The ACLU of Texas, along with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, Public Citizen, and the ACLU of D.C. filed a lawsuit on behalf of 26 asylum seekers — 12 adults and their 14 minor children — who are unlawfully trapped in life-threatening conditions in Tamaulipas, Mexico while they wait on their asylum cases to proceed in the U.S.

All plaintiffs fled violence and persecution in their home countries and sought refuge in the U.S., as is their legal right. But the Department of Homeland Security sent them back across the border, as part of the so-called Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program, to the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas, one of the most violent and lawless regions in the world. 

The lawsuit requests the court allow these asylum seekers to return to the U.S. so they can pursue their asylum cases from safety. The challenge cites violations of the Administrative Procedure Act and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. 

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Date filed

April 16, 2020

Court

U.S. District Court, District of Columbia

Status

Filed

Case number

1:20-cv-00993