A series of lawsuits against ICE highlight the legal grey areas the agency exploits for Trump’s deportations
President Donald Trump‘s mass deportation agenda has left law enforcement agencies across the country facing numerous lawsuits.
Outside of lawsuits against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, local police departments are being dragged into court for cooperating with largely unpopular deportations and raids. In New York’s Nassau County, one lawsuit argues that a partnership between police and ICE is “unlawful.”
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In Washington, D.C., watchdog organization American Oversight is suing over access to documents concerning immigration procedures.
The group seeks records related to recent actions taken by ICE, such as entering schools and churches, along with internal records of Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles. The lawsuit calls the deportations “aggressive, sweeping, and by the President’s own tacit admission<—politically motivated.” In San Antonio, a Honduran mother is suing the Trump administration over her family’s detention by ICE. The woman was detained during a visit to Los Angeles Immigration court, along with her two young children, one of whom has leukemia.
The arrest was part of a larger ICE policy of seeking out migrants attempting to navigate their legal status in the country, with particular focus on immigration hearings. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested during one such confrontation after asking to see an arrest warrant from federal agents.
The family in the Los Angeles case were attending asylum status hearings. They have since been detained in Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas.
“The horrors that this family has suffered should never be felt by a child in need of medical care. Arresting immigrants as they step out of a courtroom is a heinous display of disregard for humanity. This family came to the United States seeking safety, but inhumane policies are preventing them from seeking necessary medical care for their child,” said Kate Gibson Kumar, a staff attorney for the Texas Civil Rights Project Beyond Borders program.
