In March 2018 the ACLU filed a class action lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s mass detention of asylum seekers fleeing persecution, torture, or death in their countries of origin.
Ordinarily, immigrants who present themselves at the border, request asylum, and are determined during an initial interview to have a credible asylum claim are eligible for “parole” into the community while they wait for a hearing to determine their immigration status. But immigration field offices throughout the country, including in Detroit, stopped granting parole almost all cases and now detain nearly all immigrants seeking asylum.
In July 2018, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. granted our motion for a preliminary injunction, ruling that the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause requires immigration judges to grant release on bond to immigrants who are not a flight risk or danger to public safety.
(Damus v. Nielsen; National ACLU Attorneys include Judy Rabinovitz, Michael Tan and Stephen Kang; ACLU of Michigan Attorneys Michael J. Steinberg and Abril Valdes.)
