Abuses

Homeland Security Watchdog Conducts Surprise Inspections of Immigrant Detention Centers

Homeland Security Watchdog Conducts Surprise Inspections of Immigrant Detention Centers

The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) released a report which found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) detention facilities are violating their own detention standards when it comes to housing immigrants. The OIG, which serves as a watchdog division for DHS at large, found that… Read More

How Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Turns Immigrants Into Criminals

How Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Turns Immigrants Into Criminals

It has been well established for decades that the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals by any stretch of the imagination. Yet, immigrants who have committed no violent offense are often subjected to a different kind of violence doled out by the U.S. immigration-enforcement system. Young undocumented immigrants… Read More

How Discretion Failed One 10-Year-Old Girl and What the Future Holds

How Discretion Failed One 10-Year-Old Girl and What the Future Holds

Much has been said about Rosa María Hernández, the latest target of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has the responsibility and authorization to enforce the immigration laws against those inside the United States without authorization. However, the government’s choice to target a ten-year… Read More

DHS Wants to Monitor Immigrants’ Social Media. No One Knows What They Will Do With This Information

DHS Wants to Monitor Immigrants’ Social Media. No One Knows What They Will Do With This Information

In a sweeping encroachment upon privacy, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it is planning to dramatically ramp up its surveillance of virtually anyone in the United States who is not a U.S. citizen by birth. In a rule which appeared in the Federal Register on September… Read More

Why Are More Pregnant Women Being Held in ICE Detention?

Why Are More Pregnant Women Being Held in ICE Detention?

Pregnant women held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody are required to be released, as detention frequently leads to extreme stress, depression, and in some cases, miscarriage. But over recent months, service providers have witnessed an increase in the number of pregnant women detained by ICE and… Read More

U.S. Immigration Officials Frequently Use Coercive Tactics to Deport Mexican Migrants

U.S. Immigration Officials Frequently Use Coercive Tactics to Deport Mexican Migrants

U.S. immigration officials have a long history of overstepping the boundaries of their legal authority and violating the constitutional and other legal rights of migrants at the Southwest border. Allegations of abuse throughout the apprehension, detention, and deportation process are not new; immigrant rights organizations and media outlets have… Read More

More Immigrants are Dying in Detention, and the Government Wants More Facilities

More Immigrants are Dying in Detention, and the Government Wants More Facilities

The Administration’s efforts to massively expand immigration detention in the United States are already evident in Texas, where a for-profit prison company is building the largest complex in the country to detain immigrants—and taxpayers are footing the bill. The Geo Group, a for-profit, private prison corporation, has begun constructing… Read More

Civil Rights Concerns Continue Over 287(g) Immigration Enforcement Program

Civil Rights Concerns Continue Over 287(g) Immigration Enforcement Program

Racial profiling often runs rampant in communities that have mobilized their law enforcement officers to act as immigration officials, with the Hispanic community frequently faring the worst. A new report from the Center for Migration Studies (CMS) confirms this dynamic. Their analysis of the impact of immigration enforcement on the… Read More

Border Patrol Abuses Rarely Result in Any Serious Disciplinary Action

Border Patrol Abuses Rarely Result in Any Serious Disciplinary Action

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the nation’s largest federal law-enforcement agency, has a long history of violating constitutional and other rights of both immigrants and U.S. citizens. For example, agents of the Border Patrol (a component agency of CBP) are known for regularly overstepping the boundaries of their… Read More

Trump Administration Targeting Immigrant Children Is a New Low

Trump Administration Targeting Immigrant Children Is a New Low

The recent trend of broadly labeling unaccompanied immigrant children as criminals and gang members is just the latest in a series of attacks on some of the most vulnerable individuals in the U.S. immigration system. In reality, most immigrant children from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala are fleeing the very… Read More

America's story is an immigrant story.

logoimg