ACLU of Massachusetts wins settlement in illegal immigration case ahead of Trump's inauguration

Lance Reynolds, Boston Herald on Jan 18, 2025

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BOSTON — A national think tank says the ACLU of Massachusetts is “grasping for relevance” with a settlement it secured in its challenge of the first Trump administration’s pattern of separating married couples and families seeking legal immigration status for a spouse at risk of deportation.

The ACLU has won a settlement that will allow certain illegal immigrants the ability to reopen their removal proceedings and restrict ICE from only taking enforcement actions if it determines an individual poses a public safety threat.

U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf signed off on the final approval of the settlement on Thursday, ending a years-long case. The ACLU and law firm WilmerHale filed the suit in 2018, on behalf of certain U.S. citizens and their noncitizen spouses who had final orders of removal and live in New England.

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Boston Herald Friday that she doesn’t see the settlement agreement as “particularly difficult” for the U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement.

“The ACLU is promoting it as some major act of resistance against Trump,” Vaughan said, “and trying to link it to some imagined broader attempt to deliberately separate children from their parents, but that is really grasping for relevance.”

“It’s a fairly small group of people who will benefit,” she added, “and it’s not even certain they will prevail in getting green cards. ICE still has the ability to detain those in the class who turn out to be a risk.”

The lawsuit alleged the government violated regulations by removing and deporting illegal immigrants with a final order of removal without first checking if the immigrant had a provisional waiver that allows noncitizen spouses temporary relief and protects them from deportation.

Lilian Calderon, the central plaintiff of the case, is married to a U.S. citizen and has two U.S.-born children. She arrived in the United States from Guatemala in 1991 and got married in 2016. Calderon was detained in January 2018 after going to an interview to confirm her marriage, an essential step in obtaining legal status, in Rhode Island.

The ACLU accused ICE of planning to deport Calderon away from her husband and two young children and argued that she and other immigrants in her situation should be granted temporary relief while they are working to obtain legal status.

“Seven years ago, I was suddenly taken from my husband and kids when I went into a government office to try to seek legal status,” Calderon said in a statement. “I was taken to a detention center, and some of the women there shared with me how they too were separated from their families.”

“Now my husband and I can tell our kids with certainty that our family won’t be separated,” she added. “I hope that this country does not shut the door on families like mine, and I am thankful to have been part of a case that helps keep families together.”

In a 2018 federal court hearing, Boston ICE’s then-field director Todd Lyons testified that Calderon would not have been detained if her case had been further investigated.

Lyons agreed with Judge Wolf that Calderon was not a “flight risk” as she had a family and a home in Rhode Island, and if she had filed an I-212, which is a document needed to obtain temporary legal status, she wouldn’t have been separated from her family.

The government moved to dismiss the case in the summer of 2018, contending that the court did not have jurisdiction to hear it. Wolf ruled that ICE must consider provisional applications before deciding to remove illegal immigrants.

Wolf cited a January 2017 executive order that states no illegal immigrant is exempt from removal; however, priority should be given to immigrants engaged in criminal activity or who pose a threat to public safety and national security.

In May 2019, Wolf granted class certification, extending the lawsuit’s effect to hundreds of New England citizens and their noncitizen spouses, the ACLU highlighted in a release. Calderon became a U.S. citizen last year, the organization said.

“As we face a second Trump administration and his threats to detain and deport people en masse,” ACLU of Massachusetts executive director Carol Rose said in a statement, “this case is a reminder of the human toll of such cruel and unlawful policies: By targeting immigrant community members who live in our neighborhoods, attend our schools, and run local small businesses, the government tears apart families, communities, and the fabric of our nation.”

The ACLU also highlighted how it filed 434 legal actions against the federal government during the first Trump administration.

“It’s noteworthy that the ACLU drew one of the most liberal, anti-ICE judges in the country, and still they came away with little to show for it,” Vaughan, of the Center of Immigration Studies, told the Herald. “They didn’t even get legal fees.”

“This settlement will not significantly affect (ICE’s) operations in any way,” she added. “Even so, we can expect the ACLU to keep the courts tied up with lawsuits on behalf of illegal aliens who should be removed, instead of working on behalf of Americans who need relief from illegal immigration.”