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By Elisha Fieldstadt
Six Honduran migrants are suing President Donald Trump and parts of his administration for policies that the president promulgated and have declared that he would adopt at the US border with Mexico.
The class action lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court on behalf of the migrants and their children, who are heading to the United States on foot as part of a larger caravan that Trump has promised to stop or stay in detention at the border. The lawsuit asks the court to declare Trump's policy unconstitutional.
Trump says he plans to send up to 15,000 soldiers to the border, in addition to border patrol and ICE agents. About 100 active soldiers arrived at the border in Texas on Thursday.
Also on Thursday, Trump said in a speech to the White House that undocumented immigrants would be detained – many of them in "gigantic cities" – until their deportation, and that plaintiffs would be detained. asylum would be prevented from applying for asylum if they were caught crossing the border from the legal entry points.
Under current law, people are allowed to apply for asylum anywhere in the United States, no matter the procedure of entry.
"We will catch, we will not release," Trump said Thursday. Later, he kept his promises during a rally for the campaign later in the night. "We are going to keep these people out of our country." Said Trump. "Republican Vote."
"The president is violating federal law, trampling on the right of Americans and legal immigrants not to use the military to enforce the law, and has organized a potential disaster at the US-Mexico border, in the United States. white nationalism's name and with the goal of scoring political points, "said Mike Donovan, president of Nexus Services, the immigration services company behind the lawsuit, in a statement.
"Sending soldiers to the border, Trump continues his campaign to militarize the border and brutalize immigrant families to get political arguments and ignite racist tendencies among his supporters," the statement said.
The lawsuit says that Trump's plan to detain migrants until they are removed from the US "violates due process rights".
"The legal problem with Trump's plan to prevent caravan people from entering the country is that claimants seek asylum, and Trump simply can not prevent them from doing so legally by resorting to army or anyone, "says the prosecution.
The lawsuit also indicates that Trump's declared plan to detain migrants in tents is a violation of the Flores Agreement, a legally-binding agreement reached in 1997, which has since undergone some judicial adjustments. It dictates how long and under what conditions the federal government can detain children. At the border, the Customs and Border Protection Service is required to release children within 72 hours.
Facilities must "provide access to toilets and sinks, potable water … adequate control of temperature and ventilation, adequate supervision to protect minors from others and contact with family" , stipulates the agreement.
"It's clear that President Trump can not believe his tents are facilities run by accredited programs, as required by the Flores accords," the lawsuit says.
The trial also asks the court to "note that President Trump has begun to hysterically assert, without any evidence, that" many criminals "and" many gang members "are in this" assault "of migration."
"In an effort to create fear and hysteria, Trump went so far as to call it" an invasion of our country, "the lawsuit says.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If the Trump administration holds, deports or blocks asylum seekers, this would also be a violation of international asylum law, "said Scott Anderson, researcher David M. Rubenstein in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution.
Trump also announced this week that he is considering signing an executive order that would end citizenship for the children of many immigrants to the United States. This decree, if signed, is almost certain to face legal challenges.
