A lawsuit filed by a coalition of immigrant rights groups and legal service providers alleges the Trump administration’s asylum restrictions are illegal.
A Jan. 20 proclamation from the Trump administration closed access to asylum at the border on the grounds that the U.S. is being invaded.
The ACLU and other rights groups filed suit against it on behalf of legal service providers at the border — including the Phoenix-based Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project. Lee Gelernt, deputy director of ACLU’s Immigrant Rights Project, says the new order goes against laws enacted by Congress four decades ago that require people fleeing persecution to at least be screened for asylum eligibility.
“I think we're looking at not just how much harm is going to occur for all of these families who are seeking asylum, but it's also putting into play an enormous separation of powers of whether the president has the ability to simply ignore what Congress has done,” he said. “The president is saying ‘I can ignore those laws whenever I declare there’s been an invasion.’ Obviously migrants do not constitute an invasion within the meaning of federal law or the constitution,” Gelernt said.
Gelernt and other attorneys argue the proclamation goes against a statute within federal immigration law that guarantees the right to seek asylum in the U.S., particularly because, unlike other asylum restrictions, it does not provide any pathway into the U.S. for screening.
A separate suit filed by the ACLU and other groups against a Biden-era asylum restriction is still in court.
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Saying the public deserves to know, both the House and Senate have approved a measure requiring hospitals that get public money to ask patients if they are in this country legally. -
Lawmakers are pushing a bill to prohibit teachers from going on organized strikes, following anti-ICE protests in Tucson. -
It’s a busy time for immigration attorneys. With President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign picking up and raids in cities across the country, they’re getting swamped with calls and sometimes have to turn folks away. -
The newly released document refers to “non-traditional facilities” and comes as ICE has quietly bought at least seven warehouses — some larger than 1 million square feet — in the past few weeks in Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Texas. -
Community members and activists gathered outside the Arizona Capitol to call for the continuation of independent oversight of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office connected to a nearly 20-year-old racial profiling case against the department.
