A federal judge in Boston has ruled the Trump administration's practice of sending deportees to countries they're not from, without notice, is unconstitutional.
This is the latest in a class action lawsuit that began almost a year ago. Attorneys who filed the suit said the Department of Homeland Security had no written policy guaranteeing immigrants be given due process before being set to a third country — a lack of guidance they said was made worse by a new DHS directive.
“The directive instructs DHS officers to review all cases of individuals previously released from immigration detention – including those who have complied with the terms of their release for years, even decades – for re-detention and removal to a third country,” the original complaint reads. “This directive to re-detain places an untold number of noncitizens at imminent risk of the deprivation of liberty and deportation to a third country without the basic procedural protections of notice and opportunity to present a fear-based claim.”
Pamela Rioles Saeed, chair of the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Arizona chapter, says the Trump administration has been using the practice to deport people in Arizona and elsewhere, many of whom have been granted orders of protection against being sent back to their home countries.
“And sending them to countries that they’ve never been to before, that they have no relationship with, without notice. So notice is really a key part of this case, and a key part of this decision,” she said.
Rioles Saeed said the process can happen quickly and without attorneys being made aware, making it difficult to fight in court.
“All of the sudden we get a call that our client, or an individual who’s seeking legal assistance, is in a third country,” she said. “There was no process that we could engage in in the United States to help them.”
In his ruling this week, District Judge Brian Murphy said practice of removing immigrants to a third country — without giving them notice or the chance to make a new case for protection — is unconstitutional and illegal.
The government has 15 days before the ruling goes into effect to file an appeal.
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