April 17, 2019 – The Trump administration has agreed to reverse course and begin the process of reuniting 2,700 children living in Central America with their parents in the United States. The decision comes as part of a lawsuit that challenged the termination of the Central American Minors (CAM) program. This program allowed parents legally […]
Immigration Impact
Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Expansive Immigration Detention
March 21, 2019 – Immigrants with even minor, dated criminal convictions will now be placed in mandatory detention without the possibility of a bond hearing—even if they have already served their time and been previously released. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Nielsen v. Preap this week. A majority of the Court ruled […]
Congress Debates Reauthorization of Expired Violence Against Women Act
March 20, 2019 – The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), a landmark piece of legislation that was the first to offer clear protections for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, is up for reauthorization this year. The law has been instrumental in providing protections for immigrants who have faced this type of violence. Due […]
Immigration Groups Are Using This Tool to Expose Government Secrets
March 18, 2019 – Many of the country’s top immigration agencies operate in secret. This lack of transparency in how immigration laws are implemented, administered, and enforced has the potential to devastate the lives of millions of immigrants and their families. Fortunately, there is a powerful tool—the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)—that ensures government agencies […]
ICE Releases Infants in Its Custody Following Civil Rights Complaint
March 5, 2019 – Nothing is more delicate or worthy of comprehensive care than a newborn. Yet, over the past several weeks, detention watchdogs and public health experts have noticed an alarming uptick in the number of infants—some as young as five months old—being held in prison-like detention facilities run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). On-the-ground staff in […]
Congress Members and Others Argue Against Turning Back Asylum Seekers
Feb. 26, 2019 – The Trump administration’s policy of turning back asylum seekers has been devastating, as vulnerable people are repeatedly denied access to the asylum process at ports of entry (POEs) along the U.S.-Mexico border. Now, Members of Congress, states, organizations, and law professors are standing up to the administration by supporting a lawsuit […]
Blueprint for Overhauling Immigration Courts Released Through FOIA
Feb. 21, 2019 – A FOIA request has forced the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) to produce its comprehensive plan for reducing the immigration court backlog. Though partially redacted, the aim of the October 2017 “Strategic Caseload Reduction Plan” is clear—to fundamentally alter the immigration court system under the guise of creating efficiencies. EOIR […]
Border Towns Are Among the Safest in the United States
Feb. 13, 2019 – On Monday evening in El Paso, Texas, two very different images of the U.S.-Mexico border emerged. President Trump held a rally to make the case for his border wall again, repeating his usual talking points on the supposed dangers lurking in the region. Just a block away, former Democratic Representative from […]
Trump’s State of the Union Speech Reflects a Fundamental Misunderstanding of Immigration
Feb. 6, 2019 – Speaking before Congress and the nation Tuesday evening, President Trump once again promised bipartisanship and instead delivered division. When it came to immigration, the president neither offered an olive branch nor acknowledged the devastating effects of his administration’s actions to date. Rather than offer solutions to the actual problems facing immigrants […]
Government Quietly Increases ICE Detention to 48,000 Beds During the Shutdown
Jan. 31 2019 – Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) drastically expanded its network of immigration jails in the last month by a startling 7 percent. ICE now holds about 48,000 individuals in its jails and private prisons, even though Congress has only appropriated funds for them to detain 40,500 individuals on any given day. How […]
Trump Administration’s Immigration Proposal Is Dead on Arrival
Jan. 22, 2019 – President Trump went in front of the public on Saturday and claimed he was going to propose a “compromise” to end the ongoing government shutdown. Instead of offering a bipartisan bill that would protect Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients from deportation, the 1300-page bill […]
Advocacy Groups Submit Comments Opposing Trump’s Asylum Ban
Jan. 11, 2019 – In November, President Trump took the unprecedented action of banning asylum for individuals who enter the United States between ports of entry. Although his actions were blocked in court only days later, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continued forward with the process of formalizing rules to keep the asylum ban […]
The Judicial Black Sites the Government Created to Speed Up Deportations
Jan. 9, 2019 – As the Trump administration continues to strip away due process in immigration courts, the recent creation of two “Immigration Adjudication Centers” is cause for concern. The two new facilities are called “Centers,” not “courts,” despite being places where judges decide whether to issue orders of deportation. The Centers came out of […]
2018 Closes On a Week Filled With Immigration Victories and New Challenges
Dec. 26, 2018 – 2018 proved that the only thing you can predict about the Trump administration’s immigration policy is it’s unpredictable. On Wednesday, two separate court decisions dealt blows to the Trump administration’s efforts to deter asylum seekers. On Thursday, the administration announced an unprecedented new plan to force asylum seekers to remain in […]
Proposed ‘Public Charge’ Regulation Draws Hundreds of Thousands of Comments
Dec. 12, 2018 – On Monday night, the 60–day comment period for the Trump administration’s proposed public charge regulation drew to a close. More than 210,000 comments were submitted, with the majority of publicly available comments opposing the rule. Comments on the proposed regulation, which has the potential to drastically slash legal immigration, will now […]
Wendy Feliz: This Thanksgiving, Resist the Divided America Story
Nov. 21, 2018 – “What if this is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb?” asked Valerie Kaur in her famed “Sikh Prayer for America.” In this prayer, she contemplates an America that is not on the verge of demise, but of rebirth. Her prophetic words provide a hopeful framework […]
Changes to USCIS Policy Will Directly Impact Vulnerable Immigrants
Nov. 15, 2018 – The Trump administration’s move to deport more people from the United States has come into sharp focus again as it targets some of the most vulnerable immigrants with its Notice to Appear (NTA) policy. The new policy, announced in June 2018, had already dramatically altered the role of U.S. Citizenship and […]
Latino Voter Suppression in the 2018 Midterm Elections Not New
Nov. 5, 2018 – Latino voters are more engaged in the 2018 midterm elections than in years past. Enthusiasm towards voting is higher and Latinos have already contributed to record turnout in some states. Yet this interest and excitement towards voting has the potential to be hampered in some areas facing voter suppression. These difficulties […]
Ending Birthright Citizenship Could Put All Americans’ Nationality in Jeopardy
November 2, 2018 – On Monday night, President Trump told reporters that he intended to end birthright citizenship and claimed that he could do so with an executive order. Birthright citizenship comes from the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which states that “Any person born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the […]
Mary Giovagnoli: Massacre at Pittsburgh Synagogue Tied to Anti-Refugee Sentiment
Oct. 29, 2018 – In a world of instantaneous news, the nation learned of the attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue on Saturday in Pittsburgh almost in real time. As the details emerged, we discovered that 11 Jewish worshippers had been murdered by Robert Bowers, a self-described anti-Semite with a hatred for Jews, refugees, […]