The ACLU and a coalition of immigrant rights advocates filed a lawsuit Monday to stop the federal government from implementing the Trump administration’s new asylum policies, which they argue attempt to wipe away long-standing laws and protections “by fiat.”
The groups contend in the lawsuit that President Donald Trump unlawfully invoked a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act with a presidential proclamation on his first day in office that suspended the entry of asylum seekers.
The proclamation blocks asylum seekers from making claims even at lawful points of entry, the lawsuit states, which bypasses laws Congress sets up to ensure they have a legal path to enter the United States.
“And under the Proclamation, the government is doing just what Congress by statute decreed that the United States must not do,” the lawsuit states. “It is returning asylum seekers — not just single adults, but families too — to countries where they face persecution or torture, without allowing them to invoke the protections Congress has provided.”
“Indeed, the Proclamation does not even exempt unaccompanied children, despite the specific protections such children receive by statute,” the lawsuit states.
The 34-page complaint was filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The defendants named in the case include Trump, federal agencies and top officials, such as Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a press release that Trump’s block on asylum cases constitutes “an unprecedented power grab that will put countless lives in danger.”
“No president has the authority to unilaterally override the protections Congress has afforded those fleeing danger,” Gelernt said.
The asylum system allows foreign nationals to make a claim to enter and remain in the United States if they can demonstrate fear of prosecution or danger in their country.
Critics say the process has been abused by those seeking economic opportunities. Also, the overburdened system is taking an increasingly long time to process claims, with many asylum-seekers being released while they pursue their claims.
Trump cited the presence of an “invasion” at the U.S.-Mexico border in his proclamation. “Historically, Presidents have used these statutory authorities to deny entry of designated classes and categories of aliens into the United States through ports of entry,” the proclamation says.
“But if the President has the power to deny entry of any alien into the United States, and to impose any restrictions as he may deem appropriate, this authority necessarily includes the right to deny the physical entry of aliens into the United States and impose restrictions on access to portions of the immigration system, particularly when the number of aliens illegally crossing the southern border prevents the Federal Government from obtaining operational control of the border,” the proclamation states.
Critics say Trump’s characterization of mass immigration into the United States as an “invasion” is unfair and racist, and the lawsuit takes umbrage with Trump basing his action on that extreme determination.
“Whatever the outer limits of the President’s constitutional authorities, they do not confer a preclusive power that permits the President to dispense with the statutes relevant here,” the lawsuit says. “And immigration — even at elevated levels— is not an ‘invasion.'”
The legal groups who filed the lawsuit are the ACLU, the National Immigrant Justice Center, the Texas Civil Rights Project, the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, the ACLU of the District of Columbia and ACLU of Texas.
Richard Caldarone, senior litigation attorney at the National Immigrant Justice Center, said in a press release that the new asylum policies “will make thousands of people vulnerable to persecution, torture, and death.”
The plaintiffs in the lawsuits are a trio of groups that seek to advocate for immigrants and refugees: The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services in San Antonio; the Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso and the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project in Tucson, Ariz.
Jennifer Babaie, director of advocacy and legal services of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, said Trump’s action is his latest attempt “to eliminate the ability of families to seek safety in our country in the form of asylum, a legal pathway.”
“Regardless of any person’s individual beliefs on immigration, any government attempt to blatantly violate our laws is a serious issue impacting all communities across the country,” Babaie said.
A DHS spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing a policy regarding pending litigation. Comment was requested from other federal agencies and the White House.
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