Migrants cross the Paso del Norte International Bridge in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to be processed as asylum seekers in the U.S. on April 29. Photo: Christian Torres/AP

The federal government has barred a Texas immigration legal aid provider from giving "know your rights" presentations to asylum seekers in El Paso and won't fully comply with an open-records request for details on the policy, alleged a new federal lawsuit.

The nonprofit Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services Inc. on Thursday sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, asking a judge to force the agency to process its July 1 Freedom of Information Act Request, which has been pending for seven weeks. The nonprofit's lawsuit said that because the Trump administration since March has forced asylum seekers to stay in Mexico as the U.S. immigration courts process their claims, lawyers have faced severe hardships in representing immigrants.

The Aug. 22 original complaint in Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services Inc. v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement claimed that private lawyers don't want these immigrants' cases because it's too risky to visit clients, due to violence in Mexico. Plus,the suit claims, a lawyer who crosses the border might face harassment by both Mexican and U.S. authorities. It adds that clients' lack of phones and Internet access hampers attorney-client communications.

It's also dangerous for immigration legal-aid organizations which  "have been approached by coyotes and threatened by kidnappers who prey on their clients," said the complaint.

For this reason, lawyers have focused on providing legal services in one-hour increments when ICE brings immigrants into the U.S. for hearings before immigration judges. Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services did the know-your-rights presentations for one hour in the waiting room of the immigration court in El Paso.

Then on June 25, the government told the nonprofit that no third parties could contact asylum seekers other than each migrant's lawyer of record. This effectively ended the know-your-rights presentations.

On July 1, Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services asked ICE for documents about the new policy under the Freedom of Information Act. The agency didn't respond, the plaintiff alleged. The lawsuit claims violations of the Freedom of Information Act and asks the court to force ICE to process the open-records request and award costs and attorney fees.

No one from the ICE press office responded to telephone or email inquiries seeking comment before deadline.

Plaintiffs lawyer Lynn Coyle said the plaintiff launched the presentations in March and has reached dozens of migrants each day.

"Being able to give the presentations at the immigration court was at least a minimal avenue for them to get some basic information that would assist them, and now that's been shut down," said Coyle, owner of The Law Office of Lynn Coyle in El Paso. "We just want to see why. Who made that decision, and what does the policy actually say?"

Read the complaint: