SILVER SPRING, Maryland — The Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., joined a class action lawsuit, as an organizational plaintiff on an amended complaint, on behalf of the more than 10,000 children currently being held by the Trump administration in detention centers across the country.

Filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Legal Aid Justice Center and Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox PLLC, the lawsuit asserts that the ongoing collaboration between the Office of Refugee Resettlement, known as ORR and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has led to the prolonged detention of these children. A memo drafted in late 2017 and obtained Jan. 17, 2019, showed the administration intended the very result this policy has caused: the prolonged detention of children and serving as a deterrent to migrants who want to travel to the United States. Among other things, it showed that information gathered during the reunification process was being used to facilitate ICE’s efforts to arrest and deport potential sponsors and relatives of the detained youth. 

“ORR is ignoring the law established by Congress by detaining rather than releasing the children to their loved ones,” said Jeanne Atkinson, CLINIC’s executive director. “We cannot allow this administration to continue to intentionally keep children away from their families, it is immoral and inhumane.”

Visit the Southern Poverty Law Center's website to learn more about J.E.C.M. et al v. Lloyd et al.