A group of migrants within a caravan advancing towards the U.S. border filed suit against President Donald Trump over his pledge to block them and referred him to as their own leader.
The class-action lawsuit was filed in a U.S. district court in Washington, D.C., and claims Trump and the Department of Homeland Security are violating their Fifth Amendment right to due process by pledging to stop them from entering the United States.
PEDRO PARDO/AFP/Getty Images
“Trump’s professed and enacted policy toward thousands of caravanners seeking asylum in the United States is shockingly unconstitutional. President Trump continues to abuse the law, including constitutional rights, to deter Central Americans from exercising their lawful right to seek asylum in the United States,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit, however, curiously refers to Trump as the migrant’s own president: “The issue of detaining people in tents indefinitely brings about more unconstitutional conduct by our president.”
ORLANDO ESTRADA/AFP/Getty Images
The president has been incensed by the advancing caravan which has swelled to nearly 6,000 people, largely comprised of citizens of Central America.
Trump pledged to sign a comprehensive new executive order that would force asylum seekers to go toward legal ports of entry and to end the policy of catch and release, in a major Thursday afternoon immigration address.
Trump noted that the U.S. military would be erecting major tent cities along the U.S.-Mexico border and pledged that anybody detained seeking asylum would await their adjudication procedures while in custody.
The president did not offer specifics on the plan but noted that he will try to circumvent current loopholes which allow illegal immigrants to claim asylum and gain entry into the country.