AILA and Council File Complaint Regarding Coercive Tactics Used by Immigration Officials on Separated Parents
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the American Immigration Council (Council) filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) detailing coercive tactics used by government officials against parents who were separated from their children. The complaint, filed as part of the Immigration Justice Campaign, includes case examples and original testimony from separated parents that document a pervasive, and illegal, practice by DHS officials of coercing mothers and fathers into signing documents they may not have understood, ostensibly waiving their legal rights, including their right to be reunified with their children. These tactics, according to AILA and the Council, impeded these parents’ ability to meaningfully participate in the asylum process. Dozens of separated parents, most of whom signed paperwork they did not understand, remain detained and separated from their children.