Sarmiento et al. v. Perry et al.

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 four young adults came to the United States as unaccompanied minors who were abused, neglected, or abandoned, and applied for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), a pathway to citizenship established by Congress in 1990 specifically for vulnerable minors who entered the U.S. under such circumstances. To gain citizenship through SIJS, minors must follow three steps: first, the Office of Refugee Resettlement must release the minor to the care of a sponsor. Then, the sponsor must get custody from a state judge, who must determine the child should not go back to their country of origin. Finally, the minor may apply for SIJS. Still, the path to citizenship can take more than six years.

All four named plaintiffs in today’s class action successfully applied for or were granted SIJS, yet are now being held at Farmville or Caroline Detention Facility in Virginia. Unlike other noncitizens who enter the U.S., people who came to the U.S. as unaccompanied minors are not typically subject to detention. But under the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security is now unlawfully treating people with SIJS as arriving noncitizens who are subject to mandatory detention, and denying them bond hearings before an immigration judge – despite clear protections granted to them not only through SIJS, but also by anti-trafficking laws, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the United States Constitution.

The amended petition and class action complaint was filed in the Alexandria division of the Eastern District of Virginia. The class action lawsuit argues that all four plaintiffs and a proposed class of others similarly situated are entitled to bond hearings and should be released from detention because they have sought or been granted SIJ status. The ACLU-VA is co-counseling this case with attorneys Taniska Cruz of Cruz Law, PLLC and Patrice Kopistanky.