Judy Rabinovitz is Special Counsel with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, where she has worked since 1988, litigating class action and impact cases on a variety of issues affecting the rights of immigrants. She has been widely recognized for her litigation and advocacy challenging immigration detention. She played a leading role in the litigation that resulted in the Supreme Court placing a limit on indefinite immigration detention. In addition, she coordinated a nationwide litigation campaign to challenge the mandatory immigration detention statute that Congress enacted in 1996 as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), arguing the issue before the Supreme Court in 2003. The Supreme Court upheld the statute 5-4 and mandatory detention remains in effect to this day. The idea for “Detained” grew out of this work–witnessing how immigrants who had lived in the United States for years were facing deportation and detention in ever-expanding numbers, and wanting their stories to be told.
