Deported migrants are queued to receive their essential items bags when a group of Salvadorans deported to Jelencia de Athension Al immigrants arrives on February 12, 2025 in San Salvador, El Salvador. (Photo: Alex Peña/Getty Images)
Immigration rights groups were warning reporters at a press conference Tuesday without legal status about the dangers of following the Department of Homeland Security directives, group leaders told reporters.
Representatives of immigration groups across the country said a federal judge stated the requirements. It was supported last weekPresident Donald Trump’s administration and subsequent enforcement tools. Registration instructions This could lead to illegal detention and deportation.
Call participants did not expressly say they were counselling immigrants without legal status for compliance with the directive, but said those affected should seek lawyers first.
“The tool is to identify and threaten imprisonment if they fail to comply with detention or deportation,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of the advocacy group The Coalition for Coalition.
“These actions hate the value of this country and we will not be silent in seeing atrocities as this administration’s official immigration policy. For our community, our message is that you are not alone, you are not obligated to seek rights, seek legal guidance, and provide information that can hurt you and your family.”
Under Trump and DHS Secretary Christa Noem, the administration sent “innocent people” to detention facilities at a US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. El Salvador’s infamous megaprison Saras said it is known as the Centro de de conpinemiento del Terrorismo, or cecot.
The administration is detaining immigrants all Legal status It will be ignored without legitimate procedures Court order Reverse these actions. Supporters of the spokesman on Tuesday said it was against the law.
Even without legal status within the country, immigrants are “right to their day in the immigration court,” said Nicole Merak, executive director of the New American National Partnership.
Orderthe constant requirement for US citizenship and immigration services to carry evidence of registration also leads to racial profiling for US citizens, advocates said.
No registered members have been reported
Salas said her Southern California-based organization doesn’t know anyone who has completed the registration.
It is a major obstacle to those who need to register whether it is their interest to adhere to it, and whether those who distrust Trump are campaigning on immigrant anti-immigration platforms and routinely fl on immigration legitimate procedures.
“We know – no one has signed up yet,” she said. “There’s a lot of confusion in our community about whether or not we’re going to do this. What does that mean? What is the risk? And I’d like to say that… Everything that comes from this administration is actually harmful, so people are taking that into consideration.”
Legal battle continues
Judge Neil McFadden of Trevor, who Trump appointed to the federal bench in 2017, rejected advocacy groups’ attempts to block the order last week, saying the group had not shown it hadn’t been hurt by it.
But the legal battle with the order will continue, said George Escobar, chief of program and services at CASA, the immigration services agency.
In addition to the potential appeal of McFadden’s ruling, Escobar said his organization would not hesitate to pose a court challenge by looking at how the administration operates, paying particular attention to racial profiling.
“We’ll do everything we can to fight this,” he said. “This could be a show type of situation where people are racially profiled and could end up on the street just because they are speaking in other languages.
A representative from the Department of Homeland Security declined to respond to a message seeking comment Tuesday.
