Paul, Weiss Heads Steering Committee Focused on Deported Parents

Paul, Weiss is leading a court-established Steering Committee formed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to assist the roughly 400 migrant parents who were deported to their home countries without their children in voicing their reunification preferences. The committee was constituted in connection with a class action, Ms. L v. ICE, brought by the ACLU challenging the Trump administration’s family separation policy.

Paul, Weiss’s role, in coordination with three nonprofit groups and the U.S. government, is to collect and organize contact information of deported parents, to establish contact with parents, to establish their wishes, and to liaise with counsel for separated children about the children’s preferences with respect to reunification. The three nonprofit partners working with Paul, Weiss include Justice in Motion, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) and Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC).

To date, the firm has been in contact with most of the parents and with lawyers for the separated children, and has delivered reunification preferences for the vast majority of the group. We are currently in the process of identifying a subgroup of deported parents who may be eligible to return to the U.S. to apply for asylum.

The Paul, Weiss team involved in the steering committee’s efforts is led by firm chair Brad Karp, litigation counsel Steve Herzog, corporate associate David Marshall, pro bono Associate BJ Jensen and litigation associate Elizabeth Grossman, and has been assisted by roughly 70 other Paul, Weiss associates, summer associates and paralegals.

Read more information on our role here