Immigrants suing Trump administration for practice of making arrests at court hearings
The lawsuit is filed on behalf of 12 asylum seekers who all showed up to their scheduled court hearings and were detained, most of them taken into custody in the courthouse.
The suit claims plaintiffs "have been abruptly ripped from their families, lives, homes, and jobs for appearing in immigration court, a step required to enable them to proceed with their applications for permission to remain in this country."
"So many things are illegal about this process," said lead attorney Keren Zwick, with the National Immigrant Justice Center. "The Immigration and Nationality Act that Congress passed creates a process that says this is how the procedures should go ... and the government is just sort of pulling that entire rug out from under folks who are here to seek protection."
In a statement, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson called arresting immigrants in courthouses common sense, saying in part, "Nothing in the Constitution prohibits arresting a lawbreaker where you find them ... It conserves valuable law enforcement resources because they already know where a target will be."
These courthouse arrests have been happening across the country, including in New York.
A woman named Trini told CBS News New York her adult son was taken into custody at a court hearing for his asylum case and deported to Honduras in June.
"He is all I have," she said in Spanish. "Now I am alone."
Mariposa Benitez, with the organization Mi Tlalli, is one of several volunteers who have been assisting families daily at immigration court since the spring when DHS began routinely arresting immigrants there.
"They are following the due process that they were promised," she said.
She added, "When we met Trini, she was really worried. She was sitting on a bench, crying."
New York City Council recently passed an additional $33.6 million in funding for pro-bono legal services, saying the crackdown has led to an increased need for legal support.
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