MEXICO CITY — A group of immigration lawyers and advocates filed a class-action lawsuit Wednesday against Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly and other top U.S. officials, alleging that guards along the U.S.-Mexico border have systematically violated the law by turning away people who are seeking asylum.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in California alleges that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have used a range of tactics to deny people their right to state their fears of persecution and apply for asylum, including “misrepresentations, threats and intimidation, verbal abuse and physical force.”
In some cases, the complaint alleges, CBP officials have told people that “Donald Trump just signed new laws saying there is no asylum for anyone.” In other instances, border guards have allegedly threatened to take away the foreigners’ children unless they signed forms forgoing their asylum claims or said on camera that they had no fear of returning home.
“CBP has been emboldened by the anti-immigrant rhetoric around the election. They are flagrantly breaking the law,” said Erika Pinheiro, the policy and technology director at Al Otro Lado, a legal aid organization based in Los Angeles that is one of the plaintiffs in the suit. “They have either been told, or believe, that there should be no more asylum seekers.”