Immigration at the Border
Children of Undocumented Parents Tell the Trump Administration: You Won’t Break Up Our Families
Standing in the shadow of the White House Thursday afternoon, children from around the country gathered to deliver one unified message to President Trump: don’t break our families apart. This heartbreaking plea came from the dozens of American children that spoke at the We Belong Together Kid’s Caravan… Read More
ICE’s Public Shaming Detainer Reports Were So Inaccurate They Had to Stop Publishing Them
After issuing only three weekly declined detainer reports, Immigration and Customs Enforcement will temporarily cease publishing them. Initiated by President Trump’s January executive order on interior enforcement, ICE had begun to release weekly lists of jurisdictions that declined immigration detainers. These lists—proposed as a means to track which… Read More
Immigration Arrests Increase While Weapon and Drug Arrests Decline, Federal Data Shows
Attorney General Jeff Sessions decried drug dealers and armed cartels at the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday, but rather than announcing a crackdown on those elements, he instead declared war on undocumented immigrants and those who defend them. Sessions announced that he was instructing U.S. attorneys to prioritize criminal immigration… Read More
Sessions Reveals Plan to Ramp up Prosecutions of Low Level Immigration Offenses
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a shift in policy for the Department of Justice on Tuesday, directing U.S. attorneys to prioritize criminal immigration enforcement and drastically expand federal court prosecutions of immigration violators across the nation. Operation Streamline and other border enforcement programs—where some border crossers are referred by… Read More
Congress Goes to Recess with No Action on Immigration
President Trump’s campaign promise to ramp up immigration enforcement and build a beautiful wall along the southern border have found little support on Capitol Hill. As Congress leaves for spring recess it’s unclear which of the president’s immigration promises they are willing to help him fulfill. Permanent changes to… Read More
What You Need to Know About ICE’s Arrests at Courthouses
According to their own guidance on the subject, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is supposed to practice restraint when it comes to arresting people at “sensitive locations” such as schools, churches, and hospitals—as well as “any organization assisting children, pregnant women, victims of crime or abuse, or individuals with… Read More
Congress Grills Homeland Security Secretary Kelly in Contentious Oversight Hearing
The Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee this week. During the hearing Secretary Kelly attempted to clarify some of DHS’s controversial positions as they relate to immigration enforcement, extreme vetting, family separation, and the building of a border… Read More
Failing Prison System Gets New Life—At The Expense of Immigrants and American Taxpayers
Public and private prisons previously crumbling under financial strains, reduced population numbers, and Obama-era regulations are receiving a boost under the Trump administration, thanks in large part to the president’s promise to fill their beds with undocumented immigrants. In fact, since President Trump took office, private prison stock has… Read More
Millions of Children, Citizens Impacted by U.S. Immigration Enforcement
Increased attention to immigration enforcement in 2017 has propelled the serious issue of children being separated from an undocumented parent into national headlines. The stories of children, including U.S. citizens, being forcibly separated from a parent are sadly multiplying. In March, for example, 13-year-old Fatima Avelica witnessed and recorded Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents taking her father into custody as he drove Fatima and her sister to school in California. Her father, Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez, remains in ICE custody at the Adelanto Detention Facility. Read More
Ferino-Sanchez v. Sessions — Fourth Circuit
This amicus brief arguing that any Fourth Amendment violation by state and local law enforcement officers — not just egregious Fourth Amendments violations — should require the suppression of evidence in immigration court proceedings, which is the same standard that applies in the criminal justice arena. Read More
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