Court for the Northern District of California granted final
approval of a groundbreaking class action settlement against ICE
and private prison operator GEO Group for failing to take steps to
address COVID-19 at two immigrant detention centers in California.
Lawyers Martin Schenker and Tim Cook led the Cooley effort.
In April 2020, a class action lawsuit, Zepeda Rivas v.
Jennings, was filed challenging the unsafe conditions for
immigrants in custody at two detention facilities in California:
Mesa Verde Detention Center and Yuba County Jail. Detainees were
housed in 100-person dorms, where they slept in bunk beds an
arm's length
