On September 20, 2019, two nonprofit organizations, alongside nine individuals (six of whom were also representing their minor children) filed this lawsuit against the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Director and Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Attorney General of the United States. The suit challenged new federal expedited-removal immigration policies. The non-profits were Centro Presente--a state-wide Latin American immigrant membership organization dedicated to the self-determination and self-sufficiency of the Latin American population of Massachusetts; and Pioneer Valley Workers Center--an organization aimed at improving the lives of low-wage and immigrant workers in Western Massachusetts. The nine individual plaintiffs were all asylum-seekers who were threatened with expedited removal. The plaintiffs claimed that the new policy violated the due process and equal protection guarantees of the Fifth Amendment, the Administrative Procedure Act (APA)(5 U.S.C. §§551), the Suspension Clause (Habeas Corpus), the Appointments Clause, and the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. §§1101). The plaintiffs sought to enjoin defendants from continuing this policy and also requested attorney’s fees. The plaintiffs were represented by Lawyers for Civil Rights and a private law firm. The case was heard in the District Court for Washington D.C. and was presided over by Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The new expedited removal rule allowed any foreign citizen who had lived anywhere in the United States for less than two years to be submitted for expedited deportation proceedings. Previously, expedited deportation only applied to those located within 100 miles of a U.S. international land border and had only been in the United States for two weeks or less.

On October 9, 2019, the court ordered the plaintiffs to show cause for why the case at hand should not be stayed until a separate case (Make the Road New York v. McAleenan) had been resolved. Make the Road New York was a class-action suit filed in the same court by the ACLU which also challenged the legality of the new expedited-removal rule. More information on that case is available here. The plaintiffs responded to the order to show cause on October 22, 2019; however this document was not available to the Clearinghouse.

The plaintiffs filed a motion to proceed pseudonymously which District Judge Jackson granted on July 8, 2020. The case then remained in the pleading stage for most of 2020 and 2021 as the government asked the court to reset the deadline for their answer on numerous occasions. As of August 1, 2021, the government has yet to file an answer to the complaint. Judge Jackson was elevated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by President Biden in mid-2021; a new judge has yet to be assigned the case. As of August, 2021, many of the documents included on the docket are inaccessible because the case is classified as a private immigration matter. It is unclear if the case will be settled given the inauguration of the Biden Administration, but for now the case remains open.

Christiana Johnson - 11/02/2019
John Duffield - 07/21/2021


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