Caravan migrants deliver gift to Trump — a lawsuit

Ed Morrissey  --  Posted at 10:01 am on November 2, 2018

They haven’t yet reached the US border, but their attorneys have already stormed Washington DC. A dozen migrants in the caravans marching toward the American border have filed a lawsuit accusing Donald Trump of violating their Fifth Amendment rights — even though they have yet to set foot in the country:

Honduran nationals are listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The suit, which was filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., said it is widely known that Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are “undergoing a well-documented human rights crisis.” The lawsuit also claims that the plaintiffs’ right to the Administrative Procedures Act and the Declaratory Judgement Act were being infringed upon. …

The lawsuit points to Trump’s claim that he will prevent the caravan from entering the U.S. It claims that the president cannot stop asylum-seekers by employing the military — when they have a fair claim. The suit criticized the president’s alleged attempt at stoking “fear and hysteria” by claiming that criminals and gang members have joined the caravan.

The suit cited a Trump interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, where the president laid out plans to build tent cities to house migrants. The suit questioned the functionality of such a project, and asked if these living quarters would qualify under the Flores Agreement of 1997. The agreement protects asylum-seekers’ rights and limits how long minors can be held.

What could be more arrogant than suing the US to demand entry and better housing before they even arrive?

The language in the suit itself provides evidence of this, too. For instance, in arguing that Trump’s public statements show an intent to create “indefinite detention” in tents, the suit asserts that “the issue of detaining people in tents indefinitely brings about more unconstitutional conduct by our President.” Er … whose president? Trump isn’t the president of the plaintiffs; if they were legal US residents, they wouldn’t have to file a lawsuit in the first place.

The problem here for the lawsuit is its ripeness. No one has yet been denied any due process. Trump’s public comments do not make a constitutional violation, at least not yet. Until these plaintiffs reach the border and make an attempt to enter the country and actually suffer these now-hypothetical injuries to their “rights,” they don’t have a case. This lawsuit is a stunt. The caravans just didn’t get to the border in time, so their attorneys are trying to make the argument in a lawsuit instead.