Immigration at the Border
Border Patrol Agents as Interpreters Along the Northern Border: Unwise Policy, Illegal Practice
Washington D.C. – Today, the Immigration Policy Center released Border Patrol Agents as Interpreters Along the Northern Border: Unwise Policy, Illegal Practice by Lisa Graybill, Esq. Advocates along the Northern Border report a recent, sharp increase in the use of U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agents to provide interpretation… Read More
Immigration Courts Have New Rules Governing Legal Representation Processes
Last week, the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) announced changes to the regulations governing legal representation in immigration court and at the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). Every year, thousands of immigrants are forced to represent themselves in immigration court. The changes are intended to increase representation of… Read More
Private Prison Company Expands Immigration Reach with $11 Million Contract
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently announced a pilot case management program as an alternative to holding mothers and children in detention. The annual $11 million contract was awarded to Geo Care LLC, a subsidiary of the Geo Group—the second largest private prison company in the U.S. that operates… Read More
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Releases Scathing Report and Calls for End to Family Detention
This week, the drumbeat to end family detention got louder when the United States Commission on Civil Rights (the Commission) released a report which focused on conditions in immigration detention centers and family detainees. The report—sent directly to the President, the Vice President, and the Speaker of House—contains numerous… Read More
After Five Years, Are Challenges to SB 1070 Coming to an End?
A federal judge in Arizona issued a decision on September 4, which some say signals the end of years of legal challenges against Arizona’s SB 1070 law. For the most part, the law has been gutted, drastically reducing much of the negative impact of this wrong-headed, draconian state immigration law,… Read More
Welcoming Week Honors Immigrant Contributions and Builds Bridges in Local Communities
The heated political rhetoric so far in the 2016 presidential campaign has often been at the expense of immigrants. And the policy solutions put forth by some candidates have centered around punitive, impractical measures that are out of touch with the humane approach most Americans want to see… Read More
Five Families Released After Prolonged Detention
On Friday evening, just before the Labor Day weekend, the government released five mothers and their five children, ranging in age from three to seventeen years old, from the South Texas Residential Family Detention Facility in Dilley, Texas. These families, who sought refuge in the United States after fleeing violence… Read More
New Report Evaluates Scale of the Central American Refugee Influx
The Central American refugee influx along the U.S.-Mexico border, which generated so much press attention in 2014, is not going away anytime soon. The conditions which spur Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Hondurans to flee their countries in large numbers—namely, widespread violence and grinding poverty—have not changed. Nor has the fact that… Read More
Hopes Mount That Pope Francis’ Visit Can Tone Down Anti-Immigrant Political Rhetoric
A change in topic is desperately needed right now in the political and policy debate over immigration. The most recent public discussions on how to reform immigration—led in large part by the leading candidates vying for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination—range from impractical and incomplete to downright cruel and… Read More
ICE Issuing Fewer Detainers, but Compliance With Enforcement Priorities in Question
New data obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) shows that while the government’s use of detainers is decreasing, the number of detainers issued for individuals without criminal convictions remains high. TRAC’s report, released last Friday, looks at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) use of detainers in… Read More
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