A Houston-based attorney has filed a lawsuit against several federal departments and officials in response to a mandate requiring some immigrants to register with the government, depending on their immigration status.
Houston attorney Raed Gonzalez filed the lawsuit last weekend on behalf of an anonymous Houston resident who is in the United States without legal status. The suit pertains to a mandate issued earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that requires all non-citizens over the age of 13 to register and be fingerprinted by the department if they remain in the country for at least 30 days.
The lawsuit refers to the mandate as a “universal immigration registration regime.” Gonzalez argues it violates the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by requiring the registrant to fill out a form in which they have to disclose that they are not in the country legally.
“In sum, because Form G-325R compels unregistered noncitizens to submit incriminating information to the government, it runs afoul of the Self-incrimination Clause,” the lawsuit argues.
Named as defendants in the lawsuit are the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Department of Justice, along with department directors.
In a statement to Houston Public Media on Thursday, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McClaughlin said the department does not comment on specific cases, but added the new policy will continue to be enforced.
“DHS Secretary Kristi Noem reminds all foreign nationals present in the United Stated [sic] longer than 30 days that the deadline to register under the Alien Registration Act was on April 11,” McClaughlin said. “Failure to comply is a crime, punishable by fines and imprisonment. This isn’t anything new, this law was passed nearly 100 years ago. The Trump administration will enforce all our immigration laws — we will not pick and choose which laws we will enforce.”
Gonzalez was not immediately available for comment.
The mandate he’s challenging was issued by Noem, who was confirmed shortly after President Donald Trump took office in January. According to the lawsuit, the mandate was issued in response to an executive order issued by Trump on his inauguration day to require all “unregistered aliens” to register with the government.
The lawsuit argues the policy change reverses “the government’s long-standing approach to registration – a limited registration policy that has been in place since the end of World War II.”
The lawsuit also claims that Homeland Security did not follow the proper process when issuing the mandate because it failed to allow for a period of public comment on the policy change.
“Defendants attempt to rush through these sweeping changes without any meaningful explanation for the change in policy and without the notice, public comment and careful consideration that Congress requires to avoid exactly these types of harm,” the lawsuit states.
As of Friday, none of the federal departments or directors had filed a response to the lawsuit, which was filed in a federal court in Houston.
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