A group of migrants from Central America traveling with the U.S.-bound migrant caravan have apparently filed a lawsuit against President Trump and U.S. immigration agencies, alleging that their constitutional rights have been violated.
Yes, you read that right. Their constitutional rights.
BREAKING: Group of migrants travelling on foot from Honduras file federal lawsuit against Pres Trump and others. "Trump’s professed and enacted policy towards thousands of caravanners seeking asylum in the United States is shockingly unconstitutional." https://t.co/m79NT1Xci7
— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) November 2, 2018
They’re not Americans or legal residents, mind you. Nor are they actually in the United States – they’re still on their way from Central America via Mexico. But despite all this, the group in their lawsuit still alleges “unconstitutional conduct by our President.”
Six migrants, all from Honduras, filed the lawsuit Thursday against Trump, ICE, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, ICE Director Tom Homan, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Neilsen, USCIS Director Francis Cissna, and CBP Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, saying they’re suing the Trump administration “for violations of their procedural and substantive due process rights under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”
“Trump’s professed and enacted policy towards thousands of caravanners seeking asylum in the United States is shockingly unconstitutional. President Trump 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 President Trump,” the migrants allege in the 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," the lawsuit continues.
The group, who said they’re also filing their suit against Trump on behalf of their minor children, also allege the Trump administration is treating migrant children inhumanely at the border by keeping them in inadequate detention facilities – the same facilities, mind you, that were used under the previous Obama administration.
On top of relief from detention or deportation, the group also demands reimbursement for legal fees. The group is being represented by three U.S.-based law firms.
Interestingly, the group seems to have missed that part in U.S. immigration law that stipulates asylum-seekers follow a specific protocol for declaring asylum – a protocol that does not include assailing the U.S. border, overrunning its enforcement protections and demanding to be let in between ports of entry.
Contrary to the migrants’ claims, President Trump has, in fact, publicly said that migrants seeking asylum who “lawfully present themselves” at ports of entry will not be turned away, but will be given due process under U.S. immigration law.