Class Action: Immigrant Kids are ‘Bait’ to Help Deport Sponsors

According to a class action lawsuit, immigrant children under detainee status are being used as “bait” to draw out their sponsors.

Advocacy groups have filed the U.S. government immigration class action lawsuit on behalf of more than 10,000 immigrant children who were detained as well as their sponsors.

The lawsuit accuses the government, and in particular numerous agents at the Office of Refugee Resettlement, of purposely keeping these children in shelters for significant periods of time.

Advocacy groups participating in this class action filing include the Legal Aid Justice Center and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The lawsuit details some of the worst stories affecting detained immigrant children currently under the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

The U.S. government immigration class action lawsuits says that at least one 11-year-old stayed in a shelter for more than five months, and one teenager was used to “draw in” his father for fingerprinting, which ultimately led to the father’s deportation to Guatemala.

The details outlined in the U.S. government immigration class action lawsuit state that the Trump Administration has memos outlining zero tolerance policies and recommendations to share a sponsor’s contact information with ICE as an illegal immigration deterrent method.

According to the lawsuit, this memo was leaked and highlights just some of the ongoing problems with addressing refugees.

One woman who spoke out as part of the lawsuit says that she has made efforts for months to reunite with a teenager family member she’d like to sponsor. Instead of being allowed to do that, she says she’s been blocked at every turn while the teenager remains in a shelter. So far, that child has been there for four months.

The lawsuit states that in November 2018 more than 14,000 children were detained in these shelters, with an average stay time of two months.

According to the U.S. government immigration class action lawsuit, issues with extended detentions are directly due to Trump Administration policies.

The government attempted to decrease the number of detained children towards the end of 2018 by eliminating a policy requiring sponsor fingerprints. However, according to advocates, there are still thousands of children in these shelters and many of their sponsors have been arrested.

The key issue named in the U.S. government immigration class action lawsuit has to do with an April 2018 policy that directs the ORR to gather and then share details obtained from sponsors, such as addresses and fingerprints.

According to the lawsuit, one of the directives about this program states that this agreement would have a deterrent effect and that the purpose of the sharing request was to refer sponsors for criminal prosecution.

Advocates who helped to file the lawsuit say that this has created a culture of fear for sponsors who don’t want to come forward because of their own concerns about being deported.

The proposed Class in the U.S. government immigration class action lawsuit is represented by Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg and Rebecca Ruth Wolozin of the Legal Aid Justice Center, Mary Bauer, Saira Draper, Luz Virginia Lopez, and Laura G. Rivera of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and John Christopher Rozendaal and Salvador M. Bezos of Sterne Kessler Goldstein & Fox PLLC.

The Immigrant Kids Class Action Lawsuit is J.E.C.M., et al. v. Jonathan Hayes, et al., Case No. 1:18-CV-903-LMB, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.