An executive order signed by President Trump in January ordered DHS to enforce a 1940s federal law, the Immigration and Nationality Act, which requires registration and fingerprinting for non-citizens.
The executive order set up an online registration process that makes it mandatory, with criminal penalties for non-compliance, and requires illegals to carry proof of registration.
Alarmed by those requirements, which will likely help DHS and ICE find and deport illegal aliens, the executive order is being challenged in the courts.
The lawsuit to stop those requirements is Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights v. DHS, which is now in the D.C. Court of Appeals. Oral arguments are set for Dec. 18.
According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs compare the mandatory registration and document-carrying requirement to an ominous “national registry” that threatens their civil liberties.
In a legal brief, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, defends the registration in light of an estimated 11 to 18 million illegal aliens living in the United States. "It is not burdensome to give aliens an additional, more convenient option to comply with their pre-existing statutory duty to register," the court filing states.
FAIR spokesman Ira Mehlman tells AFN the lawsuit is “completely the inverse” of the reasoning behind the federal law and the registration process.
“They're claiming that the tracking system allows the government to track them, which is precisely what the system is supposed to do,” Mehlman says.
The plaintiffs appealed to the DC court in June after their motion to stay was denied by a federal court.
