SAN ANTONIO – A mother and her two young kids are fighting for their release from the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in what is believed to be the first lawsuit involving children challenging the Trump administration’s policy on immigrant arrests at courthouses.
The lawsuit argues that the family’s arrests—after fleeing Honduras and entering the United States legally—violate their Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights.
Since May, the U.S. has seen large-scale arrests in which asylum seekers appearing at routine court hearings have been arrested as part of the White House’s mass deportation effort.
The attorney who filed the lawsuit said this is on behalf of children to challenge that policy.
The family in the lawsuit was arrested after a judge dismissed their cases, and ICE agents took them to the Texas processing center, where they have remained ever since.
Throughout that time, the mother has watched her six-year-old son’s health decline.
Their attorney said he recently had to undergo chemotherapy treatment for leukemia and missed his check-in with his doctor due to the arrest.
Some civil rights activists have called the arrests of the family illegal and unjustified.
The lawyers have filed an appeal of the immigration judge’s decision, but they are at risk of being deported within days because the government says they are subject to expedited removal.