On October 3, 2019, noncitizen children and their parents filed this class action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, challenging the Trump Administration's separation of asylum seeker families. The plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU Immigrant Rights Project, sued various personnel from five federal departments: the Department of Justice (DOJ), the White House, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Proceeding under §§ 1985 and 1986 and Bivens, the plaintiffs claimed violations of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.

The complaint alleged that defendants’ policy of separating children from their parents at the U.S. border caused irreparable psychological and physical damage to children and parents. Additionally, it was asserted that the practice was intended to inflict pain on immigrants both to induce the plaintiffs to abandon their asylum cases and to deter other immigrants from seeking asylum. It also stated that after children were separated, they were detained in punitive conditions and that the defendants failed to adequately track children so as to reunite children with their parents. The plaintiffs sought compensatory and punitive damages as well as the establishment of a recovery fund to provide health services. They also sought certification of two classes: (1) a class of all minor children who had arrived since 2017 and been separated from their parents by DHS or its agencies without a hearing demonstrating that a parent was unfit or dangerous to the child, and (2) a class of all parents of minor children subjected to the same separation with a hearing. The case was assigned to Judge James A. Soto.

The defendants filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim and for lack of jurisdiction on February 14, 2020. That motion was denied on August 31, 2020, when the court concurrently granted plaintiffs' motion to amend their complaint. On September 3, 2020, plaintiffs filed their amended complaint, adding three claims against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act. These claims alleged intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and loss of consortium and were brought individually by the plaintiffs rather than as a part of the class action allegations.

On November 13, 2020, the individual defendants re-filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted and lack of jurisdiction. On November 23, 2020, the United States did the same and additionally argued the venue was improper.

As of March 25, 2021, the motions to dismiss remained pending. This case is ongoing.

Cedar Hobbs - 11/03/2019
Ellen Aldin - 05/25/2020
Matthew Feng - 03/25/2021


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