BOSTON -- Lawyers representing nearly 200 of the alleged illegal immigrants detained in the New Bedford raid last week were back in a federal courtroom yesterday.
They filed a brief arguing that U.S. District Court Judge Richard Stearns has jurisdiction over the immigrants, including those in federal custody in other states.
The attorneys have already filed a petition asking the judge to return the detained immigrants to Massachusetts.
In the days following last week's factory raid, immigration officials flew the workers to detention centers in Texas, Miami and Pennsylvania.
Attorney Harvey Kaplan says the judge's jurisdiction should extend to those already out of the state when the lawsuit was filed because the government acted in "bad faith" when they grabbed the immigrants.
Meanwhile, several immigrants rounded up in the raid rallied in Boston, describing what they was chaos and confusion at detention centers.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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