Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Undocumented Children Face These Challenges in Accessing Public Education
Unaccompanied children arriving from Central America face many challenges – post-traumatic stress, facing a judge without an attorney, separation from their families, and the fear of being returned to their home countries, among others. Receiving the public education to which they are entitled should not be one of those challenges. Read More
What Everybody Ought to Know About Undocumented Immigrants and Taxes
Most Americans pay taxes dutifully with the hope that they will be put to the best uses possible—and with the knowledge they will one day collect benefits from those contributions. However, undocumented immigrants who pay their taxes each year know full-well they may never actually receive many of the benefits… Read More
Why Foreign-Born Healthcare Workers Are Needed to Fill Gaps in the Midwest
As baby-boomers age and retire and the demand for medical professionals grows, the U.S. is facing a crisis in the healthcare sector finds a recent report from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. The report highlights healthcare as a critical part of the Midwestern economy and the important ways… Read More
Medical Dysfunction at ICE Detention Facilities
There is no shortage of stories about immigrants dying from inadequate medical care while in detention centers operated or overseen by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Take the case of Pablo Gracida-Conte, a 54-year-old Mexican man who died of cardiomyopathy in October 2011 in a hospital in Tucson,… Read More
Evidence Shows Asylum Seekers Appear for Court with Alternatives to Detention and Legal Assistance
When thousands of Central American families fled violence to the United States last year, the Administration responded by opening family detention centers, which are detaining mothers and children as their asylum-based claims work through the court system. Family detention has since led to complaints of psychological harm, suicide attempts, protests and hunger strikes by detainees, and lawsuits over lack of due process, all at exorbitant cost. Yet a new paper by the American Immigration Council and Center for Migration Studies, A Humane Approach Can Work: The Effectiveness of Alternatives to Detention for Asylum Seekers, suggests that U.S. detention of asylum seekers is not only harmful, but unnecessary. Read More
Congressional Hearings Highlight Need for Practical, Comprehensive Solutions That Promote Public Safety
The tragic murder of Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco this month prompted Congress to schedule two hearings this week—one held today in the Senate Judiciary Committee and another scheduled for Thursday in the House Judiciary Committee. While several family members of victims shared their heart-wrenching stories of loss… Read More
New Memo on Detained Transgender Immigrants Does Not Go Far Enough
U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) will shift its policies regarding transgender adult detainees in its custody according to a memo released last week. While the changes seem positive, they still fall short according to LGBTI and immigration advocates. Read More
Why 250 Counties Have Stopped Honoring Local ICE Detainers
Across the nation, local sheriff’s offices in 250 counties have stopped honoring detainer requests from (ICE) officials because of constitutional, public safety, and economic concerns. After a spate of federal rulings earlier this year found that detainers were not mandatory, local officials increasingly have come to… Read More
Homeland Security Secretary Responds to House Republicans and Flawed Anti-Immigrant Report
Only days after President Obama asked Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson to hold off his deportation review in order to give House Republicans space to move immigration reform negotiations forward, some of those same House Republicans in the Judiciary Committee held an “oversight hearing”… Read More
Growing Number of Localities Limit Detention of Immigrants
At least 14 counties in Oregon have stopped honoring detainer requests from federal immigration officials. Their decisions followed a federal court ruling that officials in Clackamas County “violated one woman’s Fourth Amendment rights by holding her for immigration authorities without probable cause,” according to the Oregonian. Maria… Read More
America's story is an immigrant story.