GREENBELT, Md. — Legal service providers representing immigrant children filed a challenge in federal court today to stop the cruel and unlawful scheme to fast-track children’s asylum cases. The lawsuit challenges the government’s broad attempts to rush the deportation of unaccompanied children in violation of their rights and child protection laws passed by Congress.  

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, argues multiple federal agencies are illegally dismantling the rights of unaccompanied immigrant children seeking safety and denying them a fair chance to request protection in the United States. 

The plaintiffs in the case include the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights (Amica Center), The Door, The Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project (FIRRP), Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project (GHIRP), Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef), and Jewish Family and Community Services (JFCS) Pittsburgh. The plaintiffs are represented by the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies (CGRS), the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL), the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), and Trial Impact Project. 

Nearly 20 years ago, Congress passed bipartisan legislation designed to ensure that vulnerable immigrant children could seek refuge and safety in the U.S. Now, these same children are rushed through immigration proceedings in ways that plainly deny them their constitutional right to due process and put them in danger. The complaint argues that multiple government agencies responsible for protecting children and ensuring fair access to legal proceedings have been systematically dismantling their rights. These actions have included requiring children to file asylum applications within weeks after arriving in the U.S.; giving children extremely short notice — sometimes less than even 24 hours — of their asylum interview, thereby denying them any reasonable opportunity to prepare or submit evidence; abruptly changing the interview venue and format with little warning; mandating the children appear in court multiple times per month; and instructing immigration judges to rush to “complete” their detained immigrant children dockets by January 31, 2027.  

To make matters worse, many of these children remain in federal immigration detention without access to independent legal representation because the government allowed the contract under which Plaintiffs provided these critical advocacy services to lapse earlier this year. Together, these coordinated inter-agency efforts to expedite the removal of unaccompanied children directly violate Congress’ intent for this uniquely vulnerable group to benefit from special care and procedures considering their tender age and the extraordinary complexities of navigating the U.S. immigration system without a parent or guardian. 

In one instance, a child with a documented heart condition who applied for asylum based on her experiences of sexual abuse in her home country was forced to undergo an hours-long virtual asylum interview the day after being hospitalized for a cardiac event. During the interview, she requested to end the session because she was experiencing cardiac pain, visibly crying and clutching her heart. Instead of ending the interview, the officer insisted she continue. Only after hours of subjecting this child to severe mental and emotional distress did the officer agree to reschedule the interview. 

“The government is dismantling longstanding policies and legal safeguards to accelerate the deportations of immigrant children,” said Laura Nally, Director of the Children’s Program at Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. “These protections exist because Congress recognized that unaccompanied children cannot effectively represent themselves in immigration court. We will continue fighting to ensure that children seeking safety are not railroaded by these unlawful and unprecedented attacks on their right to seek protection.”

“Multiple federal agencies are colluding to put vulnerable children on what amounts to a deportation assembly line,” said Lynn Damiano Pearson, director of legal strategy at the National Immigration Law Center. “These are children even under 10 years old who do not and cannot understand why adults charged with protecting them are instead subjecting them to harm. Congress recognized the unique circumstances of unaccompanied children seeking safety and passed specific laws designed to protect them. The Trump administration’s shameful treatment of unaccompanied children not only flies in the face of one of our society’s most basic values, but violates longstanding federal laws.” 

The lawsuit argues federal agencies failed to follow the lawful process when they implemented new policies and practices for unaccompanied kids and that their actions violate children’s right to due process under the Constitution and the will of Congress. Plaintiffs assert the administration is flouting the Administrative Procedure Act, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

The defendants in the lawsuit are Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Joseph Edlow; U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin; Acting Director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review Sirce Owen; the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services; and the Department of Justice.  

Read today’s filing here.