Honduran Caravan Class Action Says Pleas for Asylum Unfairly Denied

A group of immigrants in a Honduran caravan progressing to the southern border have filed a class action lawsuit against the Trump administration alleging that their pleas for asylum from violence in their home country are being rejected.

The members of the Honduran caravan state in their class action lawsuit that their claims of asylum have been preemptively denied by the Trump administration, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in violation of their due process rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

Further, the Honduran caravan class action lawsuit says that the Trump administration’s plans to hold them and their families in circumstances similar to the family separations that incited outrage this summer are illegal.

“Trump’s professed and enacted policy towards thousands of caravanners seeking asylum in the United States is shockingly unconstitutional,” alleges the class action lawsuit. “[The president] continues to abuse the law, including constitutional rights, to deter Central Americans from exercising their lawful right to seek asylum in the United States, and the fact that innocent children are involved matters none to [Trump].”

The Honduran caravan class action lawsuit claims that the Trump administration and Homeland Security plan to put migrant children in the caravan in “tent cities” under the pretense that keeping children in tents in the desert will discourage others fleeing violence in their homelands from coming to the land of the free.

“On top of the above, Trump has repeatedly professed that the caravan people will not get into this county, and just as significant, Trump has taken meaningful steps to ensure the world that this is his policy position/initiative, meaningful steps such as deploying thousands of active military troops to the border, waiting on caravan persons to arrive,” alleges the Honduran caravan class action lawsuit.

“The legal problem with Trump’s plan to stop caravan persons from entering this country is that Plaintiffs are seeking asylum, and Trump simply cannot stop them from legally doing so by using military, or anyone.”

According to the class action lawsuit, President Trump has made “hysterical” accusations about the criminal status of those in the caravan – allegedly without any evidence.

The Commander and Chief has allegedly labeled the asylum-seeking children, women, and men of the caravan as an “invasion,” in an attempt to stoke fear in the home of the brave, say the plaintiffs.

The Honduran caravan class action plaintiffs include six men and women traveling by foot to escape severe economic hardship and threats of gang violence in their home country.

All are parents of children also traveling in the caravan and say they plan to seek asylum when they reach the American border.

“They understand that it’s harder now in the United States under Trump and [U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions] than it ever was, but they’re still willing to risk it because that’s the level of fear … they’re facing back home,” a representative for the plaintiffs told Law360.

The Honduran class action lawsuit is seeking a court declaration halting the Trump administration’s proposed plans to “deprive these migrants of their statutory right to seek asylum.”

The proposed Class is represented by John M. Shoreman of McFadden & Shoreman LLP, Mario B. Williams and Dallas S. LePierre of Nexus Derechos Humanos Attorneys Inc., and Julie Oinonen of Williams Oinonen LLC.

The Honduran Caravan Class Action Lawsuit is Pineda, et al. v. Trump, et al., Case No. 1:18­-cv­-02534, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.