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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Mexico’s foreign secretary says 14,000 Mexican nationals remain in immigration detention in the United States as Mexico pursues consular and legal action. -
Lawyers who spoke to KPBS said immigration judges are now ordering bond amounts that previously were only used for criminals on international wanted lists. The U.S. Department of Justice says the courts are following the law and that the claims are "baseless." -
Assistant Chief Patrol Agent Mike Wisniewski says this latest surge comes on the heels of a similar operation last month, which led to the arrest of dozens of undocumented immigrants. -
A kitchen manager at the center of the Zipps Sports Grill immigration raids has been sentenced to five months in federal prison for his role in hiring undocumented workers. -
Every year, Arizona State University Barrett Honors College professor Abby Wheatley brings her class on transnational migration to the Arizona borderlands.
