ACLU Recruiting Deported Illegal Aliens for ‘Return-and-Sue’

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) representatives reportedly traveled to Mexicali Friday on the hunt for foreign nationals who have previously been deported or removed from the United States in order to add them to a list of plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit against two U.S. federal government agencies.

Students made up the majority of the 100-odd people that showed up at Universidad Autónoma de Baja California of Mexicali for the public forum according to KPBS. ACLU operatives told the crowd that joining the suit against the U.S. government could benefit them greatly, along with thousands of others.

A 2013 lawsuit filed against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Border Patrol accused the federal government of coercing Mexican nationals to sign “voluntary return” paperwork. KPBS reported that signing the form meant forfeiting the deportee’s right to an immigration hearing–and for some deportees, no legal ability to re-enter the country for a decade. The suit was reportedly settled in 2014, giving nine plaintiffs license to re-enter the United States.

Now the ACLU and three organizational plaintiffs are recruiting prior deportees that signed the voluntary return form between June 1, 2009 and August 28, 2014 for a class action provision of the lawsuit approved by Judge John A. Kronstadt. An ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) release states that claimants must also have been processed through San Diego or Los Angeles ICE offices or San Diego Sector Border Patrol offices, and that they must have had a reason to reside in the U.S. at the time they signed the form. Being physically present in Mexico is an additional qualification to join the suit.

One of the reasons to reside in the U.S. now includes qualification under DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) according to KPBS. The ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties made sure to specify in their release that claims must be processed through their organization.

Foreign nationals crossing into the United States illegally that are granted immigration hearings consistently fail to appear at those proceedings in overwhelming percentages–between 70 and 94%, as Breitbart News has previously reported.

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