An Assault on Due Process: Frontline Legal Service Providers Sound the Alarm as the Collapse of Legal Representation for Thousands of Unaccompanied Children Nears

NEW YORK — Two more federal appeals courts this week rejected the Trump administration’s new policy subjecting millions of immigrants to mandatory detention without access to bond hearings. Both the Ninth Circuit and Seventh Circuit issued July 30 decisions in American Civil Liberties Union lawsuits. Read the Ninth Circuit ruling here. Read the Seventh Circuit ruling here. The rulings reflect similar decisions from four other federal appeals courts, as well as those issued by hundreds of district court judges who have found the policy unlawful. For decades, immigrants in removal proceedings who were detained by the government have generally had the right to seek release through a bond hearing before an immigration judge. In mid-2025, the Trump administration suddenly adopted a new radical reinterpretation of the immigration laws and declared that anyone who entered without inspection must be detained without access to bond. Among those who were affected were people who came as children and are eligible for legal status, even those with long-pending immigration applications who have been waiting years due to administrative backlogs. “The courts have repeatedly ruled against the Trump administration’s radical reinterpretation of our country’s detention laws,” said My Khanh Ngo, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, who argued the Seventh Circuit appeal. “The law is clear: The administration can’t cruelly lock up people this way without giving them the basic due process of a bond hearing. Period.”

SEATTLE — Another federal appeals court has rejected the Trump administration’s new policy subjecting millions of immigrants to mandatory detention without access to bond hearings. Today’s ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit stems from a lawsuit involving the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and the American Civil Liberties Union. The ruling joins similar decisions from four other federal appeals courts and hundreds of district court judges in finding the policy unlawful. For decades, immigrants in removal proceedings who were detained by the government have generally had the right to seek release by an immigration judge. In mid-2025, the Trump administration suddenly adopted a new radical reinterpretation of the immigration laws and declared that anyone who entered without inspection must be detained without access to bond. Among those who were affected were people eligible for legal status, even those with long-pending immigration applications who have been waiting years due to administrative backlogs. They include Ramon Rodriguez Vazquez, the named plaintiff in this case. He had no criminal record and was arrested at his home in Washington state where he has lived for more than 15 years with his wife, four children, and now grandchildren. The following is reaction to today’s ruling: “This ruling restores the right to a bond hearing for class members and all persons like Mr. Rodriguez detained in the Ninth Circuit, while they go through this lengthy and difficult process,” said Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. “And just as vital, it upholds the rule of law, making clear the administration cannot unilaterally change the law.” “The courts have once again ruled the Trump administration’s cruel and radical reinterpretation of our country’s detention laws cannot stand. We are thrilled for our clients and their families,” said My Khanh Ngo, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. The ruling is here.

