Federal Litigation

A rally calling on ICE to end Secure Communities outside the courthouse during trial in May 2019.Gonzalez v. ICE challenges various U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer practices, including the agency’s reliance on error-ridden databases to generate requests, known as detainers, for…

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois approved a settlement on February 8, 2022, in the class action lawsuit, Castañon Nava et al. v. Dep’t of Homeland Security et al., No. 18-cv-3757-RRP (N.D. Ill.).   Read the Castañon Nava settlement agreement Report potential…

(D.D.C. No. 1:24-cv-1702) This lawsuit challenges the Biden administration’s June 5, 2024, asylum ban and related changes to the “expedited removal” process that will wrongfully return many people back to persecution and severe violence. The ban and changes immediately followed a presidential…

U.S. Department of State v. Muñoz involves a U.S. Citizen, Sandra Muñoz, who has been separated from her Salvadoran husband, Luis Asencio Cordero, for nearly a decade because the U.S. State Department denied Luis an immigrant visa in 2015. The National Immigrant Justice Center is co-counseling with…

This case was formerly known as B.L.R. v. DHS In December 2023, the National Immigrant Justice Center, Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, and Winston & Strawn LLP, filed a class action against U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for unreasonably delaying the initial adjudication…

In November 2023, NIJC, Innovation Law Lab, ACLU of New Mexico and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on behalf of four asylum seekers detained by ICE at Torrance County Detention Facility (TCDF) in Estancia, New Mexico. Plaintiffs filed this…

In September 2019, five asylum-seeking mothers and their children who were torn apart under the Trump administration’s family separation policy filed a lawsuit against the United States seeking compensation for the cruel treatment and agony U.S. immigration agencies inflicted on them. The five…

This lawsuit challenges the Biden administration’s sweeping May 2023 asylum ban and several new expedited removal policies that dramatically alter the screening interview process for asylum seekers and wrongfully return many back to persecution and grave danger. NIJC joined the American Civil…

In April 2023, NIJC and Kirkland & Ellis LLP filed a class action against U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for failing to timely adjudicate the asylum applications of thousands of Afghan people who entered the United States under Operation Allies Welcome. In September 2023,…

The National Immigrant Justice Center joined the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Northern California, and Center for Gender & Refugee Studies in filing an amended complaint in East Bay Sanctuary Covenant et al. v. Biden et al., challenging the Biden administration’s asylum ban which…