Legislation

FEMA’s Role in Migrant Assistance: Exploring the Shelter and Services Program
When local communities receive new immigrants who have been released at the border by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), they often provide necessary support to ensure that people have their immediate and short-term emergency needs (such as food and temporary shelter) met. Over the last decade, as large numbers… Read More

We’ve Tracked Over 700 Immigration Bills This Year. Here Are the Trends We’ve Seen.
Written by Juan Avilez, State and Local Policy Associate and Victoria Francis, Deputy Director of State and Local Initiatives As we reach the mid-year point in 2024, most states have concluded their legislative sessions, and once again, immigrant-related policies have taken center stage. This year, legislatures advancing harmful policies targeting… Read More

Immigrant Workers Help Florida Thrive. Anti-Immigrant Policies Threaten That.
In 2022, more than one in five Florida residents were immigrants. In that same year, immigrants in Florida were over 14% more likely than their U.S.-born neighbors to be of working age, positioning them to actively participate in the labor force and economy. And they did just that—immigrants contributed… Read More

Council Urges House of Representatives Against Expanding the Warrantless Surveillance of Immigrants in FISA Reauthorization Vote
The American Immigration Council sent a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives discussing the harmful impacts of a proposed amendment that would authorize intelligence agencies to conduct suspicionless searches of their databases related to immigrants traveling to the U.S. Read More

FY 2024 Government Funding Package Is a Mixed-Bag on Immigration
President Biden signed the final 6-bill “minibus” funding package for fiscal year (FY) 2024 on March 23, which includes funding for the agencies that implement our immigration laws. This was the culmination of months of negotiations mired by attempts to insert restrictive border and immigration policy changes into the budget. Read More

Improving ICE Compliance with Congressional Reporting Requirements
Immigration policy experts and legal service providers developed the following recommendations with the goal of improving public access to information that Congress has required U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to disclose. Read More

Senate Deal Would Significantly Transform Border Policy
The “Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024” was released on February 4. For months, a bipartisan group of senators negotiated the compromise bill, which proposes significant changes to asylum and border policy to release billions in foreign military aid. The $118 billion bill would provide the president… Read More

An Analysis of the Senate Border Bill
If passed in its current form, the 2024 Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act would be the most sweeping immigration bill of the twenty-first century Read More

Senate Border Bill a Step in Right Direction, but Falls Short in Guaranteeing Due Process for Asylum Seekers
On Sunday night, a bipartisan group of senators released the “Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024." Jeremy Robbins, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council, responds to this controversial legislation that faces an uncertain future. Read More

200 Immigration-Related Bills Have Already Been Introduced in State Legislatures in 2024
Amid inaction from the federal government on immigration policy and growing calls for action from localities, some state legislatures are taking a proactive role in welcoming immigrants and refugees. Once again, states are leading the way on immigration policy in the U.S. Despite being less than a month into the… Read More
Make a contribution
Make a direct impact on the lives of immigrants.
