A coalition of immigrant and civil rights groups accused President Donald Trump in a new lawsuit Monday of acting beyond his authority when he shut down the southern border to asylum claims.

Trump's proclamation declaring an "invasion" at the southern border and shutting down all avenues for asylum flouts domestic law, which permits asylum-seekers to have their claims for safety heard and bars their removal to countries where they could be persecuted, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services said in their lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., federal court.

"Whatever the outer limits of the president's constitutional authorities, they do not confer a preclusive power that permits the president to dispense with the statutes relevant here. And immigration — even at elevated levels — is not an 'invasion,'" the suit said.

According to the suit, the Trump administration is "implementing the proclamation on a large scale and to devastating effect," summarily expelling noncitizens without allowing them to seek asylum, and without following the procedures for removal proceedings.

The removals are sometimes happening within hours, while asylum-seekers are told asylum no longer exists, the suit said. Noncitizens who can't be removed so quickly are being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection until flights are available, and are expelled without being able to claim asylum or other congressionally mandated protections, the suit said.

Trump invoked Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to suspend the entry of noncitizens, which he deemed detrimental to U.S. interests in light of the declared invasion at the border, in a proclamation he issued Jan. 20, hours after his inauguration.

The proclamation, dubbed "Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion," halts the entry of all noncitizens participating in the purported invasion until Trump determines it's over, and instructs the U.S. Department of Homeland Security secretary to "repel, repatriate, or remove" noncitizens engaged in the invasion.

According to the suit, in which Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project joined, Section 212(f) doesn't give the president such sweeping powers.

Congress implemented laws allowing anyone who arrives in or is present in the U.S. to seek asylum, and lets those in removal proceedings to seek withholding of removal or protection under the Convention Against Torture. Congress also barred sending noncitizens at risk of persecution back to danger, the groups said.

Never before has a president invoked Section 212(f) to expel or bar noncitizens already present in the U.S. from seeking removal protection, the suit said.

"Since 1981, the executive branch has expressly and repeatedly recognized that Section 212(f) does not permit the president to alter the asylum rights and procedures that Congress enacted elsewhere in the INA," they said.

The suit names as defendants Trump, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of State, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, CBP, ICE, and their respective heads.

DHS and the DOJ declined to comment on the pending litigation.

Lee Gelernt with the American Civil Liberties Union, who is representing the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services and the other groups, called Trump's proclamation "an unprecedented power grab."

"No president has the authority to unilaterally override the protections Congress has afforded those fleeing danger," Gelernt said in a statement.

The groups are represented by Lindsay C. Harrison, Zachary C. Schauf, Logan C. Wren, Mary-Claire Spurgin and Simon A. de Carvalho of Jenner & Block LLP, by Lee Gelernt, Omar C. Jadwat, Morgan Russell, Katrina Eiland and Cody Wofsy of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Immigrants' Rights Project, by Arthur B. Spitzer and Scott Michelman of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of the District of Columbia, and by Ashley Alcantara Harris and David A. Donatti of the ACLU Foundation of Texas, by Keren Zwick, Richard Caldarone and Mary Georgevich of the National Immigrant Justice Center, by Melissa Crow, Edith Sangueza and Robert Pauw of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies and by Tamara Goodlette of the Texas Civil Rights Project.

Counsel information for the federal government was not immediately available.

The case is Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services et al. v. Kristi Noem et al., case number 1:25-cv-00306, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

--Editing by Dave Trumbore and Michael Watanabe.

Update: This article has been updated with additional details from the lawsuit and a response from the groups' counsel.