CHIRLA v. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Update: The registration rule is in effect as of April 11, 2025. The rule has not been stopped by litigation. Consult with an immigration attorney to better understand the consequences of registering or of not registering.

Case Overview

This lawsuit challenges the Trump administration’s rule requiring millions of people to register with the federal government and carry proof of their registration with them at all times, or risk federal criminal prosecution.

The lawsuit was filed by the National Immigration Law Center, the American Immigration Council, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, RFK Human Rights, and CASA. Plaintiffs include the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), CASA, United Farm Workers (UFW), and Make the Road New York (MRNY). 

Just 30 days after publishing a rule with no public input, the government is activating  a long-dormant, WWII-era federal law to require non-citizens to register after arriving in the United States. The rule is now creating a universal registration process and establishing an unprecedented requirement that millions of people, including those here legally, carry specific identity papers with them at all times. The administration is also treating violations of this new process as a criminal enforcement priority, meaning that they will aggressively prosecute people for “willful” failure to register or for failing to carry their papers. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has stated explicitly that the rule is meant to incentivize people to “self-deport.”  

The Department of Homeland Security published the rule without allowing the public to submit comments beforehand, treating it as a “procedural rule” that doesn’t impact people’s lives or require public input.

The lawsuit argues the following:

•  Because the rule will affect millions of people and their legal rights, it should have been subjected to the notice and public comment requirements that agencies are required to follow. 

• The rule is confusingly written and implementing it will cause chaos. There is little clarity about what categories of immigrants will already be counted as officially “registered.” For example, those who’ve received DACA and TPS protections wouldn’t count as registered if they don’t also have a work permit.