Washington, DC August 1, 2018 – The Department of Defense is currently in the process of preparing to shelter as many as 20,000 immigrants and asylum seekers, including children, on a military bases in Texas and Arkansas. In opposition, nearly two dozen retired General and Flag Officers signed a letter expressing serious concern that diverting […]
America's Voice
Immigration 101: Who is Kirstjen Nielsen?
July 30, 2018 – Kirstjen Nielsen is the current Secretary of Homeland Security — who acts mostly as a rubber stamp of approval for what the Trump Administration wants. DHS is a huge department created in 2003 that oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), […]
TPS Holders, Their US Citizen Children and Policy Experts Discuss the Next Family Separation Crisis
July 12, 2018 – Today, TPS holder parents, U.S. citizen children of TPS parents, and policy experts discussed the potentially catastrophic implications if deportations commence as a result of the Trump Administration’s cancellation of Temporary Protected Status from 300,000 legal immigrants who have built their lives in the U.S. If they are deported, TPS holder […]
Washington Post, “Trump is Set to Separate More than 200,000 U.S.-Born Children from Their Parents”
July 9, 2018 – In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Mark Schneider explains the dark reality 300,000 TPS holders will face when their status expires and they are forcibly deported: separation from their 273,000 U.S. citizen children as a result of the administration’s malicious termination of TPS for six countries like Honduras, El Salvador […]
TPS Holders Fear Separation From Children When Program Expires
June 25, 2018 – On Friday, WLRN reported that the Archbishop of Miami joined Miami community leaders at a press conference focused on the next family separation crisis. If TPS is allowed to expire for over 300,000 immigrants legally working and contributing to our society, they could be forcibly separated from their more than 270,000 […]
Flores Agreement: Trump Admin. Seeks Court Order to Allow for Indefinite Detention of Children with Parents
June 25, 2018 – As directed by the President’s executive order issued on Wednesday, the Trump Justice Department has filed a request on Thursday to amend a federal court order – the “Flores Agreement” – to allow the administration to detain children for indefinite periods of time. Currently, such indefinite detention is in violation of […]
Outrage Over Trump Policy Mounts as DHS Separates Children from Parents
May 29, 2018 – Nationwide, observers are castigating the Trump administration’s inhumane policy of separating children from their parents. As David Leopold, Partner and Chair of Immigration for Ulmer & Berne and former President of American Immigration Lawyers Association, explained in an interview with MSNBC’s Katy Tur, “What we have going on at the border […]
Border Patrol Shoots and Kills Unarmed Woman
May 25, 2018 – Yesterday, Univision reported that a Border Patrol agent fatally shot an unarmed undocumented woman in the head, according to a video of the incident by a bystander. In the video: a woman yells at an agent: “Why are you mistreating them? Why are you mistreating them? Why did you (shoot) at […]
Incompetence and Cruelty: DHS Secretary Nielsen Tries to Defend the Indefensible
May 16, 2018 – At a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing yesterday, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen defended the Trump Administration’s shameful decision to separate children from their parents in an attempt to deter asylum seekers. Meanwhile, Secretary Nielsen had no answers for how the Trump Administration lost track of nearly 1,500 children, mostly undocumented minors, that were […]
Conservative Columnist Michael Gerson: “ICE Has Become Trump’s Personal Bullying Squad”
April 24, 2018 – Michael Gerson, a syndicated Washington Post columnist who worked for George W. Bush as a speechwriter, pens a must-read column entitled, “ICE Has Become Trump’s Personal Bullying Squad.” The piece is an essential contribution to the growing chorus of observers disturbed by the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under […]
Trump Administration Separating Hundreds of Young Children from Their Parents to Deter Refugees
April 23, 2018 – On Friday evening, Caitlin Dickerson of the New York Times reported on disturbing new details of how the Trump Administration separated hundreds of children from their parents as part of an effort to deter those fleeing violence from seeking asylum in the U.S. Confirming the worst fears of advocates and observers, the article reports that “more […]
Immigrants and Allies Weigh in on the Devastating Consequences of Chilling Participation in the Census
March 28, 2018 – In response to the Trump Administration’s announcement that a citizenship question will be added to the Census, immigrants and their allies have responded forcefully. They argue that asking about citizenship status will drive down participation and undermine the constitutional aim of the Census to count all residents in the United States. Of course, […]
Immigration 101: Why is Jeff Sessions Suing California?
March 12, 2018 – California laws are getting in the way of the Trump Administration’s ongoing war against immigrants. Last week, the long-simmering battle between the Trump Administration and California over so-called “sanctuary cities” — also called “safe cities” — escalated when the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Golden State over three […]
Session’s Lawsuit vs. CA about stoking culture war and political attack ads, not public safety
March 7, 2018 – The news that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is suing the state of California over several pro-immigrant policies is just the latest reminder that the Trump Administration’s war on immigrants is more about stoking a culture war, setting up political attack ads, and sowing fear than advancing public safety. The lawsuit from […]
Supreme Court Upholds Practice of Locking Up Immigrants Indefinitely, Huge Win for Private Prisons
March 5, 2018 – In a profound loss for immigrants living in immigration detention — sometimes indefinitely — the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week they do not have a legal right to periodic hearings to determine if they should be released on bond. Many detainees are lawful permanent residents, asylum seekers, and/or survivors of […]
CBP is Conducting Broad Searches, While Officials Indefinitely Detain Children
February 26, 2018 – Over the years, we’ve seen repeated examples of how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) abuse their authority when it comes to treating immigrants and protecting individual privacy. This week, two articles from the New York Times showed CBP unrestrainedly using their authority within the 100-mile […]
America’s Voice: What’s stopping Trump asking the Park Service to chip off the welcoming poem from the Statue of Liberty?
Feb. 23, 2018 – In a move that is seemingly rooted in desperation to rewrite the history of our nation, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Thursday announced their decision to remove the “nation of immigrants” language in their mission statement. The change in USCIS’ mission arrives a day before the Donald Trump read the poem […]
Juan Escalante and Frank Sharry: Spending bill that does not resolve Dreamers’ urgent crisis
Feb. 9, 2018 – Following the early morning passage and signing of a spending bill that does not resolve Dreamers’ urgent crisis and ahead of a promised Senate immigration debate next week, the following are assessments and reactions from Juan Escalante, Communications Manager of America’s Voice and a DACA recipient, as well as Frank Sharry, […]
Policy Experts Decode White House Immigration Proposal
February 5, 2018 – Policy experts gathered on a press call to analyze President Trump’s immigration proposal, which would dramatically and radically alter the entire U.S. immigration system. Greg Chen, Director of Government Relations, American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), said, “The White House proposal on immigration is aimed at appealing to the nativist base and […]
America’s Voice: Time Has Run Out For Many Dreamers; Thousands More in Jeopardy Right Now
Washington, DC November 13, 2017 – In the New York Times, the Liz Robbins story, “Post Office Fails to Deliver on Time, and DACA Applications Get Rejected” highlights how some of the 22,000 DACA recipients who missed the artificial October 5th re-application deadline and are now losing protections were victims of the government’s own ineptitude, […]