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Darweesh v. Trump

National Security

Status: Closed (Settled)

Last Update: August 31, 2017

What's at Stake

This case challenges President Trump’s Muslim ban. The lead plaintiffs have been detained by the U.S. government and threatened with deportation even though they have valid visas to enter the United States. One plaintiff, Hameed Darweesh, an Iraqi husband and father of three, worked for the U.S. military and his life was in danger in Iraq due to that relationship. The other plaintiff’s wife and son were threatened because of their perceived ties to the United States. U.S. Customs and Border Protection detained both men in JFK Airport in New York as they entered the country.

Summary

Their continued detention based solely on the executive order violates their Fifth Amendment procedural and substantive due process rights as well as U.S. immigration statutes. Their detention is part of a widespread pattern applied to many refugees and other foreign-born visitors and immigrants arriving in the United States since the executive order was issued on January 27, 2017.

Counsel for plaintiffs are the American Civil Liberties Union, the International Refugee Assistance Project at the Urban Justice Center, the National Immigration Law Center, Yale Law School’s Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization and the firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton.

UPDATE: The Trump administration settled with the plaintiffs in the first legal challenge to the president’s original executive order, which sought to bar travelers from certain majority Muslim countries from entering the United States and to dramatically curtail the admission of refugees. The settlement ensures that all travelers who were barred from the country on the basis of the ban and have not since returned to the United States are informed of their right to reapply for a visa and provided with a list of free legal services organizations that can help them do so.