Washington, D.C.— Immigrants and their legal advocates are suing to stop unlawful Trump administration policies that have resulted in the arrest, detention, and fast-track deportation of potentially thousands of people who appeared for their scheduled hearings at immigration courts across the country in recent months.
The class action lawsuit seeks to end ongoing collusion between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice (DOJ) that has intentionally stripped people of basic due process rights afforded under U.S. immigration law and the Fifth Amendment in order to place them in expedited removal proceedings and deport them without hearings.
All of the plaintiffs appeared at their hearings intending to request protection or other legal status in the United States, only to have a government attorney unexpectedly ask the immigration judge to dismiss their cases. When a judge agreed to the dismissal, often over plaintiffs’ objections, the plaintiffs were arrested and detained by DHS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers who were waiting at the courthouse.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), Democracy Forward, Refugee and Immigrant Center for Legal Education and Services (RAICES), and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCRSF). The lawsuit represents 12 people who have been arrested at court hearings, along with organizational plaintiffs Immigrant Advocates Response Collaborative (Immigrant ARC) and American Gateways, which provide legal services to people who now face potential arrest and deportation when they attend a court hearing to comply with their immigration proceedings.
Some of the individual plaintiffs have lived in the United States for years and were separated from family members, including U.S. citizens, with no notice. Others came more recently, fleeing persecution in their homelands. In recent weeks, DHS has instructed ICE officers to arrest individuals even when an immigration judge declines to immediately grant dismissal or an individual seeks to appeal the dismissal, disregarding both the judges’ authority and statutory law requiring that individuals have an opportunity for a full removal hearing to determine whether they should be admitted or deported.
One plaintiff was deported to Ecuador within weeks of being arrested at a hearing where he had intended to file an asylum application describing persecution he had faced because of his advocacy for LGBTQ rights; he is now living in hiding. All but two other plaintiffs remain detained, in fear they will be deported to countries including Cuba, Venezuela, Republic of Guinea, and the Chechen Republic, where they fear persecution because of their political or social activism or LGBTQ identities.
For years, both DHS and DOJ policies limited civil immigration-related arrests in immigration courts because they risked depriving individuals of due process and created a palpable fear that discouraged people from appearing for their hearings.
Co-counsel and organizational plaintiffs in the case provided the following statements:
“The Trump-Vance administration is weaponizing immigration courts by threatening people who follow the law and appear for their hearings as directed by the court. This unlawful scheme will chill participation in the legal process and violates the fundamental principles of due process and fairness that underpin our legal system,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “People seeking refuge, safety, or relief should not be arrested, detained, and deported without a chance to be heard and given due process. We are in court to defend the rule of law, stop this abuse of power, and ensure that justice and not political agendas guide the immigration system.”
“We are witnessing an authoritarian takeover of the U.S. immigration court system by the Trump administration,” said Keren Zwick, director of litigation at NIJC. “People who attend their hearings to seek permission to remain in this country and comply with U.S. immigration law are being rounded up and abruptly ripped from their families, homes, and livelihoods. Meanwhile, the administration is issuing directives telling immigration judges to violate those same immigration laws and strip people of fundamental due process rights. We must continue fighting to overcome the administration’s escalating attacks on the U.S. Constitution and rule of law.”
“The Trump administration has cast an unconscionably wide net to ensnare people and families who attend immigration court hearings in compliance with their legal obligations, only to face life-threatening imprisonment, swift removal, and the prospect of indefinite family separation,” said Faisal Al-Juburi, chief external affairs officer at RAICES. “The egregious and unprecedented coordination amongst government agencies that we are witnessing not only inflicts irreparable harm upon infants and adults alike for seeking refuge in the U.S., but also establishes a chilling precedent in which law and order are abandoned in favor of stoking widespread panic and fear — leaving the entire American public at risk, regardless of immigration status.”
“These directives forsake any notion of immigration courts as a neutral forum, weaponizing them into a trap for immigrants who show up in reliance on the American promise of a fair process before a judge, only to be met instead with handcuffs and shunted into a fast-track deportation process controlled by ICE agents,” said Jordan Wells, Senior Staff Attorney at LCCRSF.
“Our friends, neighbors, and families are told to ‘do it the right way’ — to follow the legal process. They’re doing just that — showing up to court, complying with the law. Despite this, they’re being arrested and detained,” said Priyanka Gandhi, interim CEO for Immigrant ARC. “This isn’t justice. It’s a deliberate attempt to intimidate and disappear people before they can be heard. We’re defending the integrity of the legal system, protecting every person’s right to due process, and holding the Trump administration accountable for their deeply harmful practices aimed at the most vulnerable communities.”
“Our immigration courts should be places where people can seek justice and protection — not be ambushed and arrested simply for showing up. The Trump administration has created a dangerous climate of fear that undermines both due process and the integrity of the legal system,” said Edna Yang, co-executive director of American Gateways. “We are forced to challenge these unconstitutional practices and defend the right to be heard, fairly and safely, in a court of law.”
The case is Immigrant ARC et al. v. Department of Justice et al.
Read the complaint here.
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