Challenging Trump’s Unlawful Registration Rule

This lawsuit, filed on behalf of several membership based nonprofit organizations that provide services to their members and larger communities, challenges an interim final rule issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that requires noncitizens to register with the federal government and carry proof of their registration, or risk criminal prosecution.

Without any public input, the rule activates a long-dormant, WWII-era federal law that requires non-citizens to register after arrival in the United States. Outside of wartimes or the immediate aftermath of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, the federal government has long limited the registration requirement to documented noncitizens and registered them through the immigration benefit application process. Now, though, the Trump Administration is leveraging the requirement to make the United States a “show me your papers” state and incentivize undocumented noncitizens to self-deport.

DHS issued the rule as a “procedural rule” without soliciting and addressing public comments—a process that allows the public to not only participate in decisions that affect them, their loved ones, and their communities but also helps the government identify and address any issues that new rule causes. The Council’s lawsuit contends that the rule is not procedural since it burdens and otherwise affects millions of people and is otherwise unlawful since it is confusingly written and chaos-inducing.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. by the American Immigration Council, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the National Immigration Law Center, RFK Human Rights, and CASA. Plaintiffs are Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, United Farm Workers of America, CASA, and Make the Road New York.