Immigration advocates and lawyers filed a class-action lawsuit Wednesday against U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, arguing that CBP officers at crossings along the Mexican border have systemically violated U.S. law and international human rights agreements by refusing to allow people to seek asylum.
Filed by Al Otro Lado, a California-based nonprofit, and a half-dozen immigrants using pseudonyms, the lawsuit alleges that CBP officers at ports of entry in California, Texas and Arizona have used a range of tactics to rebuff people seeking asylum in the United States, including "misrepresentations, threats and intimidation, verbal abuse and physical force, and coercion."
In some cases, CBP officers allegedly told asylum seekers that they could not apply for asylum because "Donald Trump just signed new laws saying there is no asylum for anyone."
In other instances, officers allegedly threw away documents, threatened people to get them to recant their stories, and told parents that they would separate them from their children if they pushed forward on their asylum claims.