News & Commentary

The ACLU has filed a class action lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s pattern of separating married couples and families pursuing lawful immigration status. The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit is Rhode Island resident and mother Lilian Calderon, who was recently released from detention as the result of earlier ACLU court action.

ACLU of RI executive director Steven Brown issued the following statement today in response to the inclusion of a question about citizenship status in the 2020 census:

Responding, in an ACLU lawsuit, to a federal judge’s order demanding answers as to why Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials detained Lilian Calderon, a 30-year-old Rhode Island mother of two young children, for almost a month, an ICE official has cited three reasons: (1) it believed her 2002 order of removal—which she had been taking steps to address since 2016 under available regulations—rendered her a flight risk, (2) the “availability of bed space”; and (3) “lack of child care issues.” The official also acknowledged that Calderon could be subject to detention again after a three-month stay that ICE issued expires.

Following the release Tuesday of Rhode Island resident Lilian Calderon from an immigration detention facility after being detained by ICE for almost a month, a federal judge in Massachusetts is demanding answers from the federal agency in response to the ACLU lawsuit filed last week that challenged her detention and helped lead to her release.

The ACLU today announced the release of Lilian Calderon, a Rhode Island mother who was detained last month by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Calderon has lived in the United States since she was brought across the border at the age of three, and her sudden detention separated her from her husband and two young children. "Lilian’s detention was inhumane and unlawful," said Adriana Lafaille, staff attorney at ACLU of Massachusetts. "We are pleased that she is back home with her family, and will continue to work to protect Lilian’s rights and to fight against arbitrary detentions like this one." In 2016, Calderon and her husband began a process created by the government that allows individuals in Calderon’s situation to apply for lawful permanent residency. On January 17, she appeared at the Johnston, Rhode Island offices of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) with her husband for an interview designed to confirm their marital relationship – the first step in the process of seeking to become a lawful permanent resident. At the end of the interview, USCIS recognized their marital relationship as legitimate, setting her one step further along the path of seeking her status. Immediately afterward, she was abruptly detained by ICE and taken to a detention facility in Boston. "In this case, the government’s left hand beckoned her forward, and its right hand grabbed her,” said Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU of Rhode Island. “This is yet another local example of families torn apart and lives disrupted for no legitimate immigration enforcement purpose. We are glad that she is able to return to Rhode Island and her family." The ACLU of Massachusetts – with support from the ACLU of Rhode Island – filed a petition in federal court to seek the immediate release of Calderon. The lawsuit argued that Calderon’s detention was a violation of her constitutional right to due process and federal immigration laws and regulations. "I am so happy to see my husband and children again and to be out of immigration detention, which was a terrible ordeal for our family,” said Calderon upon release. “What the government is doing to my family, and to so many others, is simply wrong."

By: Carol Rose, Executive Director, ACLU of Massachusetts and Steven Brown, Executive Director, ACLU of Rhode Island

BREAKING 2/6/18 11:20AM: Judge bars removal of Calderon outside Massachusetts while the suit is pending.  The judge's order is available here.

Here’s a look at the top issues – including some big victories and losses – of 2017:

Where were you a year ago? We were digesting the election results and hoping that the Trump presidency wouldn’t be based on the same hateful ideas that made up much of his campaign.  By February, we had stopped hoping and were hard at work trying to protect Rhode Island’s immigrant communities.  And that was just the beginning of what has been a challenging year for our founding principles.  We have been VERY busy – both challenging federal threats to our rights, and working to safeguard and expand justice in the Ocean State in response to those threats. Here’s a look at a sample month-by-month snippet of what we have been up to in resisting the Trump anti-civil rights agenda: