American Baptist Churches v. Thornburgh

American Baptist Churches v. Thornburgh was a class action lawsuit filed in 1988 against the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the Department of State (DOS), and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). The case challenged systemic discrimination against asylum seekers from El Salvador and Guatemala and argued that the Refugee Act of 1980 had been violated. According to the suit, racism was seen as a reason for the offices’ decisions to not grant asylum status, to deport, and whether to lengthen voluntary departure in the United States.

On January 31, 1991, a settlement was approved by US District Court Judge Robert Peckham of the Northern District of California. The settlement became known as the ABC Settlement. As part of the negotiation, the US government agreed to have roughly three hundred thousand asylum seekers reapply for status and/or work authorization and deportation protection. The settlement also addressed the INS’s reportedly biased political proceedings for asylum seekers and placed stays on the deportation of Guatemalans and Salvadorans. Individuals could only be detained if they were found guilty of committing a crime involving moral turpitude, were sentenced to more than six months in prison, or were considered a risk to public safety.

Background

During World War I (1914–1918), national security concerns served as the impetus for the passage of restrictive immigration laws that required a literacy test for immigrants and an increase in the tax paid by them upon entry into the country. In addition, the act banned individuals from Asia, except for Filipinos and Japanese, from entering the county.

In the early 1920s, Senator William P. Dillingham of Vermont proposed immigration quotas. President Woodrow Wilson blocked the act; however, in 1921, then-President Warren Harding helped resurrect and pass the legislation. The act went up for discussion in 1924 and legislators debated whether to lower or raise the established quotas. Ultimately, the Immigration Act of 1924 placed a lower cap on the number of immigrants allowed into the United States and established final quotas based on the 1890 US Census instead of the 1910 Census. The 1924 Act also forbade entry by anyone who was ineligible for citizenship due to nationality or race. This expanded the previous law, which allowed Filipinos and Japanese to enter the country. The quota system was used to determine accessibility until 1965. In 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act eliminated the quota system and established a new system for immigration regulation based on family reunification, employment, and refugee status.

In 1967, the office of the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Refugees implemented a course of action to carry out the goals of the 1951 Refugee Convention. The convention decided, among other points, that individuals could not be forced to return to areas of danger.

The United States, in 1975, established the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act that admitted Southeast Asians after the fall of Saigon. In 1980, the Refugee Act was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter. The Act came about following the Vietnam War, when hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese and Cambodians fled their home countries because of political danger and war. Although approximately three hundred thousand refugees entered the United States between 1974 and 1979 due to a presidential action, members of the US Congress recognized the need for a more permanent solution that was flexible enough to handle a variety of situations. The Refugee Act of 1980 increased the cap allowed on refugees from 17,400 to 50,000. It also created protocols to adjust that cap to deal with emergencies and rewrote its definition of refugee to fall more in line with the UN’s description.

Overview

The Refugee Act was tested in the early 1980s by thousands of Salvadorans and Guatemalans seeking asylum in the United States. Salvadorans who entered the United States were most often placed in INS detention facilities where officials were said to have encouraged them to return to El Salvador voluntarily. Similar situations happened with the Guatemalans. INS officials were also said to have not believed that most of the Salvadorans and Guatemalans entering the United States were refugees. Those who eventually applied for asylum were typically denied. As more and more individuals were denied, church officials and congregations began to offer longer-term sanctuary within their churches. Some offered shorter-term security in the form of a type of Underground Railroad system that helped refugees escape from Guatemala or El Salvador to the United States. The US Justice Department prosecuted those involved with providing sanctuary.

In May 1985, American Baptist Churches et al. v. Meese (which ultimately became American Baptist Churches v. Thornburgh) was filed on behalf of more than eighty religious and refugee organizations. The groups argued that their right to provide sanctuary was protected by the First Amendment. Court papers also indicate that the discrimination faced by the refugees violated the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. Although the court eventually dismissed the sanctuary claims, the claims of the asylum seekers progressed. On January 31, 1991, a settlement was approved by US District Court of the Northern District of California. The settlement came to be known as the ABC Settlement Agreement as shorthand for American Baptist Churches. It provided specific benefits to certain Guatemalans and Salvadorans, including stays of deportation, new asylum interviews, and detention restrictions.

The settlement spelled out eligibility for those involved. Guatemalans and Salvadorans had to have entered the United States on or before October 1 and September 19, 1990, respectively. Settlement benefits also only applied to those Guatemalans and Salvadorans who applied for asylum on or before January 3, 1995, and February 16, 1996. The settlement did not apply to anyone convicted of a felony. Overall, the settlement allowed approximately three hundred thousand people to reapply for political asylum, work authorization, and deportation protection. The backlog created by the Guatemalan and Salvadoran cases led to the creation of the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) in 1997. The NACARA focuses on providing asylum to Central American citizens and those from the former Soviet bloc.

Bibliography

“ACLU History: Ensuring Fairness for All Within Our Borders.” ACLU, 1 Sept. 2010, www.aclu.org/documents/aclu-history-ensuring-fairness-all-within-our-borders. Accessed 7 June 2023.

“American Baptist Churches v. Thornburgh.” Center for Constitutional Rights, 9 Oct. 2007, ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/american-baptist-churches-v-thornburgh. Accessed 7 June 2023.

“American Baptist Churches v. Thornburgh (ABC) Settlement Agreement.” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 3 Sept. 2009, www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-and-asylum/asylum/american-baptist-churches-v-thornburgh-abc-settlement-agreement. Accessed 7 June 2023.

Blum, Carolyn Patty. “The Settlement of American Baptist Churches v. Thornburgh: Landmark Victory for Central American Asylum-Seekers,” International Journal of Refugee Law, vol. 3, 1991, pp. 347–357, lawcat.berkeley.edu/record/1114072?ln=en. Accessed 7 June 2023.

“The Immigration Act of 1924.” Office of the Historian, history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/immigration-act. Accessed 7 June 2023.

“1991: American Baptist Churches (ABC) v. Thornburgh.” Library of Congress, guides.loc.gov/latinx-civil-rights/abc-v-thornburgh. Accessed 7 June 2023.