Immigration and Customs Enforcement
What the Immigration Restrictionists’ Agenda Will Look Like for the Next Four Years
One does not have to look hard to find what the restrictionists’ immigration agenda will look like for the next four years. The groups and individuals leading the charge are not shy about sharing what they think the new administration should do when it comes to immigration. This week, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) released its transition ideas for the new administration and there are no surprises in the document. As usual the group paints a bleak portrait of immigrants and immigration. Their prescriptions are harsh but not new: build a wall, detain more immigrants, deport more immigrants, prosecute immigration violators, use state and local police to round up immigrants, end birthright citizenship, cut back on legal immigration, and so on. Read More
Supreme Court Hears Immigration Case Asserting Discrimination Against Unmarried American Fathers
Last week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Lynch v. Morales-Santana, a case that will decide whether the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) unlawfully favors mothers over fathers of children born out-of-wedlock when granting citizenship to their children born abroad. In determining whether a U.S. citizen parent may transfer… Read More
How the Immigration Court Backlog Would Skyrocket Under Donald Trump’s Plan
For more than a decade, the immigration court system has struggled with an enormous backlog. The latest figures from (TRAC) record the backlog at an all-time high of 521,676 as of the end of October, the first month in Fiscal Year (FY) 2017. The data release coincides with… Read More
Understanding Donald Trump’s Latest Deportation Threat
On Sunday night, President-Elect Donald Trump repeated his pledge to begin deporting undocumented immigrants but he narrowed in on two to three million immigrants who he dubbed “criminal.” He said: “What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang… Read More
Immigrant Service Members to be Naturalized and Remembered on Veterans Day
This year on Veterans Day, over 40 naturalization ceremonies will take place and 7,500 veterans, service members, and military spouses will become the newest Americans. While that may seems like a large number of people, it should come as no surprise as immigrant participation in the U.S. armed services is… Read More
The Death Toll of Immigration Detention
Each year on November 1 and 2, people around the world celebrate the Day of the Dead—sometimes called All Souls Day or Día de los Muertos in Spanish—to remember and honor children and adults who have died. To date, since 2003, 165 people have died in immigration detention, including… Read More
Federal Court Strikes Down Immigration Detainers
In a decision late last week, the federal district court in the Northern District of Illinois invalidated the practice of issuing immigration detainers by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The court found that detainers violate federal law because they exceed the government’s warrantless arrest authority and made it… Read More
Government Sued For Withholding Records on Immigration Raids
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is continuing to defend the controversial “Operation Border Guardian” program that took more than 100 Central American women and children from their homes in two days of immigration raids last January. According to a lawsuit filed this week by the Southern Poverty Law… Read More
Ninth Circuit Decision Should Prompt End to Family Detention
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the Flores Settlement (a 1997 agreement that set legal standards for the detention and release of immigrant children) applies to both unaccompanied and accompanied minors. The Court also found that neither Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) detention and release policies at existing… Read More
Comparing the House and Senate Plans to Fund Immigration Agencies
The House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committees unveiled and passed out of committee their budgets for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which begins on October 1, 2016. Although the House and Senate have proposed funding some of the requests made by the President in… Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone
