Litigation

The class-action lawsuit complaint alleges that Tucson Sector Border Patrol holds men, women, and children in freezing, overcrowded, and filthy cells for days at a time in violation of the U.S. Constitution and CBP’s own policies.

In March 2015, the American Immigration Council, in collaboration with the Law Office of Stacy Tolchin, the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, filed a class action lawsuit against CBP over its nationwide pattern and practice of failing to timely respond to requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The plaintiffs included both immigration attorneys and individuals, all of whom had FOIA requests pending for over 20 business days.

On October 21, 2014, the American Immigration Council, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, with co-counsel, the National Immigration Law Center and Jenner & Block LLP, filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act to compel the release of government documents regarding the use of the expedited removal process against families with children, including those detained by DHS in Artesia, New Mexico. The suit was filed in the federal district court for the Southern District of New York.

On July 9, 2014, the American Immigration Council, with co-counsel American Civil Liberties Union, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Public Counsel, and K&L Gates LLP, filed a lawsuit seeking recognition of a right to appointed counsel for unrepresented children in immigration proceedings nationwide. The complaint charges the U.S. Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Health and Human Services, Executive Office for Immigration Review, and Office of Refugee Resettlement with violating the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause and the Immigration and Nationality Act’s provisions requiring a “full and fair hearing” before an immigration judge. It seeks to require the government to provide unrepresented children who are unable to pay for attorneys with legal representation in their immigration proceedings.

In March 2013, the American Immigration Council and Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, later joined by the Legal Aid Justice Center, filed a lawsuit alleging that CBP officers at Dulles Airport in Virginia unlawfully detained a U.S. citizen child for more than twenty hours, deprived her of contact with her parents, and then effectively deported her to Guatemala. The case was one of ten complaints filed the same week to highlight CBP abuses along the northern and southern borders.

The American Immigration Council, with co-counsel Dorsey & Whitney LLP, filed three lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to compel the release of records relating to noncitizens’ access to counsel. The Council initially pursued disclosure of these records through FOIA requests filed in March 2011. Despite the importance of counsel to immigrants appearing before DHS, the thousands of immigrants who are required to appear at agency examinations or proceedings every year may face barriers to accessing counsel. Federal law clearly provides a right to legal representation in many proceedings before DHS, but that right is often unrecognized, restricted, or denied.

The complaint, co-filed with the Northwest Immigrants Rights Project, Gibbs Houston Pauw, and the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, was submitted on behalf of untold numbers of asylum applicants wrongfully denied work authorization due to unlawful agency policies and practices. The named plaintiffs include asylum seekers who have pursued their cases for years without work authorization.

The American Immigration Council, with co-counsel Dorsey & Whitney LLP, filed three lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to compel the release of records relating to noncitizens’ access to counsel. The Council initially pursued disclosure of these records through FOIA requests filed in March 2011. Despite the importance of counsel to immigrants appearing before DHS, the thousands of immigrants who are required to appear at agency examinations or proceedings every year may face barriers to accessing counsel. Federal law clearly provides a right to legal representation in many proceedings before DHS, but that right is often unrecognized, restricted, or denied.