ACLU Comment on Trump Efforts to Jail Immigrant Children

How fear, partisanship and discrimination are impacting one couple’s fight for immigration justice.

COLUMBUS, Ga. — A federal court in Georgia has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport a Venezuelan man who is seeking asylum and being held in the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia. The case is Y.A.P.A. v. Trump. The ruling stems from a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Immigration Council. The Georgia court is one of many around the country involving ACLU lawsuits to have now blocked the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to send people to a notorious overseas prison without due process. The following is reaction to the ruling: ACLU attorney Daniel Galindo, who argued the case, said: “The president can’t unilaterally declare an invasion of the United States to invoke a wartime authority during peacetime, and send a person off to a brutal El Salvador prison with zero due process. This decision provides important protection against illegal and unconstitutional acts by the government.” The ruling is online here.

JENA, LA — In a decision that underscores the government’s ongoing retaliation against Mahmoud Khalil in response to his advocacy in support of Palestinian rights, officials from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and private prison contractor GEO Group have refused to allow a contact visit between him and his family. The officials cite a blanket no-contact visitation policy at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center (CLIPC) and unspecified “security concerns” relating to the presence of a mother and newborn baby in an unsecure part of the facility. ICE’s refusal comes after multiple requests from Mr. Khalil’s legal team that point to federal policies explicitly encouraging contact visits between detained parents and their children. Mr. Khalil’s team has also noted that permission for family visits like these are routinely granted at facilities like the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey, where his attorneys have requested he be transferred. Mr. Khalil’s wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, traveled over 1400 miles from New York to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center (CLIPC) in Jena, Louisiana, bringing their newborn child in the hopes of a contact visit — one where her husband could meet, touch, and hold his son for the very first time. Instead, facility administrators have repeatedly denied these requests and have insisted the visit proceed behind glass, where no human touch is possible. “I am furious at the cruelty and inhumanity of this system that dares to call itself just,” said Dr. Noor Abdalla. “After flying over a thousand miles to Louisiana with our newborn son, his very first flight, all so his father could finally hold him in his arms, ICE has denied us even this most basic human right. This is not just heartless. It is deliberate violence, the calculated cruelty of a government that tears families apart without remorse. And I cannot ignore the echoes of this pain in the stories of Palestinian families, torn apart by Israeli military prisons and bombs, denied dignity, denied life. Our struggle is not isolated. This system is unjust, and we will fight until Mahmoud is home." The facility's refusal contradicts ICE’s own directives, including ICE Directive 11064.3, which affirms the importance of minimizing disruptions to family life and preserving parental rights. The Performance-Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS) also explicitly encourage contact visits, especially where young children and long travel distances are involved. These very same standards are also routinely upheld in other states — including New Jersey — where detained parents are allowed daily visits and to embrace their children. Mr. Khalil has a motion pending before the federal court overseeing his case in New Jersey for his release and transfer to the Elizabeth Detention Facility, which is close to Mr. Khalil’s family. In a filing with that federal court today, he has made a request to that court to order ICE to permit a contact visit with his family. “The government chose to arrest and detain Mahmoud thousands of miles away in the Louisiana detention gulags to punish him for his support for Palestinian human rights, and is doubling down on their retaliatory punishment by denying him the most elementary human contact with his wife and child,” said Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “ICE leadership and elected officials must act to remedy this grotesque and unnecessary inhumanity for Mahmoud – and for all others.” This denial comes just weeks after ICE denied Mr. Khalil’s request to be at his wife’s side as she went into labor, causing him to miss the birth of their son. ICE has also barred press access to his court hearing, refused to grant virtual access for those who want to listen, and blocked his attorney from using electronic materials during critical proceedings. “Mahmoud Khalil deserves to hold his son. Noor Abdalla deserves to see her husband meet their child. And we, as a country, deserve better than policies rooted in cruelty,” said Nora Ahmed, legal director of the ACLU of Louisiana. Despite this heartless decision, Dr. Abdalla still plans to attend her husband’s immigration hearing in person on Thursday, May 22. Mr. Khalil’s legal team will be holding a virtual press briefing tonight at 5:30 pm ET (register here).

OKLAHOMA CITY – In a victory for immigrants’ rights, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma granted a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of Oklahoma’s HB 4156. This harmful law would create a state system to regulate immigration that undermines the exclusively federal system Congress enacted. The court’s order reaffirms its prior ruling that HB 4156 is likely unconstitutional and prevents Oklahoma officials from enforcing HB 4156 for the next 14 days. The court’s order also provisionally certifies a statewide class of plaintiffs subject to the law, and permits individual plaintiffs to proceed anonymously due to the risk of retaliation from federal authorities. The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Oklahoma, and law firm Rivas & Associates previously filed a lawsuit in May of 2024 on behalf of the Oklahoma-based organization Padres Unidos de Tulsa and several individual plaintiffs who live in the state. With the onset of the Trump administration, the United States government dismissed the challenge last year. Civil rights groups filed an amended lawsuit in mid-May of 2025 with additional plaintiffs, including the League of United Latin American Citizens Oklahoma City (“LULAC-OKC”), and asked the court to temporarily block enforcement of HB 4156 during the pendency of the case. Tamya Cox-Touré, executive director for the ACLU of Oklahoma: “The court’s decision today is a victory for Oklahoma’s immigrant community, but the damage of HB 4156 and the national rhetoric repeated by local politicians has already created an environment of fear in our state. No matter what someone looks like, sounds like, or what their immigration status may be, they should feel safe in their own communities. We will continue to fight for the rights and dignity of immigrants and their families.” Noor Zafar, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project: “HB 4156 puts immigrants in Oklahoma at tremendous risk, and we are grateful that the court has reaffirmed that the law is unconstitutional and temporarily blocked its implementation." Lorena Rivas, an attorney with the Tulsa-based law firm Rivas & Associates: “We were confident in the success of our requests, and we are so grateful to our plaintiffs who were brave enough to be part of this fight against the law.” Today’s court order is the first step in the process to permanently block HB 4156, which usurps federal control over immigration law by subjecting certain groups of noncitizens to arrest and prosecution who have a federal right to remain here.