[S]everal civil and immigrant rights organization says they will be filing a “major” federal immigration lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Vermont.
Details of the filing were not immediately available late Monday afternoon. A press conference has been set for Wednesday outside the federal court in Burlington after the lawsuit is filed.
Six organizations are listed in a media advisory sent out Monday as taking part in that press event.
Those groups including Migrant Justice, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, the National Immigration Law Center, and the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
Will Lambek, an organizer with Burlington-based Migrant Justice, said late Monday afternoon he couldn’t comment on the upcoming lawsuit, pending its filing Wednesday.
Jen Nessel, communications coordinator for the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, also declined Monday to reveal lawsuit details until it has been filed.
Actions by the Trump administration since taking office two years ago regarding immigration have prompted strong rebukes from civil and immigration rights groups in Vermont.
Those actions have ranged from reducing the number of refugees allowed into the country each year to Border Patrol agents questioning Greyhound bus and Amtrak passengers about their citizenship.
Earlier this year American Civil Liberties Union affiliates in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine filed a lawsuit seeking information about immigration enforcement in the three states, which all share borders with Canada.
ACLU requested documents from the Department of Homeland Security and two of its arms, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in September.
According to the suit, the legal action was taken after the agencies failed to adequately respond to the request.
The lawsuit outlines enforcement action that have raised concerns about civil liberties violations, such as immigration arrests at courthouses and Border Patrol checkpoints along roads a considerable distance from the international boundary.
That lawsuit remains pending.
