Refugees and Asylum Seekers
The United States has a longstanding tradition of welcoming individuals from around the world who are seeking protection and refuge. But recent U.S. policy has grown increasingly hostile toward asylum seekers and refugees. Instead of turning vulnerable individuals away, the United States should maintain its global reputation as a leader in refugee resettlement and humanitarian protection. Doing so not only upholds American values but sustains and strengthens our communities. Data from the Council shows that refugees and asylees make tremendous contributions to our economy as earners, taxpayers, and consumers. Learn more about the contributions and challenges of asylum seekers and refugees below.
Government Coerced Parents into Signing Their Rights Away Before Being Reunited with Their Children
In all the chaos of family separation, another disturbing detail has come to light: immigration officials may have coerced vulnerable parents into signing away their right to be reunified with their children. In a complaint filed on Thursday with the DHS Office of Civil Rights and… Read More
Complaint Details Coercive Tactics Used by Immigration Officials on Separated Parents
The complaint points to numerous examples, including that of Mrs. D.P., who was separated from her 9-year-old daughter for 47 days as a result of Attorney General Jeff Sessions' "zero-tolerance" border policy. Read More
The Illegal and Systematic Practice of Coercing Separated Families Must Be Investigated
The Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy led to not only to the forcible separation of thousands of children from their parents, but the extreme duress and coercion of separated families while in DHS custody. The American Immigration Council (Council) and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) demand an investigation… Read More
Detention Is Not the Solution to Family Separation: 15 Years of Government Data Explain Why
In the wake of the government separating thousands of asylum-seeking families, the Trump administration has scrambled to reunite families. In place of family separation, the administration is pursuing the expansion of an equally horrific practice: holding families in detention camps. This practice has sadly persisted in… Read More
Detaining Families
This report presents findings from the first empirical analysis of asylum adjudication in family detention. Drawing on government data from over 18,000 immigration court proceedings initiated between fiscal years 2001 and 2016, this report documents how families detained in the United States’ family detention centers proceeded through the court process. Read More
Family Separation, Harsh Enforcement Tactics Do Not Deter Migration
When the Trump administration began prosecuting migrant families and separating thousands of children from their parents, many in the administration predicted this would significantly deter migrants looking to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. That has not been the case. A recent study based on new data from… Read More
Immigration Judges Are Rejecting More Asylum Requests Under the Trump Administration
The Trump administration is working hard to undermine the asylum system through additional and unnecessary barriers, making it more difficult for those seeking refuge in the United States to be granted asylum. This is an ominous trend given that the U.S. government’s decision to either grant… Read More
Statement for Senate Committee on the Judiciary Hearing “Oversight of Immigration Enforcement and Family Reunification Efforts.”
The American Immigration Council submitted a written statement to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary for a July 31, 2018 hearing on “Oversight of Immigration Enforcement and Family Reunification Efforts.” Read More
Afghan Immigrant Studies to Become a Professor While Serving Her Community Along the Way
When 12-year-old Sophia Aimen Sexton lived in Pakistan as a refugee after fleeing Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War, she watched a lot of Clint Eastwood movies. “I thought when we arrived in America, they would give me a horse and I’d be a cowgirl in the desert,” recalls Sexton. The reality was much different. In 1983, when Sexton’s family was resettled… Read More
Economist Escapes Ethiopia to Start Own Business in the U.S.
In his native Ethiopia, where he’d earned an economics degree and held a government job calculating GDP statistics, Mahfuz Mummed faced a quandary. He’d given eight years of loyal service when his bosses began pressuring his department to falsify data. Mummed watched as colleagues who protested faced violent reprisals. “I… Read More
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