“This is an undeniably targeted policy that singles out one nationality, designed to rob them of the due process they are legally guaranteed and to strip their legal teams of the ability to adequately and ethically prepare their cases for hearing,” an attorney for the plaintiffs said.
A recently-filed lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of fast-tracking deportation proceedings for Somali immigrants in Minnesota, allegedly depriving them of their right to a fair hearing and expediting their removal from the United States.
According to The New York Times, the lawsuit claims that, since at least last January, the U.S. Department of Justice has placed Somali immigrants on a separate docket and scheduled removal hearings with little to no notice.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The plaintiffs are being represented by two Minnesota-based legal providers, the private firm of Hines Immigration Law and nonprofit Advocates for Human Rights.
Hines, the owner of Hines Immigration Law, emphasized that the Justice Department’s unusual treatment of Somali nationals has very little to do with “efficiency” or “docket management.”
“This is not about efficiency or docket management,” Hines said in a statement.
“This is an undeniably targeted policy that singles out one nationality, designed to rob them of the due process they are legally guaranteed and to strip their legal teams of the ability to adequately and ethically prepare their cases for hearing,” she said.
Late last year, the Trump administration announced “Operation Metro Surge,” a massive boots-on-the-ground immigration enforcement initiative in Minneapolis.
Minneapolis is home to at least 80,000 Somali nationals, whom Trump has repeatedly insulted, disparaged, and characterized as fundamentally un-American. In December, for instance, Trump called Somalis “garbage,” adding that “we don’t want them in our country.”
“We’re getting a lot of their people out,” Trump said of Somalis. “I don’t want them in or country. I’ll be honest with you, okay? Somebody would say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care.”
Trump has also denigrated Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, who came to the United States as a refugee from Somalia, calling her a terrorist-sympathizer and lambasting her with other racially-charged insults.
The Star-Tribune notes that most Somalis living in Minnesota are either U.S. citizens or have some form of legal immigration status. About 1,500 have temporary protected status, or TPS, a special designation for persons from countries experiencing significant political turmoil or which are currently suffering from a natural disaster.
In a statement, Hines said that about 97% of her Somali-origin clients have been rapidly advanced under the federal government’s new policy. In the past, Hines recalled that her clients’ merit hearings were usually scheduled up to a year in advance. Lately, however, individual hearings for Somali nationals have been announced with as little as one month’s notice. Many cases have also been assigned to immigration judges with higher-than-average rates of removal.
Sources
Minnesota attorneys sue Trump administration over Somalis’ fast-tracked asylum cases
Somali Immigrants Have Effectively Been Denied a Fair Hearing, Lawsuit Says
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