Legal Topic:
Detention
Geographic relevance:
International
United States
Language:
English
Data type:
Legal citations
About this resource:
Mr. Aguilar-Rodrigez was a national of El Salvador who lived in the USA after fleeing El Salvador. In 2011 he was stopped by police for speeding, but never received a speeding ticket. The police alleged that he was intoxicated and served a 13-day jail term. Instead of being released, he was transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement where he was detained for 6 years.
Bail was initially set at $6,000 which was unaffordable for Mr. Aguilar-Rodriguez. Also, no Spanish-language information or translator was provided despite Mr. Aguilar-Rodriguez’s poor English.
He complained to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which concluded this was discriminatory detention on economic and language grounds, as he was only detained due to his inability to pay a bail set disproportionately high, and could not make full use of appeal procedures due to his lack of English-language skills.
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