[JURIST] US District Judge Richard G. Stearns ordered US immigration officials on Friday to provide detainees from a New Bedford, Massachusetts sweatshop access to lawyers and not to move them out of state. Stearns also told the state Department of Social Services and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency [official websites] to find a solution to the problem of mothers or primary caregivers who have been separated from their children and detained.

The US Department of Homeland Security [official website] detained more than 300 people for possible deportation as illegal immigrants after a raid Tuesday at Michael Bianco Inc. [corporate website], a leather factory that makes equipment for the US military. On Thursday, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick [official website] asked federal authorities to stop flights carrying workers to a deportation [JURIST news archive] holding facility in Texas until the workers' children could be accounted for [press release]. Immigration agents released 60 people who said they were the sole caregivers for their children. The Boston Globe has more.