The Door v. Edlow

Case Overview

This lawsuit challenges the government’s broad attempts to rush the deportation of unaccompanied children in violation of their civil rights and child protection laws passed by Congress. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, argues multiple federal agencies are illegally dismantling the rights of unaccompanied immigrant children seeking safety and denying them a fair chance to request protection in the United States.

The plaintiffs in the case include the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights (Amica Center), The Door, The Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project (FIRRP), Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project (GHIRP), Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef), and Jewish Family and Community Services (JFCS) Pittsburgh. The plaintiffs are represented by the National Immigration Law Center, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, the National Center for Youth Law, and Trial Impact Project.

Nearly 20 years ago, Congress passed bipartisan legislation designed to ensure that vulnerable immigrant children could seek refuge and safety in the U.S. Now, these same children are rushed through immigration proceedings in ways that plainly deny them their constitutional right to due process and put them in danger. The complaint argues that multiple government agencies responsible for protecting children and ensuring fair access to legal proceedings have been systematically dismantling their procedural and substantive rights. These actions have included requiring children to file asylum applications within weeks after arriving in the U.S.; giving children extremely short notice —sometimes less than even 24 hours — of their asylum interview, thereby denying them any reasonable opportunity to prepare or submit evidence in support of their claims; abruptly changing the interview venue and format with little warning; mandating the children appear in court multiple times per month; and instructing immigration judges to “complete” their detained immigrant children dockets by January 31, 2027.