A family with a baby, waiting outside in the cold overnight. A pregnant woman, enduring the elements for multiple days. An Afghan who worked for the U.S. Army as a translator, hoping for food and water. Asylum seekers who traveled from as far as Africa and Asia, looking for protection. These are some of the approximately […]
American Immigration Council
New Report: “The Belonging Barometer: The State of Belonging in America”
WASHINGTON, Mar. 7, 2023 – Over Zero and the Center for Inclusion and Belonging at the American Immigration Council are pleased to announce the launch of a groundbreaking new research tool and accompanying report, “The Belonging Barometer: The State of Belonging in America.” The Belonging Barometer was used to assess Americans’ experience of belonging, or lack […]
Advocates File Lawsuit to Demand That ICE Make Immigration Bond Procedures Publicly Available on Its Website
CALIFORNIA, Dec. 8, 2022—The American Immigration Council, Immigrant Legal Defense, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and the National Bail Fund Network with its local bond fund members NorCal Resist, Prairielands Freedom Fund, and the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information […]
Federal Court Blocks Expiration of Title 42
WASHINGTON, May 20, 2022—The A federal judge in Louisiana today blocked the Biden administration’s plans to end Title 42, a public health policy that has allowed the U.S. government to turn people away at the U.S southern border since the start of the pandemic. Under Title 42—which was set to expire by May 23—many asylum […]
One Year In: The Biden Administration’s Promises on Immigration Remain Unfulfilled
WASHINGTON, Jan. 19, 2022—The President Biden announced a welcoming and inclusive vision for immigration in a legislative proposal and a series of executive actions signed on his first day in office. But one year into Biden’s presidency, his administration continues some of the most destructive immigration policies that he denounced on the campaign trail while […]
Court Does Not Expedite Work Permit Renewals for Asylum Seekers, Leaving Thousands Without Work or at Risk of Losing Jobs
WASHINGTON, Dec. 23, 2021—Yesterday a federal court denied preliminary relief in Tony N. v. USCIS, a lawsuit challenging U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ extreme delays and failure to process work permit renewals for asylum seekers. The judge declined to order USCIS to process work permit renewal applications within the 180-day automatic extension of employment authorization. […]
The Restart of MPP is a Betrayal of President Biden’s Promises To Restore a Humane Asylum System
WASHINGTON, Dec. 02, 2021—The Biden administration announced today that it will begin to reimplement as early as Monday the Migrant Protection Protocols—a Trump-era policy also known as the “Remain in Mexico” program. Under MPP, the U.S. government sent nearly 70,000 people seeking humanitarian protection to dangerous areas of Mexico to await their hearings, leading thousands […]
Family Separation Has Caused Life-Long Trauma Years Later
Four years ago, immigration lawyers and advocates began to see a disturbing practice emerge: the U.S. government began to forcibly separate children—some very young—from their parents at the border. Now, years later, some families are still separated. For those put back together, the scars of trauma are life-long and continue today. Under the Trump administration’s Zero […]
DHS Recission of MPP (Remain in Mexico”) is a Step Toward Ending a Humanitarian Catastrophe and Restoring Dignity to the Asylum Process
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29, 2021 – The Biden administration announced today that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will issue a new memo to formally terminate the Migrant Protection Protocols— a Trump-era policy also known as the “Remain in Mexico” program—that sent thousands of people seeking humanitarian protection to dangerous areas of Mexico to await their hearings. […]
The U.S. Supreme Court Decides to Send Asylum Seekers to Danger
WASHINGTON, August 24, 2021—Today, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stay a ruling from a lower Texas court that would force the Biden administration to revive the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP)—an illegal Trump-era policy that sent thousands of people seeking humanitarian protection to dangerous areas of Mexico to await their hearings. The lower court decision […]
Lawsuit Seeks to Advance Public Understanding of ICE and CBP Enforcement Operations and Practices
The American Immigration Council filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit today in federal court against the Department of Homeland Security and its two primary immigration enforcement agencies—U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection—requesting information about the obscure network of databases, information systems, and data sharing methods that are largely shielded from public […]
Special Report: The Legacy of Racism within the U.S. Border Patrol
February 10, 2021 – Since its creation in 1924, the U.S. Border Patrol has been steeped in institutional racism and has committed violent acts with near impunity. The racial animus of U.S. immigration policy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century formed the foundation for the agency. Federal laws banning Asian immigration were followed […]
Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Legacy on Immigration
September 23, 2020 – Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a fierce champion of progressive rights and the second woman to serve as a Supreme Court Justice, died on Sept. 18, 2020. Long recognized as a staunch advocate for women’s rights, Justice Ginsburg leaves behind a legacy on immigration that shows her vision for justice did not end […]
Congress Calls to Decrease ICE Detention as COVID-19 Continues to Spread
July 9, 2020 – The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security introduced their proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2021 (beginning October 1, 2020) this week. The budget would have significant implications for U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities—current hotspots of the coronavirus pandemic. In a reversal of previous budget requests, this budget proposes a major decrease in […]
Why Don’t They Just Get in Line? There Is No Line for Undocumented Immigrants
November 1, 2019 – Many Americans wonder why all immigrants do not just come to the United States legally or simply “get in line” if they are living here unauthorized. These suggestions miss the point: There is no line available for current unauthorized immigrants and the “regular channels” are largely not available to prospective immigrants […]
Lawsuit Demands Info on the Expansion of CBP’s Role in the Screening of Asylum Seekers
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3, 2019 – The American Immigration Council and Tahirih Justice Center filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit yesterday in federal court to compel the government to release records about the Trump administration’s troubling new practice of allowing U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers to screen individuals seeking asylum in the United States. […]
Federal Court Blocks Trump Administration Policy of Arbitrarily Jailing Asylum-Seekers
SEATTLE, July 2, 2019 — A federal court has blocked a Trump administration policy that categorically denies bond hearings to asylum-seekers. The policy, announced April 16 by Attorney General William Barr, targeted asylum-seekers whom immigration officers previously determined have a “credible fear” of persecution or torture if returned to the places they fled. The American Immigration Council, […]
Federal Court Orders Timely Bond Hearings and Legal Protections for Asylum Seekers
WASHINGTON, April 5, 2019 — Today, in a groundbreaking decision, a federal judge in Seattle dealt a blow to the government’s campaign to deter and obstruct asylum seekers applying for protection in the United States. Judge Marsha Pechman ordered the government to provide certain individuals with bona fide asylum claims either a bond hearing before an […]
Parents Ripped Apart from Their Children by Family Separation Policy File Claims Against Trump Administration
WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 11, 2019 – Six asylum-seeking mothers and their children who were torn apart under the Trump administration’s family separation policy filed legal claims today against the United States government seeking monetary compensation for the cruel treatment and agonizing trauma they have suffered at the hands of U.S. immigration agencies. The government intentionally […]
Government Data Reveals the Inner Workings of the U.S. Immigration Detention System
WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2018 — A new report on immigration detention released today by the American Immigration Council examines the most recent government data on the United States’ complex, sprawling network of facilities used to detain immigrants. The report, “The Landscape of Immigration Detention in the United States,” reveals that detained individuals were commonly held […]