Department of Homeland Security
New Website Documents Border Patrol Abuses
An alliance of immigration advocacy groups launched HoldCBPAccountable.org, a website that catalogues lawsuits and administrative complaints brought against U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The American Immigration Council, the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, and the ACLU… Read More
President Calls for Review of U.S. Deportation System
As the number of deportations under President Obama near the 2 million mark and Congress stalls on immigration reform legislation, President Obama said Friday that administration officials are reviewing what could be done to make the immigration enforcement system more humane. The announcement follows votes in the… Read More
Increase in Deportations Harms Native-Born Workers and Economy
More immigrants are being “removed” from the United States than ever before by a deportation system that has grown larger and more aggressive coupled with an agency with misplaced priorities in which most immigrants deported pose no threat to anyone. “For nearly two decades, the… Read More
The Growth of the U.S. Deportation Machine and Its Misplaced Priorities
No one can say with certainty when the Obama administration will reach the grim milestone of having deported two million people since the President took office in 2008. Regardless of the exact date this symbolic threshold is reached, however, it is important to keep in mind a much more… Read More
House Members Question and Criticize Rather Than Act to Change Immigration Policies
Two hearings in the House of Representatives today were unfortunate examples of how the chamber is looking back rather than forward on immigration. In his first House hearing before the Homeland Security committee, Secretary Jeh Johnson laid out his vision for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which… Read More
An Unnecessary Pre-Emptive Strike Against Young Undocumented Immigrants
This week, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) issued a criticism of the Kids Act, a bill not yet released by House leadership. The thrust of their argument is that any legalization program the bill could propose would be an “amnesty,” no matter what the requirements, and that… Read More
Recent Report on Deportation Misses the Big Picture
The Obama administration has deported nearly 2 million people so far, and it still has two years left to go. This would seem to indicate that the U.S. immigration enforcement machine is running at top speed. However, a report from Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC)—as well… Read More
Petition Challenges DHS on Enforcement Priorities
Last week, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) along with six individuals, submitted a formal request to the Department of Homeland Security asking the agency to temporarily suspend the deportation of low-priority undocumented workers and their families and grant them “deferred… Read More
The Washington Post Exposes Sorry State of Immigration Courts
This week, the Washington Post ran a front page article drawing attention to the fact that our nation’s immigration courts are operating in crisis mode. The immigration courts are so overcrowded that judges are forced to make split-second decisions regarding complex legal issues, calling into question whether the court system is fairly administering justice. The article featured a morning in the life of one immigration judge who had 26 cases to hear before lunchtime. That equates to an average of just seven minutes per case. Given the high stakes involved in deportation cases—which can range from permanent separation from family in the United States to being returned to a country where a person fears for his or her life—a system that is overburdened and under-resourced is simply unacceptable. Read More
New Study Highlights Causes of Return Migration to Mexico
Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together (MATT) has presented the results of a new study that highlights some recent, significant shifts in return migration from the United States to Mexico. One of the merits of this study is that it reminds us of the dynamic and bi-directional nature of migratory flows between the two countries. Between 2005 and 2010, 1.39 million people moved from the U.S. to Mexico, of whom 985,000 were returning migrants. Interestingly, deportations (which, as we know, have escalated tremendously during the Obama administration) represent only 11% of all return migrants to Mexico in that period. This means that a significant number of return migrants “chose” to go back to Mexico voluntarily. Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone
