Immigration at the Border
Mothers and Children Suffer In Immigration Detention While Administration Makes its Point
Estrella is a four-year-old girl who has been locked-up in U.S. detention centers for over eight months or one fifth of her life. She is chronically ill and has been hospitalized for acute bronchitis. She has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, adjustment disorder with anxiety, and major depressive episode. Read More
Commissioner Kerlikowske Offers Vision of Change at CBP
On Thursday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP’s) Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske answered questions from the House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee regarding CBP’s budget, and more generally his first year on the job. Kerlikowske’s seeming rationality, and openness to administrative changes, provided an alternative to the enforcement-first strategy that… Read More
Without Legalization, State Policies Remain Crucial to Healthy Communities
In the absence of meaningful immigration reform to address the situation of the millions of undocumented individuals living in the United States, state policies have become more and more important. One of the areas in which that is especially true is public health. It is unquestionable that healthy communities require broad access… Read More
Private Prison Industry Lobbies for Detention of Immigrants
Since 2009, Congress has instructed the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to maintain 34,000 beds in immigrant detention facilities across the country, a policy known as “the bed mandate.” This mandate costs the American taxpayer $5.05 million per day–or $159 a day per immigrant detainee. A new… Read More
Why Immigration Enforcement Effectiveness Should Be Measured
For decades, the United States has been pursuing an “enforcement-first” approach to immigration control, spending more on immigration enforcement than all other law enforcement combined, but failing to address our dysfunctional immigration system. A new report by the Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC’s) Immigration Task Force, called “… Read More
Effectiveness of DHS’ “Consequences Delivery System” Questioned
Despite billions of tax-payer dollars spent by the government on border security and immigration enforcement each year, the effectiveness of such an onerous expense has been long questioned. In an effort to shed light on the impact of current immigration enforcement policies, a new study by researchers from… Read More
Faith Leaders Visit Immigrant Detention Center as Mothers Begin Hunger Strike
Faith leaders from around the country visited the Dilley family detention center in Texas just days before mothers in the Karnes detention facility, another Texas family detention center located less than 100 miles from Dilley, began a hunger strike. Shortly after their visit last week, the clerics declared… Read More
These Four Maps Illustrate How States Are Shaping Immigration Policy
The New York Times published a series of maps illustrating the different ways in which states either attempt to welcome immigrants into their communities or go out of their way to make them feel unwelcome. The main indicators include which states have a policy allowing undocumented immigrants to drive… Read More
Senate Hearing on Border Security Targets Transnational Crime
At a hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, which was titled “Securing the Border: Assessing the Impact of Transnational Crime,” lawmakers from both sides of the aisle were largely in agreement as to what the biggest security problem is along the northern and southern… Read More
Here’s How Much Mass Deportation Would Cost
Deporting the roughly 11 million undocumented men, women, and children who now live in the United States—three-fifths of whom have been here for more than a decade—would be a horrendously cruel and inhumane act. The destruction of lives, families, and communities would be immense, with the worst trauma inflicted… Read More
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