SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER ISSUES STATEMENT ON COURT RULING DENYING GOVERNMENT’S MOTION TO DISMISS IN FAMILY SEPARATION CASE

WASHINGTON — The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) released the following statement from Norma Ventura, staff attorney with the SPLC’s Immigrant Justice Project, in response to a federal court ruling allowing a challenge to the government’s family separation policy to proceed. The United States District Court for the District of Arizona denied the government’s Motion to Dismiss in a federal lawsuit filed by SPLC, Covington & Burling and Coppersmith Brockelman on behalf of a father and son who were forcibly separated by government officials after they arrived at the U.S. border and attempted to seek asylum.

“The court’s decision gets us one step closer to showing the intentional cruelty behind the Trump administration’s family separation policy, which the Biden administration continues to defend in court to this day. We will continue to work with our clients, a father and his child, to hold the federal government responsible and are eager for our clients to have their day in court.”

Read more about the case: FEDERAL LAWSUIT SEEKS DAMAGES FOR FAMILY TORN APART BY TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S SEPARATION POLICY (January 22, 2022)