IRLI Opposes Asylum Push in California

 

Shows there is no immigration pathway in human trafficking law

 

WASHINGTON—On Friday, the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a California federal district court to refute claims by activist lawyers for alien plaintiffs that an anti-trafficking law Congress passed gives asylum seekers fundamental rights to restart asylum proceedings that have gone against them.

 

In its brief, IRLI first notes the bedrock principle—one stemming from the very idea of national sovereignty, and upheld by the Supreme Court again and again—that aliens trying to enter the United States have no constitutional rights to due process in that attempt beyond any procedures that Congress may choose to give them. These alien plaintiffs, IRLI shows, were given all of the procedures that Congress created in immigration law.

 

As for the anti-trafficking law, IRLI shows that it creates no immigration rights, but rather is designed to protect minor children during their immigration proceedings, often by facilitating their safe removal from the United States and repatriation to their home countries. And these anti-trafficking safeguards, IRLI shows, were fully complied with in this case.

 

“Even though we are now afflicted with an administration bent on letting in any illegal aliens who want to come here, activist attorneys are still trying to get more in the old-fashioned way, by suing them into the country,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. “It is important that we fight these cases, not only because we do not want the problem to become worse, but also because the results the activists want would distort the law, and when enforcement one day resumes, it needs to be effective, not hamstrung by bad court decisions. We hope the court in this case sees the emptiness of plaintiffs’ legal arguments, and rules accordingly.”

 

The case is Immigrant Defenders Law Center v. DHS, No. 2:21-cv-00395 (C.D. Cal.).

 

For additional information, contact: Brian Lonergan • 202-232-5590 • [email protected]