Department of Homeland Security

Department of Homeland Security

The Supreme Court Hears Asylum Turnback Case: What You Need to Know

The Supreme Court Hears Asylum Turnback Case: What You Need to Know

The opportunity to ask for asylum is a right protected under both U.S. and international law. Yet, during the first Trump administration, border officials physically blocked hundreds of thousands of migrants from accessing ports of entry to seek asylum. Under the government’s “turnback policy” (which the government calls… Read More

More Sunshine Is Needed on Immigration Agencies

More Sunshine Is Needed on Immigration Agencies

Legal filings recently revealed that the federal agency that runs immigration courts has just two attorneys responsible for processing complex public records requests. Two lawyers to handle requests for information about a system that decides the fate of hundreds of thousands of immigrants every year. This revelation… Read More

What A DHS Funding Deal Should Include

What A DHS Funding Deal Should Include

As the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown stretches into its 40th day, the pressure to reach a funding agreement is intensifying. Airport security lines are growing longer and thousands of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel have missed paychecks. With new DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin stepping in… Read More

A video screenshot of Senior Policy Fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick speaking about ICE warehouses

ICE’s Warehouse Purchases Herald New Model for Immigration Detention

ICE is rapidly reshaping the U.S. immigration detention system by purchasing and converting commercial warehouses into large-scale detention facilities. Backed by an unprecedented $45 billion funding boost, this new “reengineered” model aims to dramatically expand capacity and centralize operations—raising significant concerns about mass detention, oversight, and the future of immigration enforcement. Read More

Mission Creep: AI Surveillance at DHS Crosses Dangerous Line Into Tracking Americans

Mission Creep: AI Surveillance at DHS Crosses Dangerous Line Into Tracking Americans

The artificial intelligence (AI) tools built to guard America’s borders are now extending their policing powers into America’s neighborhoods. What began as AI-powered immigration enforcement confined primarily to our southern border is rapidly becoming something else: a quiet expansion of government surveillance into everyday life. Facial recognition, biometric… Read More

Immigration Enforcement Could Come to Your Town. Here’s What You Can Do to Prepare.

Immigration Enforcement Could Come to Your Town. Here’s What You Can Do to Prepare.

Minneapolis has been the latest battleground for the Trump administration in its ongoing campaign of aggressive immigration enforcement across the country. In the year since resuming office, President Trump directed a surge of immigration enforcement officers into several localities, including Los Angeles; Chicago; New Orleans; Portland, Oregon; Charlotte, North… Read More

New Report Details ICE’s Expanding and Increasingly Unaccountable Detention System

New Report Details ICE’s Expanding and Increasingly Unaccountable Detention System

When President Trump took office, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was holding roughly 40,000 people in a national network of detention centers on any given day. In just one year, this number has increased by over 75%, with a record 73,000 people being held in detention as… Read More

ICE Uses a Growing Web of AI Services to Power Its Immigration Enforcement and Surveillance

ICE Uses a Growing Web of AI Services to Power Its Immigration Enforcement and Surveillance

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released an updated version of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use Case Inventory this summer. At first glance, the changes seemed routine—some AI software programs were marked “inactive,” and a new one was added. But upon closer examination, the removal of the AI… Read More

Why You’re Seeing Border Patrol in Places Like Charlotte and Atlanta, So Far From the Border

Why You’re Seeing Border Patrol in Places Like Charlotte and Atlanta, So Far From the Border

When Border Patrol agents descended upon Charlotte, North Carolina last week, many wondered why they were allowed to stop and question people so far from the border. Typically, it’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who have become ubiquitous with the largescale enforcement operations of the second… Read More

The Trump Administration's New Mass Deportation Playbook

The Trump Administration’s New Mass Deportation Playbook

Donald Trump has put his whole government toward mass deportation. One of the most visible aspects of that is a playbook that’s beginning to become standardized in city after city around the country: Border Patrol and ICE urban terror playbook. We’ve seen it in LA, Chicago, and now… Read More

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