Executive Branch
The President’s Solid Ground for Executive Action on Immigration
Comprehensive immigration reform legislation would give a majority of America’s 11 million undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship and work authorization. But with immigration reform stalled in the House, President Obama announced that he plans to “fix as much of our immigration system as I can… Read More
Seven Reasons Why Undocumented Immigrants are Rooted in America
With immigration legislation now moribund in Congress, all eyes have turned to the White House to see what sorts of non-legislative fixes to the immigration system might be implemented by the Obama administration. While the administration’s deliberations remain private, it is almost certain that one of the fixes being… Read More
Why the President Has Authority to Act on Deportations
The Washington Post published an editorial last week that missed the mark on whether the President has the authority to limit deportations of undocumented immigrants, concluding President Obama would be “tearing up the Constitution” by doing so. The New York Times editorial board followed up Sunday with their more… Read More
House Uses Unaccompanied Kids as Excuse for More Enforcement, Less Due Process
Congress adjourned last week without passing a supplemental spending bill to cover the costs of managing the influx of unaccompanied minors and families in the Rio Grande Valley. If the issue had simply been one of how much of President Obama’s $3.7 billion request actually would be… Read More
White House Considering Plans to Expand Temporary Legal Status for More Immigrants
The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that the White House is moving forward on plans to expand deportation relief through executive action to roughly 5 million immigrants of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. The plans could offer immigrants temporary legal status, similar to the… Read More
Texas Group Finds Most Unaccompanied Children Could Qualify for Relief
More than half of the unaccompanied Central American children who are in U.S. custody after crossing the U.S. border could be found eligible for relief by a U.S. immigration judge, according to an assessment by Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES). This… Read More
DOJ Adds Temp Judges and Shifts Priorities in Response to Unaccompanied Minors
Congress has long neglected the immigration court system, like so many other aspects of our immigration infrastructure. For years, while the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has dedicated more and more resources to immigration enforcement efforts, resources for the immigration courts have not commensurately increased. As a result, immigration courts cannot keep up with their current workload. This has become increasingly evident as courts struggle to handle the growing number of deportation cases DHS has brought against unaccompanied children. And while the Obama administration has requested emergency supplemental funding to hire 25 new immigration judges, it is unclear whether this funding will materialize. In an attempt to bring some immediate relief, the Department of Justice announced a new rule that permits the Department to hire temporary judges. Read More
How $3.7 Billion for Border Humanitarian Situation Would be Spent
The Obama administration is asking Congress for $3.7 billion to address humanitarian needs as child migrants cross the U.S.-Mexico border alone. Congress must approve the funding that, according to news reports, would speed up removal proceedings to decide if the children can stay in the U.S. or… Read More
New Report Helps Explain Why Central American Children Are Leaving Their Home Countries
Ever since President Barack Obama described the record number of minors traveling alone and crossing the U.S.-Mexico border as an “urgent humanitarian situation requiring a unified and coordinated Federal response,” the debate about how to address the unaccompanied migrant children has become increasingly heated, especially about the reasons… Read More
Effort to Quickly Deport Child Migrants Fails to Address the Problem
The White House informed Congress Monday that it would seek additional funding for an aggressive border enforcement strategy designed to thwart the dramatic increase in unaccompanied minors and families crossing the southwestern border, to expend more resources on fighting traffickers and drug smugglers, and to work closely… Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone
