Children
The Detention of Children and Their Families is Still Unjust and Still Against the Law
Detaining immigrant children is nothing new. In 1997, the government settled a lawsuit, Flores v. Reno, about the inhumane treatment of immigrant children held in detention. The settlement agreement said officials would follow a set of minimum national standards for the detention, release, and treatment of children subject to immigration… Read More
Unrepresented Children Still Being Fast-Tracked Through Immigration Hearings
Since the government began “prioritizing” the deportation of unaccompanied children and mothers with children last summer, legal service providers and other court observers across the country have reported that immigration judges are giving children less time to find attorneys before moving forward in their cases. Now, children without attorneys… Read More
Without immigration fix, many dairies struggle to find employees
When Jon Slutsky’s dairy farm in Wellington, Colo. is fully staffed, it’s a moment to celebrate. A full roster of employees at Slutsky’s La Luna Dairy is rare these days. “We’re doing really well with our employee base,” Slutsky said. “A year ago, we couldn’t say… Read More
White House Proposes Plan to Address Causes of Children Fleeing Central America
President Obama requested $1 billion in his fiscal year 2016 budget proposal to address the root causes of unaccompanied children fleeing to the United States. Vice President Joe Biden announced the plan for these funds in a New York Times op-ed, saying that “[a]s we were reminded last summer… Read More
Should English-Speaking America Care about Immigration Reform?
President Obama delivered his sixth State of the Union speech this week, which was followed up by two GOP rebuttals, one in English, the other in Spanish. Comparing all three speeches is a lesson in the parties’ contrasting views on immigration reform and who they believe truly has a… Read More
How Thousands of U.S. Citizen Children Are Impacted by Removal of Parents
While the President’s recent executive actions will help some parents of U.S. citizens, current border removal policies continue to separate U.S. citizen children from their parents, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch. Using data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the authors calculated that… Read More
The Cost of Citizenship is a Barrier for Some Immigrants
Of the 13.3 million legal permanent residents (LPRs) in the United States, 8.8 million are currently eligible for citizenship. Many, however, are not making the leap from legal permanent resident status to citizen. The number of those naturalizing has been less than 800,000 for the past five consecutive years,… Read More
Washington Times Serves Up Some Anti-Immigrant Tea-Party Populism
Since 2010, the boundaries have been blurring among nativist organizations, Tea Party factions, and so-called “Patriot” groups as both their memberships and leaderships commingle. And so self-described nativists are now likely to spew forth rhetoric that is heavily imbued with the kind of shrill anti-government propaganda one might find… Read More
Final Immigration Hearings of 2014 Preview More Gridlock in 114th Congress
When the 113th Congress kicked off nearly two years ago, hopes were high that this would be the Congress to pass lasting immigration reform. “I think a comprehensive approach is long overdue, and I’m confident that the president, myself, others, can find the common ground to take care of this… Read More
State Department Launches In-Country Refugee Program to Reunite Central American Families
Last week, the U.S. Department of State announced the launch of its in-country refugee processing program in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The program is part of the Obama Administration’s response to last summer’s influx of unaccompanied children and families fleeing to the United States from Central America and… Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone
