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
- Asylum
- May 3, 2023
America needs durable solutions. These concrete measures can bring orderliness to our border and modernize our overwhelmed asylum system. Read…
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Systemic Challenge to Policies at Artesia
On August 22, 2014, the American Immigration Council, in collaboration with the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, the National Immigration Law Center, Van Der Hout Brigagliano & Nightingale LLP, and Jenner & Block, filed this lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Columbia. The case was a systemic challenge to the policies denying a fair deportation process to mothers and children detained in the Artesia Family Residential Center who had fled extreme violence, death threats, rape, and persecution in Central America and come to the United States seeking safety. Read More
Why Groups Are Suing the Government over Rushed Deportation Process for Mothers and Children
As families from Central America flee violence and persecution to seek refuge in the United States, hundreds of mothers and their children apprehended after crossing the border have been locked up at an isolated detention center in Artesia, New Mexico—hours from the nearest major metropolitan area. Two hundred and… Read More
Whistleblower Alleges Cover-ups and Corruption at U.S. Customs and Border Protection
While allegations of abuse committed by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers are nothing new, it’s not every day that someone as high-ranking as the former head of the agency’s internal affairs office is the one blowing the whistle. In an interview with The Center for Investigative Reporting… Read More
11-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Held in Immigration Detention at Artesia
One of the hundreds of children being held at an immigration detention facility in, New Mexico, was released last week when officials realized the 11-year-old boy was a U.S. citizen. According to the boy’s attorney, he spent more than a month there before an immigration attorney visiting… Read More
Municipalities Help Advance Access to Counsel for Immigrants
Historically, “immigrants facing deportation are not provided an attorney if they cannot afford one.” But across the country, municipalities are taking steps to improve access to counsel for those who otherwise would be forced to proceed in immigration court alone. Cities are establishing programs to provide free legal… 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
States and Cities Welcome Unaccompanied Children
Many of the Central American children who crossed the U.S. border after fleeing their home countries are being placed with family members and sponsors across the country as they await hearings to adjudicate their claims to stay in the U.S., and some states and cities are welcoming them. Read More
Children in Jail: What It’s Like for Immigrants Held at Artesia Center
By Megan Jordi, legal director at the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center. The rule of law is only a mirage in the remote, dusty town of Artesia, New Mexico, where the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is holding more than 600 Honduran, Salvadoran, and Guatemalan women and children. The… Read More
Texas Governor Invokes Nonsensical Statistics on Immigrant Crime in His State
After more than a century’s worth of studies and reports, you’d think that politicians would have gotten the message: not only are the vast majority of immigrants not criminals, but immigrants are less likely to be criminals than native-born Americans. This is true for both unauthorized immigrants and… 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
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