The Region - News from Aug. 22, 1985

A lawsuit challenging Immigration and Naturalization Service procedures regarding juvenile detainees cannot, at this time, be expanded into a class action lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Robert Kelleher ruled. The National Center for Immigrants Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit earlier this year on behalf of two 15-year-old Salvadorans, challenging an INS policy that only allows juveniles to be released to their parents, and only after their parents agree to surrender for interrogation, which could then lead to deportation. Last month, lawyers successfully argued that the minors be released to unrelated adults who agreed to care for the children. ACLU lawyers had hoped to file a class-action suit to cover all arrests and detentions of the nearly 2,000 juveniles being held in detention centers around the country. But Kelleher ruled that the lawyers had not presented sufficient evidence. The judge, however, gave attorneys time to produce more evidence.