New federal rule interpretations that advocates say place young immigrants at risk of being forced to return to the very violence and neglect from which they fled is the target of a new federal lawsuit filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The Legal Aid Society, joined by Latham & Watkins, is challenging what they say are new, unannounced policy interpretations by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that will have adverse effects on thousands of young immigrants across the country.