Court Cases

The ACLU of Virginia filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of two children who the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) has been unlawfully detaining at a Virginia youth facility for more than 10 months. These children are being held without access to necessary medical services despite having a viable home placement with a sponsor.

The ACLU of Virginia filed an emergency petition in federal court on behalf of Anabella Gyasi, a pregnant Ghanian who has been illegally detained at Dulles Airport without access to adequate food, hygiene, or medical care with her four-year old son for over a week.

The ACLU of Virginia filed a Writ of Habeas Corpus on behalf of a Virginia father and business owner after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unlawfully detained him and denied him bond in direct violation of his due process rights.

Dr. Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown professor and postdoctoral scholar on religion and peace processes in the Middle East and South Asia, is legally in the U.S. on a research scholar and professor visa. He is an Indian national who lives with his U.S. citizen wife and three children in Rosslyn, Virginia. When he arrived home on the evening of Monday, March 17 following a traditional Ramadan meal celebration, he was taken into custody by masked federal agents without being charged with or accused of any crime. In just over 72 hours, he was shuffled to multiple immigration detention centers, ultimately landing in Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, where he was detained until his release on bond on May 14.

The ACLU of Virginia filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of four young people and a class of those in similar circumstances who Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are unlawfully holding in Virginia detention centers, flagrantly ignoring federal laws that give these young immigrants a legal right to be in the United States.

The ACLU of Virginia and Legal Aid Justice Center filed an emergency motion on behalf of the Dream Project to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging Virginia's in-state tuition law for immigrant students.

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Virginia, and ACLU of North Carolina today filed a lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to obtain records regarding the agency’s potential plans to expand immigration detention across Virginia.

Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian national who was acquitted of terrorism-related charges last year, filed a lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia challenging his prolonged unlawful detention and inhumane treatment by the United States. Mr. Trabelsi is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the University of Chicago Law School’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, the ACLU of Virginia, and Professor Jonathan Hafetz of Seton Hall Law School.

On March 12, 2024, ACLU of Virginia filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit on behalf of an immigrant survivor of domestic violence whose request for a U visa certification the Roanoke Police Department is refusing to certify in open defiance of state law.