One of the immigrants involved in the lawsuit, Requel Molina, is 65 years old and held a customs seal for 27 years before it was suddenly revoked. Her legal team says that there is no reason to think that people like Molina pose any kind of threat to national security.
Four former employees at Logan International Airport in Boston have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, claiming that their lost jobs are byproducts of the government’s far-reaching campaign against immigrants.
According to WBUR, the lawsuit was filed after U.S. Customs and Border Protection selectively revoked the four plaintiffs’ custom seals, a type of security clearance needed to access certain parts of the airport. Customs seals are also necessary for certain types of employment, including for cabin cleaners and passenger service agents.
The Service Employees International Union, a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit, says that at least 80 of its immigrant members with valid work authorization have been affected at Logan, along with hundreds of other employees nationwide.
“It’s part of the cruel and racist effort to purge immigrants from the U.S. workforce, disappear them from our communities and scapegoat them for our nation’s problems,” said Kevin Brown, executive vice president of Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ.
A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection said that the agency’s updated guidance “ensures that only individuals lawfully present in the United States are given official government credentials.” The agency said that it will “stand by [its] responsibility to uphold national security.”
The lawsuit notes that all four of the affected workers at Logan airport have valid work authorization and passed previous background checks. Three were granted temporary protected status, or TPS, which allows people from countries experiencing significant turmoil to live and work in the United States. The Trump administration has been fighting an ongoing legal battle to end TPS for hundreds of thousands of immigrants.
One of the immigrants involved in the lawsuit, Requel Molina, is 65 years old and held a customs seal for 27 years before it was suddenly revoked. Her legal team says that there is no reason to think that people like Molina pose any kind of threat to national security.
“Workers like Raquel are not threats to public safety, but rather the reason we’re safe at our airports,” said Marisa Houlahan, a law student in the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School.
The Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic is representing the four employees as well as their union.
Saint Paul Paul, another plaintiff, lives in Dorchester with five children. He came to the United States from Haiti in 2018, has temporary protected status, and has applied for asylum.
Before losing his customs seals, Paul was an airline cabin cleaner at Logan for three years. WBUR reports that Paul enjoyed having a job where he could be active; he also liked the four-days-per-week schedule, appreciated the pay, and socialized with other Haitian workers at the airport.
In June, however, Paul showed up for work and found that his badge no longer worked.
“I didn’t understand what was happening,” Paul told WBUR in Haitian Creole through an interpreter. “I thought maybe there was some error, but I knew if my badge didn’t work, I couldn’t work.”
Later, Paul received a letter from CBP stating that he no longer met “authorized residency requirements.” The letter further said that his continued employment “poses an unacceptable risk to public health, interest or safety, national security, aviation safety, the revenue, or the security of the area.” He filed an appeal, which was denied.
“I think this language is an excuse,” Paul said. “So the government can discriminate against immigrants like me.”
Sources
Former Logan Airport workers who lost jobs over immigration status sue Trump administration
Immigrant airport workers, union sue after Trump administration revokes clearances
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