The American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigrant Justice Center, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, and Human Rights First filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s policies regarding so-called “safe third country” agreements with Guatemala and other nations that force people fleeing for their lives to seek asylum in the same dangerous region they fled.

The federal government sets unreasonable bonds for detained immigrants, including asylum seekers, by failing to consider immigrants' financial resources or ability to pay, according to a federal class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU Foundation of Southern California (ACLU SoCal).

The ACLU filed habeas petitions on behalf of more than two dozen families who fled horrific violence and persecution in Central America and whose applications for asylum in the United States were denied after a cursory expedited review.

In Gordon v. Johnson, the ACLU and its partners obtained a class action ruling making some 150 Massachusetts detainees a year eligible for individual bond hearings. Rather than being held in “mandatory” immigration detention, without a bond hearing, these noncitizens may now obtain their release if an immigration judge concludes that they do not pose a danger or flight risk. Since May 2014, the federal district court’s ruling has allowed more than 100 noncitizens to be released from mandatory detention and remain with their families while their immigration cases are resolved.