Immigration and Customs Enforcement
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
What the Senate Proposed on Immigration in the Department of Homeland Security Budget
This week, the Senate Appropriations Committee unveiled and unanimously passed out of Committee their budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which begins on October 1, 2016. The House of Representatives is yet to introduce their version of the appropriations bill. While the… Read More
House Judiciary Marks Up Criticized Visa Security Act
This week, the House Judiciary Committee marked up and passed bill H.R. 5203, the Visa Integrity and Security Act of 2016 (VISA Act). The stated goal of the legislation introduced by Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA) is to enhance the security procedures for the processing of immigrant and nonimmigrant visas. Some… Read More
Two People Died in Immigration Detention This Week
For more than a decade, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been criticized for the inadequate medical care available in its detention facilities, which has had deadly repercussions. This week, two more people died while in ICE custody—Jose Leonardo Lemus Rajo, 23, of El Salvador and Igor Zyazin,… Read More
New Data Sheds Light on Sprawling, Often For-Profit, Immigration Detention System
It is easy to forget at times just how sprawling and labyrinthine the U.S. immigration detention system truly is. But this is an important fact to keep in mind. Due to the sheer size and complexity of the detention system, detainees are easily “lost” to their family members and attorneys. Read More
Understanding Justice Kennedy’s “Upside Down” Argument in U.S. v. Texas
On April 18, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in United States v. Texas, a case brought by 26 states to challenge President Obama’s frozen deferred action programs, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Plus (expanded DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and… Read More
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