Trump Admin Illegally Revoked Workers’ Security Clearances: Lawsuit | EUROtoday

A serious labor union filed a lawsuit Friday accusing the Trump administration of illegally revoking the safety clearances of dozens of immigrant airport employees who’re licensed to work within the U.S., successfully costing them their jobs.

The Service Employees International Union mentioned at the least 80 employees at Boston’s Logan International Airport have misplaced what’s often called a customs sealwhich they should entry sure areas of the airport. Other employees in New York, Orlando, San Francisco and Houston airports have additionally had their seals revoked, in keeping with the go well with.

“These actions constitute a nationwide assault on immigrant airport workers,” the union alleged in its grievance.

A CBP spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Friday.

SEIU represents round 40,000 airport employees throughout the nation who clear terminals and airplane cabins, escort aged vacationers and work in eating places and retailers. The union says lots of these employees can’t do their jobs with out displaying a customs seal badge.

The seal utility course of was “straightforward” till shortly after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, in keeping with the grievance. Then employees who didn’t beforehand have points with their background checks have been getting denied on their renewals.

“Once CBP grants a seal, the agency will generally renew it absent a material change in the seal holder’s circumstances. Employers, airport authorities, airlines, and workers have relied on this system for decades,” the union alleged. “Since February 2025, however, Defendants have abruptly and haphazardly upended this established system.”

The go well with names 4 plaintiffs who not too long ago misplaced their seals, together with one employee, 65-year-old Raquel Molina, who was employed at Logan for 27 years after immigrating from El Salvador.

Another plaintiff, 58-year-old Saint Paul Paul, mentioned he labored at Logan for 3 years as a cabin cleaner till his seal was revoked final summer season.

“The letter I got from Customs and Border Protection on June 30 said that I was an ‘unacceptable risk,’ even though I have the authority to work, even though I am a good worker,” Paul, who’s from Haiti, mentioned in a press release via the union. “I think this language is an excuse so the government can discriminate against immigrants like me.”

CBP is the company throughout the Department of Homeland Security chargeable for imposing customs legal guidelines and safeguarding ports of entry, together with at worldwide airports. Though it’s a separate company from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, CBP officers have been enlisted in ICE operations as a part of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown.

SEIU claims CBP has been revoking customs seals “en masse” for foreign-born inexperienced card holders, asylum-seekers and employees with non permanent protected standing, which protects folks from sure international locations from deportation.

Since dropping their jobs, the 4 named plaintiffs have all struggled to search out equally paying work, in keeping with the grievance. Paul ended up taking a job at Chipotle.