ASAP member Leticia Peren shares her story, after being forcefully separated from her son in 2017, and talks about the abuse she endured under U.S. custody.

“President Biden, don't expel asylum seekers trying to find safe haven,” ASAP said. “The U.S. needs their skills, courage, and tenacity to fill its shrinking labor pool and boost the economy.”

“We are raising our voices to seek justice,” said Leticia Peren, “so that the government will never again separate families trying to find safe haven and build a new life in the U.S.”

“By bringing this lawsuit, this family wants to help prevent anything like this from happening again, to fight back against injustice, and to tell their story,” said ASAP’s Zachary Manfredi.

“This is what the Trump administration would be doing… trying to aggressively discourage families from filing lawsuits,” said ASAP Co-ED Conchita Cruz about the Biden DOJ’s tactics against separated families.

As more Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, Cuban families arrive at the border, ASAP Co-ED Conchita Cruz said the federal government continues to evade its duty under the law to provide work permits for asylum seekers in 30 days.

“They were headed toward re-traumatizing these families," said Conchita Cruz, co-executive director of ASAP. "This is the thing that the Trump administration would’ve done and did do.”

ASAP Co-Executive Director Conchita Cruz said that the government is failing in its duty to process asylum seekers’ work permits in 30 days, noting that New York’s mayor is “literally asking the government to abide by the law.”