ACLU sues over prolonged detention of asylum-seeking teens with disabilities

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — More than 300 days after fleeing gang violence in Honduras, two teenagers remain in a Virginia resettlement facility despite the presence of a willing sponsor who has agreed to give them a home.

Both teens have physical or mental impairments and lack the medical services they need, the ACLU said in a lawsuit filed Monday. Their father is dead. Their mother has remained in Honduras, sending her children ahead to a new home. But this is a time when immigrants continue to face sharp headwinds in the U.S.

“The law requires that kids be placed in the least restrictive environment as quickly as possible,” said Eden Heilman, legal director of the ACLU of Virginia. “What the government is doing is basically creating this bureaucratic maze to keep them trapped in a detention setting for as long as possible and that is highly concerning and illegal.”

The delays come as the Trump administration reportedly considers changes to rapidly reject asylum-seekers. Asked via email about the report, a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson indicated that changes are in the works.

“The nearly 1.4 million case asylum backlog created by the Biden administration’s dangerous open borders policies is a threat to all Americans," the USCIS statement said. “This administration is considering multiple options to address this backlog, including ensuring aliens who file deficient asylum claims before USCIS are referred to immigration court proceedings as quickly as possible. This would allow USCIS to avoid wasting time on asylum applications that it would otherwise refer to immigration proceedings and will allow illegal aliens to have their claims heard by a judge.”

The ACLU case involving the teens — a 15-year-old girl and her 16-year-old brother — will proceed under current law, Heilman pointed out. Their immigration status is a separate matter. This lawsuit is focused on their rights.

Angie Salazar, acting director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary, are among those named as defendants. ACLU attorneys claim the teens are being wrongfully detained. A fully vetted sponsor who knows the family and wants to give the teens a home submitted information on herself along with an alternate caregiver.

A succession of technical issues bogged down the application. On Oct. 17, 2025, the government’s representative complained that the alternate caregiver’s application did not contain all addresses where he had resided since turning 18 years old, according to the ACLU. The alternate caregiver was unable to remember the addresses.

One month later, previously completed background checks for both the sponsor and the alternate caregiver expired and required renewal. When the sponsor submitted updated information about the alternate caregiver, it was rejected as insufficient because it did not directly appear on the correct form.

In February, the rights group says the teens’ sponsor was told she needed to revise address information and provide updated proof of address and proof of income. But one month later, the ACLU claims the government told her the teens would not be released to her because she “does not make enough” and was “not qualified to sponsor.”

As a result of the prolonged detention, the ACLU says, the siblings haven’t received specialized educational and developmental services — like therapies twice weekly for the brother — mandated by the Rehabilitation Act.

The case is before U.S. District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff, a Joe Biden appointee, in Alexandria federal court.