Home : Immigrants' Rights : Due Process

Attorney General Ends Constitutional Protection For Immigrants From Lawyers' Mistakes (01/08/2009)
NEW YORK – In a radical departure from years of legal precedent, Attorney General Michael Mukasey has ended the practice of allowing immigrants to reopen immigration cases that they lost because of their lawyers' mistakes or incompetence. Mukasey's order, which is effective immediately, may lead to the deportation of innumerable immigrants who have lost their cases due to attorney error.

Settlement Reached in Lawsuit Challenging Unreasonable Delays in Granting Citizenship (08/12/2008)
The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington (ACLU-WA), and the law firms of Stoel Rives and Ropes and Gray today announced that they have reached a preliminary settlement agreement with the federal government in a landmark class action lawsuit.

ACLU Obtains Government "Manual" For Prepackaged Guilty Pleas For Prosecution Of Immigrant Workers In Postville, Iowa (07/31/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union obtained a government "manual" distributed to defense lawyers assigned to represent immigrant workers arrested and prosecuted in last May's Postville, Iowa meatpacking raids. The document – posted on the ACLU Web site today – contains prepackaged scripts for plea and sentencing hearings as well as documents providing for guilty pleas and waivers of rights that were used to push the more than 300 Postville workers through mass criminal proceedings as quickly as possible.

ACLU Sues Government Over Citizenship Delay For Iraq War Hero (07/16/2008)
KANSAS CITY, MO – The American Civil Liberties Union sued the government in a federal court in Kansas for unlawfully delaying the citizen application of Julian Polous Al Matchy, a highly decorated U.S. Army war hero. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court with the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri in cooperation with the McCrummen Immigration Law Group, LLC against Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, FBI Director Robert Mueller and two officers of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

ACLU In Federal Court Today To Prevent Deportation Of Egyptian To Torture (06/30/2008)
PHILADELPHIA – The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Pennsylvania were in a federal appeals court today challenging the government's efforts to deport an Egyptian torture victim. The government claims to be relying on unreviewable "diplomatic assurances" from Egypt that it will not torture him upon his return. Last January, in the first decision of its kind, a federal district court sided with the ACLU and ordered the government to stop the deportation of Sameh Khouzam based on such secret and unreliable promises and release him under conditions of supervision. However, the Bush administration appealed this ruling, claiming that the executive branch has unfettered authority to deport Khouzam and to detain him indefinitely pending his legal proceedings.

Attorney General Mukasey's Order Eliminating "Ineffective Assistance" Right (01/07/2009)

Nken v. Mukasey - Law Professors' Amicus Brief (12/26/2008)

Castelano, et al. v. Rice, et al. - Second Amended Complaint (09/09/2008)

Polous Al Matchy v. Mukasey et al. - Exhibit 1 (07/16/2008)

Polous Al Matchy v. Mukasey et al. - Exhibit 2 (07/16/2008)

Testimony from Mark Rosenbaum and James Brosnahan about deportation of U.S. Citizen Peter Guzman (02/13/2008)
The government—whether it be federal or local—lacks any discretion to deport citizens of the Unites States. Citizenship is the constitutional birthright of every individual born within our national borders, and surely the first obligation of government is to preserve at any cost the liberty and security of its citizens to remain within their homeland.

Congressman Pitts (R-PA) Letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (06/01/2007)
Congressman Pitts (R-PA) Letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

Liberty & Justice For All Coalition's Statement on Restoring Due Process to Immigrants (05/25/2007)
The undersigned groups are committed to ensuring that the immigration system be reformed to ensure respect for fundamental due process rights. Ensuring due process in the overall system is essential to making comprehensive reform workable, effective and fair.

Court-Stripping and Anti-Immigrant Provisions in H.R. 10 (As Passed by House) (10/13/2004)

Coalition Sign-on Letter to the House Expressing Support of Rep. Chris Smith's Amendments to Strike Sections 3006 and 3007 from H.R. 10, The House Intelligence Reorganization bill (10/07/2004)

Ineffective Assistance Right for Immigrants (10/07/2008)

Government "manual" distributed to Iowa defense lawyers (07/31/2008)
Government "manual" distributed to defense lawyers assigned to represent immigrant workers arrested and prosecuted in the May 2008 Postville, Iowa meat packing raids.

ACLU Joins Fix '96 Campaign For Justice For Immigrants (02/19/2002)
Throughout our history, the United States has been known for being a nation of immigrants, justice and opportunity. While at times our policies have strayed - sometimes tragically - from those ideals, they have consistently served as a foundation of our democracy.

Justice For All: ACLU Argues Crucial Immigrants' Rights Case Before Supreme Court (02/19/2002)
NEW YORK-In a ringing endorsement of 'justice for all,' the U.S. Supreme Court today affirmed the right of legal immigrants to have their cases reviewed by a court before facing deportation and said that a 1996 law making deportation automatic for an expanded group of immigrants could not be applied retroactively.

An interview with Immigrants' Rights Project Director Lucas Guttentag on Challenging the 1996 Immigration Laws (03/01/1996)
Lucas Guttentag, a Harvard Law School graduate and adjunct professor at Columbia and Boalt Hall schools of law, has concentrated his career on helping people without a voice be heard. In 1985, after clerking for Texas federal judge William Wayne Justice and seven years as a civil rights attorney and law professor, he joined the American Civil Liberties Union National Office. On Dec. 30, 1997 Supplements Editor Kristin Carder spoke with Lucas Guttentag on the issue of judicial review in immigration cases. Following is a transcript of that discussion, edited for length and style.

Nken v. Mukasey (12/29/2008)
Whether federal law can be construed to make it more difficult for an alien facing removal from the country to obtain a temporary stay pending judicial review of the agency decision than to obtain a final judgment reversing the removal order.

Khouzam v. Chertoff (03/07/2002)
The ACLU and the ACLU of Pennsylvania (2007) prevailed in their case on behalf of an Egyptian Coptic Christian who had been detained and who claimed he had been tortured by the Egyptian government because he refused to convert to Islam. After permitting Sameh Khouzam to stay in the United States for nine years based on evidence that he would probably be tortured if he returned to Egypt, the U.S. government changed its position in 2007 and sought to deport Mr. Khouzam based on diplomatic assurances from the Egyptian government that Mr. Khouzam would not be tortured upon return. As a result of the ACLU's advocacy, a federal court granted Mr. Khouzam an indefinite stay of deportation to Egypt.