San Diego judge approves settlement on delayed migrant hearings [Video]

SAN DIEGO — A San Diego federal judge approved a settlement Thursday in a long-running class action lawsuit that alleged immigration detainees in San Diego and Imperial counties face prolonged, unfair delays in their immigration court cases.

The lawsuit filed in 2017 argued that unlike other types of cases, immigration detainees often spend weeks or months after arrest before their court cases begin.

One such detainee, plaintiff Jose Cancino Castellar, spent more than a month at ICE’s detention center in Otay Mesa before his first court appearance, according to the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties. The ACLU says he was living in El Cajon at the time and was eligible to remain in the U.S. under the DACA …