Border Enforcement
Migration at the border is a multifaceted issue, challenging the U.S. to secure our borders while upholding the human rights of individuals seeking safety and better opportunities. Balancing national security with compassion and our legal obligations to asylum seekers presents intricate dilemmas, and we collaborate with policymakers to advance bipartisan, action-oriented solutions.
Beyond A Border Solution
- Asylum
- May 3, 2023
America needs durable solutions. These concrete measures can bring orderliness to our border and modernize our overwhelmed asylum system. Read…
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The Failings of Family Detention at Artesia
The inhumanity of family detention and the danger of short-changing basic due process protections are on full display in the detention center in Artesia, New Mexico, where hundreds of women and children are being held by the U.S. government. The Washington Post reports this week on a tour they took… Read More
Children in Jail: What It’s Like for Immigrant Families Held at Karnes, Texas
This summer, tens of thousands of Central American families fled violence to the U.S. southern border. The administration responded by accelerating deportation proceedings, converting government facilities to family detention centers, and then prioritizing the detention and removal of families. First, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) turned the Federal Law… Read More
Will CBP Actions Increase Transparency and Accountability?
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) frequently refers to itself as the nation’s largest law enforcement agency, yet many of its practices fail to live up to the expectations and standards by which modern, civilian police forces are measured. A constant barrage of advocacy and evidence pointing to CBP’s weaknesses in… Read More
Why 250 Counties Have Stopped Honoring Local ICE Detainers
Across the nation, local sheriff’s offices in 250 counties have stopped honoring detainer requests from (ICE) officials because of constitutional, public safety, and economic concerns. After a spate of federal rulings earlier this year found that detainers were not mandatory, local officials increasingly have come to… Read More
Inspector General Falls Short in Documenting Border Detention Conditions
The deplorable conditions in U.S. Border Patrol—an agency within U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—detention facilities have been widely documented in numerous media accounts and NGO reports and challenged in federal lawsuits. Immigrant children and other immigrants detained in these facilities—often called “hieleras” or “iceboxes”… Read More
Deploying National Guard to Border Hurt Texas Economy
The thousands of Central American children and families fleeing violence and arriving at the southern U.S. border became national front-page news over the summer. Congress responded by saying a lot but doing nothing, while many states and cities welcomed them into their communities and provided… Read More
New Study Shows Deportations Don’t Reduce Crime
In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) introduced “Secure Communities,” which for the first time allowed DHS to check the fingerprints of any individual arrested by a local jurisdiction. Secure Communities piggybacked on prior DHS initiatives to use local police as “force multipliers” including the Criminal… Read More
Here Are Some of the Stories of Women Held at Artesia
The lawsuit filed last week by the American Immigration Council, the ACLU, the National Immigration Project, and the National Immigration Law Center challenging government deportation policies at the family detention center in Artesia, New Mexico, has shined a light on the deprivation of due process occurring there daily. Read More
The President’s Solid Ground for Executive Action on Immigration
Comprehensive immigration reform legislation would give a majority of America’s 11 million undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship and work authorization. But with immigration reform stalled in the House, President Obama announced that he plans to “fix as much of our immigration system as I can… Read More
Systemic Challenge to Policies at Artesia
On August 22, 2014, the American Immigration Council, in collaboration with the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, the National Immigration Law Center, Van Der Hout Brigagliano & Nightingale LLP, and Jenner & Block, filed this lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Columbia. The case was a systemic challenge to the policies denying a fair deportation process to mothers and children detained in the Artesia Family Residential Center who had fled extreme violence, death threats, rape, and persecution in Central America and come to the United States seeking safety. Read More
America's story is an immigrant story.
