Class Action Lawsuit Challenges Unlawful Deportations to Third Countries Without Notice and Opportunity to Seek Protection from Persecution or Torture
Boston, MA – Yesterday, four individuals with final removal orders filed a national class action in federal district court in Boston, Massachusetts. The lawsuit challenges the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) policy of deporting noncitizens to countries the government never raised as possible countries of removal during their immigration proceedings, without any notice or the opportunity to contest removal due to a fear of persecution, torture, and even death if deported. The lawsuit also challenges a secret, February 18, 2025 directive instructing DHS officers to review the cases of individuals previously released from immigration detention—including those who have complied with the terms of their release for years and even decades—for re-detention and removal to a third country. The court set a hearing on a motion for emergency relief for Friday, March 28 in Boston. Plaintiffs are represented by National Immigration Litigation Alliance (NILA), Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), and Human Rights First.
DHS has long failed to implement a uniform system to ensure that individuals are provided notice and an opportunity to apply for protection before DHS deports a person to a previously unidentified country. Now, as DHS is under pressure from the Trump administration to carry out mass deportations, there has been a dramatic escalation of cases in which individuals are re-detained and then deported to previously unidentified countries without notice or opportunity to raise a fear claim. A covert directive dated February 18, 2025, which was recently leaked to the press, encourages officers to re-detain people with final orders who could not be removed, including those who had won protection from the immigration court. DHS’s actions—including the directive—place an untold number of noncitizens at imminent risk of deprivation of liberty and deportation to countries in which they may be in serious danger, all without the basic procedural protections of notice and opportunity to present a fear-based claim.
The four plaintiffs, who are from Cuba, Honduras, Ecuador, and Guatemala, seek to represent a nationwide class of similarly situated individuals at risk of re-detention and deportation to a third country. One of the plaintiffs, O.C.G., who won protection from deportation to Guatemala, already has been deported to Mexico, even though he testified in court that he had had been targeted and raped in Mexico and even though DHS advised the court it was not seeking to designate Mexico as a country of removal. In Mexico, authorities gave him the Hobson’s choice of languishing in detention in a country where he had been persecuted, or being deported to back to persecution in Guatemala. He currently remains in hiding in Guatemala.
In addition to seeking nationwide certification, the lawsuit seeks an order declaring DHS’s actions in violation of the law, enjoining the agency from failing to provide notice and an opportunity to present any fear-based claims, and enjoining the February 18, 2025 re-detention directive.
“Notice and the opportunity to be heard are cornerstones of due process, deeply rooted in the U.S. justice system. The government’s flagrant violation of its legal obligations is placing noncitizens at risk of persecution, torture, and even death. But it also should be deeply concerning to everyone who believes in fair process,” said Trina Realmuto, Executive Director for NILA.
“We are demanding that DHS operate within the law,” said Matt Adams, legal director for NWIRP. “DHS may not simply ignore the orders issued by the immigration court providing protection and remove our clients and proposed class members to another country without first providing an opportunity to return to court if necessary.”
“The United States is committed by treaty and statute not to send people to countries where they would suffer persecution or torture,” said Anwen Hughes, Director of Legal Strategy for Refugee Programs at Human Rights First. “The only way to ensure this does not happen is to give people notice and an opportunity to raise any fear claims.”
View the complaint.
