On September 15, 2022 Relman Colfax filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on behalf of a coalition of civil rights organizations and non-profit housing providers in support of the Plaintiffs–Appellants in Reyes v. Waples Mobile Home Park (No. 22-1660). The case alleges discrimination claims on behalf of four Latino immigrant families who were forced from their homes when their landlord began enforcing a policy requiring all adult residents to provide documentation of legal immigration status.
The appeal involved whether the defendants could show a “business necessity” for their policy of denying residents the ability to live in the park due to immigration status. The defendants had argued that they would be at risk of breaking a federal anti-harboring statute by allowing them to reside in their park, but the Court of Appeals firmly rejected that argument, finding that the statute did not apply in these circumstances. Simply renting does not constitute illegal “harboring” – which, the opinion notes, “makes good sense:”
