Donald Trump's administration sued for incarcerating asylum-seekers

Plaintiffs in lawsuit have been detained for months at a time - or in one case, for well over a year

A woman who is seeking asylum has her fingerprints taken by a US Customs and Border patrol officer at a pedestrian port of entry from Mexico to the United States, in McAllen, Texas (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)

Immigration officials are illegally incarcerating asylum-seekers for months at a time, according to a new lawsuit brought by advocacy groups.

In the latest challenge to the Trump administration’s immigration policies, a group of immigrants who were detained after requesting asylum filed a class action lawsuit arguing they should be paroled while their cases are decided.

Among the plaintiffs, who have been incarcerated for stretches ranging from four months to nearly a year and a half, are people from Haiti, Venezuela and Cuba fleeing political persecution; a Honduran man fleeing “harassment, assault, and threats at gunpoint” because he is gay; and El Salvadorans who faced death threats from gangs, according to a complaint.

“More than a thousand individuals in the last year have been unlawfully deprived of their liberty for nothing more than seeking refuge in a nation that has provided it to countless others since its founding”, said a complaint submitted by a group of organisations that include the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First.

The complaint alleges that five Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field offices, acting on direction from headquarters, have detained “virtually all adults” seeking asylum in an effort to “deter other migrants from seeking refuge here”.

All of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit were determined to have a credible fear of persecution if returned home - the legal standard for winning asylum - clean criminal records and sponsors willing to house them, the lawsuit says.

It argues that their detentions violate a 2009 directive saying immigration agents should parole asylum-seekers who have credible cases, do not pose a flight risk and can confirm their identities because their “continued detention is not in the public interest”.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement that immigration officers had the authority to make case-by-case parole decisions.

“Congress was clear when it provided the legal framework for asylum, including credible fear claims”, spokesperson Katie Waldman said. “That framework authorizes the detention of illegal aliens who claim credible fear, even if they initially satisfy the threshold screening”.

Trump administration officials have argued overly lenient asylum rules are encouraging illegal immigration. Acting Commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection Kevin McAleenan warned Donald Trump during a White House meeting last month that more immigrants were claiming asylum at ports of entry, seeking to exploit “congestion in the asylum and immigration court processes”.

Once children from Central America are released after claiming asylum, deputy ICE director Thomas Woman said at the same meeting, “very few of them are ever removed because they're in the wind”.