NEW YORK — The American Civil Liberties Union announced today that its affiliates have now filed 54 claims in 17 states and Washington, D.C. against the federal government on behalf of people who have suffered serious violence, abuse, and neglect at the hands of federal law enforcement. Since the beginning of President Trump’s second term, federal law enforcement agents have terrorized communities and people in their custody with a blatant disregard for the law. The consequences have been deadly. Conditions in ICE facilities are so inhumane that the rate of deaths in ICE custody has more than doubled since Trump’s term began, reaching its highest level in over a decade. In early July, reporting revealed that, after the White House pushed to increase arrest rates, ICE officials detained more than 10,000 people in five days. Only days later, ICE agents in unmarked vehicles shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas while he was on his way to work. The following week, a federal agent shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine. Across the country, ACLU affiliates are fighting back against the Trump administration’s illegal conduct by filing claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), one of the few legal tools available to seek financial compensation for wrongdoing by federal government employees. Through this coordinated effort, ACLU affiliates are representing dozens of people and families who are seeking justice for the harm they experienced at the hands of federal immigration agents. “As more than 50 of these cases show, federal agents’ violence, misconduct and utter disregard for the law is rampant,” said Yasmin Cader, deputy executive director of the ACLU. “President Trump and his law enforcement officers rely on a perceived sense of impunity, but no one is above the law. This administration is making everyone in America less safe and less free. That’s why the ACLU and its affiliates are fighting back at every turn.” Each of the 54 claims that have been filed tells an individual story of someone who was brutalized by federal immigration agents. Together, they reveal a widespread pattern of civil rights violations and abuse carried out by officials nationwide, affecting people who are immigrants, U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, families, workers, and people exercising their constitutional rights. These claims put names and faces to the harm that federal law enforcement agencies have been inflicting in communities across the country. The people represented include: A mother, who was five months into a high-risk pregnancy when she was held with her four children, including her 11-month-old child, in a CBP facility for approximately four weeks. The family was held in a cell with limited access to clean running water and without any windows to the outside. Rodney, from Georgia, who was arrested by ICE agents with guns drawn while his two young children watched, and was later denied needed medical care and accessibility accommodations while in ICE custody. Willy, a U.S. citizen in North Carolina, who was on his way back from a restaurant when federal immigration agents racially profiled him, put him in a headlock, and threw him to the ground. Norma Bowe, a grandmother, professor of public health at Kean University, and registered nurse, who was assaulted in front of Delaney Hall by ICE agents while there to operate her mobile health clinic. Darren, a U.S. citizen from Illinois, who was arrested at work after DHS agents broke through a gate to reach him, after which he required hospitalization for the two chemical irritants they used against him and was left without any of his confiscated property. “My story is not just about what happened to me. It’s about the kind of country we choose to be,” said Darren, a U.S. citizen being represented by the ACLU of Illinois. “No one should lose their dignity the moment they come face to face with those who hold power.” Earlier this month, the ACLU released a report analyzing immigration enforcement actions in the first year of President Trump’s second term. The report, Agents of Chaos and Cruelty, examines more than 1,200 immigration enforcement incidents across eight states and found that more than 400 of those incidents involved misconduct by immigration agents, including excessive force, racial profiling, and intimidation and abuse. “I was violently attacked by ICE agents while I was trying to provide medical care for people visiting their loved ones in Delaney Hall,” said Dr. Norma Bowe, a registered nurse and professor of public health at Kean University being represented by the ACLU of New Jersey. “ICE agents are acting like they have impunity and are inflicting harm however and whenever they want; without accountability, more people will get hurt and die. ICE must be held responsible.” The ACLU and its affiliates will continue to work to defend the rights of everyone, including people harmed by Trump’s immigration forces, and hold the administration accountable for its unlawful and inhumane actions. Read more about the clients ACLU affiliates are representing here: https://www.aclu.org/campaigns-initiatives/the-people-v-agents-of-chaos-and-cruelty

WASHINGTON — Over 1,000 high school students and ACLU affiliate leaders lobbied Congress today in support of immediate protection from deportation for millions of people, urging Congress to pass the Dream and Promise Act to provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and recipients of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED). It was the largest lobbying action on citizenship since President Trump took office in January 2025, and the largest lobby day in the organization’s history. The students participating in the lobbying action, attendees of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Advocacy Institute, hail from nearly every state in the country, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. “Students are a force to be reckoned with, and today they raised their voices against the Trump administration’s violent and cruel deportation agenda to demand Congress act swiftly to protect our loved ones and neighbors,” said Deirdre Schifeling, ACLU chief political and advocacy officer. “Led by Stephen Miller, the Trump administration has moved to strip more than a million people of Temporary Protected Status — the largest de-documentation project in American history — with hundreds of thousands losing protection just in the last week. We need the Dream and Promise Act now to shield millions from the risk of ICE violence and the cruelty of deportation.” Students visited more than 400 congressional offices, including over 165 Republican, 230 Democratic, and three independent offices, and rallied in support of immigrants’ rights on Capitol Hill alongside ACLU affiliate leaders from across the country. Congressional offices were left with leaflets and handwritten postcards from students on the rise of brutal abuse by federal immigration agents and the ACLU affirmative vision for an immigration system that works for everyone. “People in power want to convince us that someone who was born somewhere else is somehow our competition. But in the labor movement, we know that immigrants make our communities stronger,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, who spoke at the rally today. “And we know that when we stand alone, it's easy to ignore us, but when we stand together, we can change the world. Students using their voices and power to stand up for their classmates, for families, for people they care about — it matters. The AFL-CIO is proud to come together with the ACLU and stand with Dreamers, TPS holders, and every immigrant worker and family in this country. Their fight is our fight.” The congressional visits and rally follow the introduction of a discharge petition by Rep. Sylvia Garcia (TX) in the U.S. House of Representatives that, if signed by at least 218 House members, would force a vote on the America Dream and Promise Act on the House floor — the first and only major citizenship bill to be voted on by this Congress. The ACLU also launched an online petition to allow constituents to send messages to their members of Congress urging their support for the discharge petition and passage of the Dream and Promise Act.