Department of Homeland Security
After Justice Department Admits Mistake, Immigrant Advocates Ask Supreme Court to Fix Prior Opinion
Of the many problems with our immigration system, one of the least known—but most frustrating—is that when the government deports immigrants whose appeals are still pending, it offers little to no help returning to the United States if they ultimately prevail in court. Immigrant advocates were thus perplexed when the Justice Department filed a Supreme Court brief in 2008 claiming to have a “policy” of helping such immigrants return to the country. Now, more than three years after the brief was filed, the current administration has conceded that no such policy existed at the time—and immigrant advocates have asked the Court to modify a portion of its ruling that relied on the government’s misstatement. Read More
Border Patrol Agents Abusing Role as Interpreters
Over the past year, advocates in states along the northern border of the United States have reported that Border Patrol agents frequently “assist” local law enforcement officers by serving as Spanish-English interpreters and participating in 911 dispatch activities. Capitalizing on their access to noncitizens, Border Patrol agents are using these opportunities to facilitate immigration enforcement. This collaboration between Border Patrol and local law enforcement agencies, however, violates the letter and the spirit of federal language access requirements under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Executive Order 13166, Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency (August 11, 2000). Read More
DHS’s Current Southern Border Enforcement Strategy a Bust, Group Says
A comprehensive new report finds that the fortification of the U.S.-Mexico border which began two decades ago has reached the limits of its effectiveness, has produced severe negative side effects, and should be systematically re-evaluated. In Beyond the Border Buildup: Security and Migrants Along the U.S.-Mexico Border, the Washington Office on Latin America and the Colegio de la Frontera Norte argue that the U.S. border buildup has never been guided by a comprehensive security strategy. But now that unauthorized immigration has reached historic lows, says the report, the time is ripe to stop throwing money into fragmented enforcement efforts and determine precisely what those enforcement efforts are supposed to accomplish. Read More
Immigrant Tax Contributions and the Future of the U.S. Economy
When it comes to the topic of immigration, Tax Day is a reminder of two important and often-overlooked points. First, immigrants pay billions in taxes every year. This is true even of unauthorized immigrants. Second, the federal government spends billions of taxpayer dollars each year on immigration-enforcement measures that wouldn’t be necessary if not for the chronic inability of Congress to reform our badly outdated immigration system. In other words, there is a strong fiscal case to be made for immigration reform. Were the U.S. immigration system to be given a 21st century overhaul, we would likely increase the tax dollars flowing from the immigrant community, and we would spend far less taxpayer money on immigration enforcement. Read More
Non-Deportable Immigrants Languish in Alabama Detention Center at Taxpayers’ Expense
Immigration violations are civil, not criminal infractions. But for many non-criminal immigrant detainees living alongside criminal inmates at the Etowah County Detention Center in Alabama, that distinction carries little meaning. Far removed from families and legal orientation programs, many of the 350 immigrant detainees housed at the Etowah Detention Center have received deportation orders, but for various reasons cannot be deported. Many are serving the maximum allowable time in detention, and are doing so under poor living conditions at a great cost to American taxpayers. In fact, a recent report by the Women’s Refugee Commission reveals that ICE continues to operate facilities like Etowah that fail to meet even its own detention standards. Read More
Does the Punishment Fit the Crime? Experts Examine “Proportionality” and “Discretion” in Our Immigration System
As immigration becomes an ever more controversial part of the American debate, conversations often turn to details about legislation and court battles rather than questioning whether fundamental principles of justice are being applied throughout our immigration system. Two new reports released today, however, address some of these key principles, such as the idea of proportionality (whether the punishment fits the crime in immigration court) and the idea of discretion (how and when immigration law is applied). While these reports probe different areas of immigration law, they both represent a new way of thinking about how our immigration system functions, or at least should be functioning, today. Read More
DHS Inspector General Issues Disappointing Reports on ICE’s Secure Communities Program
Keeping to its tradition of releasing controversial reports on holidays and Friday afternoons, the DHS Office of Inspector General issued two reports on the controversial Secure Communities program last Friday. These reports had been anticipated for months by immigrant advocates, law enforcement officials, local elected officials, and others who hoped they would address serious concerns about the program and issue a series of recommendations aimed at reforming it. Unfortunately, the reports were disappointing and failed to investigate many aspects of the flawed Secure Communities program. Read More
Human Rights Abuses Along U.S.-Mexico Border Underscore Need for Reform
U.S. immigration and border-enforcement policies have precipitated a litany of human-rights abuses along the U.S.-Mexico border, from the needless deaths of border-crossers to inhumane conditions in immigration detention to the racial profiling of entire Latino and indigenous communities. That was the principal finding of the human rights groups which presented testimony at a recent hearing of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). It was also the main conclusion of a recent report by Amnesty International. Both the hearing and the report underscore the urgent need for the U.S. government to abide by the human rights treaties to which it is a signatory. Read More
ICE Deported More Than 46,000 Immigrants with U.S. Citizen Children Last Year, Report Finds
Immigration enforcement and deportation have a particularly devastating impact on mixed status families, that is, families who have one or more direct members who are undocumented. When parents are deported, families face impossible decisions about whether their family will be separated or whether U.S. citizen kids will be de facto deported along with their parents. New numbers released in a report by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) show the extent of the issue. The new report finds that, between January and June 2011, ICE deported over 46,000 immigrants who claimed to have at least one U.S. citizen child. Read More
DHS Review of Immigration Cases Expands to Half Dozen New Cities
The Washington Post and Huffington Post are reporting that ICE’s ongoing review of existing deportation cases will expand to six new cities in the coming months. Initially launched in Baltimore and Denver in 2011, the initiative will soon expand to Seattle, Detroit, New Orleans and Orlando, followed by Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City. The idea behind the initiative is to clear historic backlogs in the immigration courts by administratively closing cases that ICE considers to be low priority. Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone
