Donald Trump has been sued by a left-wing activist group over his border crackdown as they have accused him of a “power grab”.
The group of activists, led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the US President's administration on Monday.
This came after Trump signed executive orders on day one of his inauguration declaring a national emergency at the border, allowing officials to remove migrants without allowing them to request asylum.
This was part of a wider crackdown which included ending parole programs and deploying the military to the border.
This came after Trump signed executive orders on day one of his inauguration
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According to reports by Fox News, border numbers in the first seven days of Trump’s presidency were down 60 per cent compared to the last week of the Biden administration.
The ACLU has claimed that the use of the power is unlawful since US law allows migrants to apply for asylum even if having entered the country illegally.
The lawsuit branded the executive order as “unlawful” and “unprecedented” and doing what Congress by statute decreed that the US must not do.
“It is returning asylum seekers—not just single adults, but families too—to countries where they face persecution or torture, without allowing them to invoke the protections Congress has provided. Indeed, the Proclamation does not even exempt unaccompanied children, despite the specific protections such children receive by statute,” it reads.
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Lee Gelernt, the deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project called this an “unprecedented power grab that will put countless lives in danger.”
He argued: “No president has the authority to unilaterally override the protections Congress has afforded those fleeing danger.”
Groups supporting ACLU in the lawsuit include the ACLU of the District of Columbia, the ACLU of Texas, the National Immigrant Justice Center, Texas Civil Rights Project, and the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies.
A White House statement said there are no current plans to change course on the crackdown.
Lee Gelernt of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project called this an “unprecedented power grab that will put countless lives in danger"
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Speaking to Fox News, White House spokesman Kush Desai said: “President Trump was given a resounding mandate to end the disregard and abuse of our immigration laws and secure our borders.”
“The Trump administration will continue to put Americans and America First.”
This lawsuit is one of two - the first one was filed by the ACLU last month over Trump’s order which ended birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants and those with temporary visas
The White House called these lawsuits “nothing more than an extension of the Left’s resistance” claiming that the Trump administration would be ready to face them in court.
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