Border Enforcement

Migration at the border is a multifaceted issue, challenging the U.S. to secure our borders while upholding the human rights of individuals seeking safety and better opportunities. Balancing national security with compassion and our legal obligations to asylum seekers presents intricate dilemmas, and we collaborate with policymakers to advance bipartisan, action-oriented solutions.

Beyond A Border Solution

America needs durable solutions. These concrete measures can bring orderliness to our border and modernize our overwhelmed asylum system. Read…

Read More
Enforcement Overdrive: A Comprehensive Assessment of ICE’s Criminal Alien Program

Enforcement Overdrive: A Comprehensive Assessment of ICE’s Criminal Alien Program

This examination of the Criminal Alien Program's outcomes from fiscal years 2010 to 2013 offers important insights into CAP’s operations over time and its potential impact on communities moving forward. Read More

A Guide to Children Arriving at the Border: Laws, Policies and Responses

A Guide to Children Arriving at the Border: Laws, Policies and Responses

This Guide provides information about the tens of thousands of children—some travelling with their parents and others alone—who have fled their homes in Central America and arrived at our southern border. Read More

Senate Rejects Two Anti-Immigrant Bills Before It Goes out on Recess

Senate Rejects Two Anti-Immigrant Bills Before It Goes out on Recess

This week, the Senate defeated cloture on motions to proceed—a motion to begin debate—on two “Sanctuary City” bills sponsored by Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX). Both bills take an enforcement-only approach to immigration reform and fail to address the nation’s outdated immigration laws or the need… Read More

Government Reverses Policy on Using Border Agents as Translators

Government Reverses Policy on Using Border Agents as Translators

In December 2012, then acting Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) David Aguilar had announced a policy restricting his agencies’ officers and agents from acting as interpreters for state or local law enforcement agencies—which had become a common practice along the northern and southern borders. However, just last month, current… Read More

Photographic Evidence of Conditions in CBP’s Short-Term Detention Facilities “Hieleras” Revealed

Photographic Evidence of Conditions in CBP’s Short-Term Detention Facilities “Hieleras” Revealed

A judge in Arizona unsealed photographs central to ongoing litigation challenging deplorable and unconstitutional conditions in Border Patrol’s short-term detention facilities in the Tucson Sector. The never-before-seen-photos show the inside of facilities known as “hieleras” or ice-boxes—a term coined by those held in the frigid concrete cells. The… Read More

Comparing the House and Senate Plans to Fund Immigration Agencies

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

Border Patrol Involvement in Translation and 911 Dispatch Activities FOIA

Border Patrol Involvement in Translation and 911 Dispatch Activities FOIA

Advocates in states along the northern border of the United States have reported that Border Patrol agents frequently “assist” other law enforcement agencies by serving as Spanish-English interpreters and participating in 911 dispatch activities. Capitalizing on their access to noncitizens, Border Patrol agents often use these opportunities to… Read More

“Voluntary” Returns FOIA

Based on reports from immigration advocates, CBP officers do not always provide noncitizens with information regarding the consequences of accepting voluntary return and in some cases even compel them to “agree” to “voluntarily” depart. Consequently, individuals who accept voluntary departure may be forced to relinquish claims for legal… Read More

Paul Ryan's New Border Security Plan Is More of the Same

Paul Ryan’s New Border Security Plan Is More of the Same

This week Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan (R-WI) introduced his national security agenda, which included a plan to “secure the border.” As part of that plan, Speaker Ryan says, “America must secure the border once and for all by accelerating the deployment of fencing, technology, air… Read More

This Lawsuit Seeks to Determine Whether Customs and Border Protection Has Improved Its Complaint System

This Lawsuit Seeks to Determine Whether Customs and Border Protection Has Improved Its Complaint System

Two years ago, the American Immigration Council released an analysis of data it had obtained from the Department of Homeland Security detailing an utter lack of responsiveness to complaints filed against agents employed by United States Border Patrol. In fact, the report, No Action Taken: Lack of CBP Accountability… Read More

Make a contribution

Make a direct impact on the lives of immigrants.

logoimg