Immigrant advocates sued Thursday to preemptively block President Trump’s threatened new round-up of thousands of undocumented families this weekend.
The White House insists the raids — the same ones that Trump scrapped last month — will target immigrant families that have already been given deportation orders.
But the ACLU says many of them have never had a day in court due to massive bureaucratic bungling.
“The Trump administration’s threats against immigrants run roughshod over basic fairness and due process,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “We will fight to ensure no one faces this kind of peril without having their case considered in court.”
The suit was filed in Manhattan federal court on behalf of refugees from Central Americans, many of whom say they have tried without success to get hearings.
It demands that anyone detained in the planned raids be granted a hearing with a judge before being deported.
Many refugees say they were ordered deported after not being notified of hearings or told to show up at the wrong locations or on days that do not exist, such as September 31.
New York Attorney General Letitia James denounced the planned raids and vowed that the state would not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“The Trump Administration’s insistence on using migrant families as a political bargaining chip with Congressional leaders is as deplorable as it is un-American,” James said.
Trump had made a similar threat to round up immigrant families last month. He reportedly revived the plan after his deadline for Democrats to “solve” immigration woes predictably went nowhere.
The latest crackdown is now set for Sunday, Homeland Security officials told CNN and the New York Times. Trump often issues such threats of drastic actions on a variety of pet issues only to modify or reverse them at the last minute.
The roundup would supposedly be carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in cities across the nation.
Trump first floated the plan last month, but then scrapped the round-ups under pressure.
Read the rest at: Deportation
