Immigration Benefits and Relief
The immigration laws and regulations provide some avenues to apply for lawful status from within the U.S. or to seek relief from deportation. The eligibility requirements for these benefits and relief can be stringent, and the immigration agencies often adopt overly restrictive interpretations of the requirements. Learn about advocacy and litigation that has been and can be undertaken to ensure that noncitizens have a fair chance to apply for the benefits and relief for which they are eligible. Providing avenues for legal status, protection, and family reunification is vital to ensuring humanitarian protection for immigrants. We are leading policy changes that open more opportunities like asylum, visas for victims of crime or human trafficking, and relief for long-term residents. Explore the resources below to learn more.
New Dashboard Reveals Insights Into USCIS Backlogs and Processing Trends
The U.S. immigration system is broken — it’s a phrase heard often in discussions about the state of immigration in the U.S. Now, a new interactive dashboard from the American Immigration Council allows anyone with an internet connection to better understand our dysfunctional system of legal immigration. The… Read More
Council and Just Futures Law File FOIA Request Seeking Information on USCIS’ Implementation of “Anti-Americanism” in Adjudicating Benefit Applications
Following the issuance of two executive orders in the early days of the second Trump administration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on April 9, 2025 that it would begin considering “anti-Semitic activity” on social media as grounds for denying immigration benefit requests. Shortly thereafter, USCIS claimed also to… Read More
Council Challenges USCIS’s Refusal to Release I-213s and Other Immigration Records
An Alien File (A-File) is a record that holds a noncitizens’ immigration history, including Form I-213 which contains any U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) allegations that a noncitizen is deportable. Obtaining Form I-213 and other immigration records in an A-File is a critical part of immigrants applying for immigration benefits… Read More
Prolonged Limbo for Haitian TPS Holders: What Recent Court Decisions Mean
Updates April 13, 2026 — The Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments related to Haitian and Syrian Temporary Protected Status (TPS), with oral arguments taking place in late April and a decision later this summer. The court’s ruling will significantly impact the estimated 6,100 Syrian and 330,000 Haitian… Read More
Capture of Maduro Proves Trump Has Used Venezuelans as Political Pawns in Immigration Policy
With the capture and prosecution of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, the United States’ convoluted—and often contradictory—policies toward Venezuelan immigrants have been thrown into stark relief. And Venezuelans living in the United States continue to feel the whiplash. Over the past five years, Venezuelans fleeing political persecution or economic chaos may… Read More
Trump Administration Responds to Tragedy By Putting Hundreds of Thousands of Legal Immigrants’ Lives On Hold
After the tragic shooting of two members of the West Virginia National Guard in DC last week, the Trump administration has taken this opportunity to further escalate its rhetoric against immigrants from countries it deems undesirable. Trump himself blustered that he was going to halt all migration from the “Third… Read More
Council Seeks Information on How USCIS Is Processing FOIA Requests for Immigration Records
An Alien File (A-File) is a record that holds a noncitizens’ immigration history. It includes copies of forms they may have filed, information about their immigration arrests (if they have had encounters with immigration enforcement), and some immigration court records. This file is crucial to immigrants and their legal representatives… Read More
USCIS Will Resume Posting Administrative Appeals Office Decisions on its Website after Lawsuit from the Council and its Partners
The Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) is the branch of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that adjudicates appeals filed by noncitizens when they are wrongly denied certain types of immigration benefits. In most cases, the AAO issues non-precedent decisions as the final opinion in these appeals, which the AAO used to post on the USCIS webpage dedicated to these decisions. Practitioners, and the… Read More
A Texas-Only DACA? Why This Imminent Ruling Could Upend National Policy
Tens of thousands of DACA recipients in Texas may soon be stripped of their ability to work in the U.S. lawfully—and the consequences won’t stop at the state line. In January 2025, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that portions of a 2022 DACA regulation – those that… Read More
Legal Groups File Emergency Motion to Stop ICE from Jailing Immigrant Teens in Adult Detention
Washington, D.C, October 4 — Advocacy groups the American Immigration Council and the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) filed an emergency motion on October 4, seeking to enforce a 2021 court ruling (in the Garcia Ramirez v. ICE case) that prevents ICE from illegally locking up… Read More
