Federal Court Halts Detention of Immigrant Survivors of Crime

In January 2025, Trump arbitrarily decided to detain and deport immigrants who had a legal right to remain in the United States because as victims of crime, they had applied for a U, T, or VAWA visa. By October of that year  a coalition of nonprofit organizations filed a class action suit on their behalf–the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, Public Counsel, La Raza Centro Legal (LRCL), and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA). 

Last week, on May 20, a federal judge in the Central District of California issued a preliminary injunction protecting these immigrant survivors of domestic violence, trafficking, and other serious crimes on a nationwide basis. After hearing arguments from plaintiffs’ counsel and government lawyers, the judge wrote a 100-page order analyzing every one of the claims submitted by the plaintiffs and found in their favor on all of them. This means the final decision will almost certainly find in favor of the plaintiffs, but since the case could take years to litigate, the preliminary injunction protects all immigrants with this status and even requires them to be returned home if they have been deported. The judge found that the government’s policies violated both the Due Process Clause and the Constitution.

When this lawsuit was filed, it was covered widely in the media, including the New York Times, yet there has been relatively little coverage of this decision, which affects hundreds of thousands of immigrants. You can learn more about the case here:  Immigration Center for Women and Children v. Mullin, (ICWC v. Mullin).  

Sources

Press release, May 21, 2026, Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law

Litigation summary, Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law