Morrison Foerster Secures Settlement for Immigrant Children Kept in Detention

Morrison Foerster, together with its pro bono partners the New York Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union, and National Center for Youth Law, today announced a settlement in their 2018 case challenging the Trump administration’s delayed release of immigrant children to parents and sponsors due to new fingerprint background check requirements that the administration imposed. The requirements had been suspended soon after the lawsuit was filed. 

“We hope the changes mean children are quickly reunited with their families,” said Michael Birnbaum, a Morrison Foerster partner. “MoFo is proud to provide support the case, guided by our principle to serve those who otherwise are often neglected by the justice system.”

The settlement will prevent harmful fingerprinting policies and delays from being reinstated by current or future administrations by establishing a set of presumptive deadlines. The government will now be required to schedule in a timely manner fingerprinting appointments and complete fingerprint processing for parents and sponsors seeking to be reunited with children in government custody: seven business days for an appointment and 10 business days for processing. This standard will apply to all children nationally in the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) custody, and the agency will also be required to regularly release reports about their process and results during this period—tracking, for the first time, how long fingerprinting takes across the agency.

The MoFo pro bono team was led by Michael Birnbaum, together with Lauren Gambier.

Original filings and case materials can be found on the NYCLU website. Read the New York Civil Liberties Union press release for more details.