Democracy Forward President & CEO Skye Perryman: “Disappearing people into foreign black sites is unAmerican. It is not immigration policy—it’s an abuse of power typical of autocratic regimes and a direct violation of the U.S. Constitution, federal law, and human rights.”
Washington, D.C. – On Thursday, Democracy Forward filed a first of its kind lawsuit challenging the Trump-Vance administration’s black site agreement with El Salvador to disappear people from the United States. This comes after a federal appeals court found that the removal of individuals under the Aliens Enemies Act to be unlawful.
The lawsuit is Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights et al. v. U.S. Department of State, et al. and the plaintiff coalition – Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), Immigrant Defenders Law Center, Immigration Equality, and California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice – is represented by Democracy Forward. Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights also represents themselves.
Read the filing here.
See Coverage Below:
The New York Times: Rights Groups Sue to Overturn Agreement That Sends U.S. Immigrants to Salvadoran Jail
For the past few months, immigrants around the country have been suing the Trump administration at a furious pace, seeking to stop it from deporting them to a prison in El Salvador under an agreement reached this year between the White House and Nayib Bukele, the Salvadoran president.
The cases, which have been filed in at least six states, have largely focused on the legal tool that Trump officials have been using to expel them from the country: an 18th century wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act.
But on Thursday, a group of immigrant rights organizations and criminal defense lawyers took a different approach to stopping the deportations to El Salvador. They filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to invalidate the underlying agreement between the U.S. and Salvadoran governments by declaring it unlawful.
“Disappearing people into foreign black sites is un-American,” said Skye Perryman, the president and chief executive of Democracy Forward, a nonprofit legal group that helped file suit. “It is not immigration policy — it’s an abuse of power.”
Associated Press: Immigrant Rights Groups Sue to Invalidate Trump Administration’s El Salvador Prison Deal
A coalition of immigrant rights groups on Thursday sued to invalidate the Trump administration’s deal to house detainees in a notorious prison in El Salvador, saying the arrangement to move migrant detainees outside the reach of U.S. courts violates the U.S. Constitution.
The lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., notes that the administration has argued that those sent to El Salvador are beyond the reach of U.S. courts and no longer have access to due process rights or other U.S. constitutional guarantees.
The suit was filed by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, Immigrant Equality, the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice and Democracy Forward, which is co-counsel in a separate lawsuit over the initial flights to El Salvador.
Bloomberg: Trump Faces New Lawsuit Over Migrants Sent to Salvadoran Prison
The Trump administration is facing a new legal challenge to its arrangement with El Salvador to send migrants — and potentially US citizens — to a mega-prison infamous for its dangerous and unsanitary conditions.
The case, filed in federal court in Washington, is the first to directly target the State Department’s agreement to pay millions of dollars to house people arrested in the United States in El Salvador’s prison system, including the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, known as CECOT.
“Disappearing people into foreign black sites is unAmerican,” Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, one of the groups that brought the case, said in a statement. “It is not immigration policy — it’s an abuse of power typical of autocratic regimes and a direct violation of the U.S. Constitution, federal law, and human rights.”
The Hill: State Department Sued Over Trump Deal to House Migrants in El Salvador Prison
A coalition of democracy groups sued the State Department on Thursday, challenging the Trump administration’s agreement with the government of El Salvador to house more than 200 migrants deported to a notorious prison.
The groups, represented by the left-leaning legal organization Democracy Forward, said the government took “unprecedented action” to transport migrants living in the United States “beyond the reach of U.S. law.”
Five groups brought the lawsuit: Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Immigrant Defenders Law Center, Immigration Equality and California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice.
Skye Perryman, Democracy Forward’s president and CEO, called the practice “unAmerican” in a statement.
“Our lawsuit makes clear: No president — past or present — can buy their way out of the Constitution to disappear people behind a paywall of impunity,” she said.
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Democracy Forward Foundation is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org.
