Legislation

Legislation

What’s in the Secure America Act?

What’s in the Secure America Act?

Congress passed the Secure America Act in June 2026, allocating $69.5 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) through 2029 using the reconciliation process. The law dramatically expands federal immigration enforcement funding while limiting congressional oversight and bypassing the traditional appropriations process. Read More

Challenging the Trump Administration’s Regulation Gutting Appellate Review at the Board of Immigration Appeals

Challenging the Trump Administration’s Regulation Gutting Appellate Review at the Board of Immigration Appeals

In February 2026, the Trump administration issued an Interim Final Rule (IFR) that guts the Board of Immigration Appeals, the agency that hears appeals of cases from immigration courts. The IFR upends the system for noncitizens to be able to challenge adverse immigration judge decisions, making summary dismissals the… Read More

Mass Deportation: Analyzing the Trump Administration's Attacks on Immigrants, Democracy, and America

Mass Deportation: Analyzing the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Immigrants, Democracy, and America

The first six months of President Trump’s return to office have marked the most extreme changes to the immigration system in modern U.S. history. Read More

What’s in the Big Beautiful Bill? Immigration and Border Security Unpacked

What’s in the Big Beautiful Bill? Immigration and Border Security Unpacked

H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” injects $170B into immigration enforcement, expanding detention, border wall funding, and imposing steep new fees on legal immigration. This analysis breaks down the bill’s sweeping impact. Read More

Senate Approves Unprecedented Spending for Mass Deportation, Ignoring What’s Broken in our Immigration System

Senate Approves Unprecedented Spending for Mass Deportation, Ignoring What’s Broken in our Immigration System

Washington DC, July 1, 2025 — On July 1, the U.S. Senate passed a budget reconciliation bill that includes an unprecedented allocation of funds for immigration detention and enforcement while simultaneously stripping healthcare from millions of Americans. The bill, passed today with Vice President JD Vance contributing the… Read More

Lawsuit Challenges Tennessee “Anti-Harboring” Law that Criminalizes Providing Shelter to People who are Undocumented

Lawsuit Challenges Tennessee “Anti-Harboring” Law that Criminalizes Providing Shelter to People who are Undocumented

WASHINGTON, DC, June 23, 2025  — On June 20, a coalition including a religious organization and two individuals filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a newly enacted Tennessee law that criminalizes providing shelter to people who are undocumented, even when there is no intent to conceal them. Read More

Our Leaders Must Understand Immigration Before Legislating It

Our Leaders Must Understand Immigration Before Legislating It

Texas leaders cannot keep legislating immigration policy from a place of political posturing and profound misunderstanding. Before drafting new laws—or undoing long-standing ones—they must first grasp the fundamentals of how our immigration system works and who it affects. On June 4, 2025, the U.S. Department of… Read More

Texas Dream Act Survives—Because Texans Showed Up

Texas Dream Act Survives—Because Texans Showed Up

In a legislative session marked by political division and increasingly polarized rhetoric, the Texas Dream Act endured. The win affirms that all Texas high school graduates—regardless of immigration status—will continue to have access to higher education. Read More

Five State Immigration Bills You Should Know About

Five State Immigration Bills You Should Know About

State legislatures are advancing policies that directly impact immigrant communities — creating new rules, expanding enforcement, and offering critical protections. At the start of the 2025 legislative session, the American Immigration Council shared how states could pass policies to protect their immigrant communities. Now, as the 2025 state… Read More

In-State Tuition Policies for Undocumented Students Change Lives. I Should Know—Mine Changed for the Better

In-State Tuition Policies for Undocumented Students Change Lives. I Should Know—Mine Changed for the Better

“And I think it is healing behavior, to look at something so broken and see the possibility and wholeness in it.”  — adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy The Texas Dream Act was signed into law in 2001, years before I… Read More

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