Due Process & the Courts
Ninth Circuit Finds Court Has No Authority to Hear Lawsuit Seeking Access to Counsel for Children
In 2014, a legal challenge was mounted against the federal government for its failure to provide legal representation to indigent children in deportation proceedings. The case, F.L.B.. v. Lynch was brought by the American Immigration Council, American Civil Liberties Union, the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Public Counsel, and K&L… Read More
Texas Ends Attempt to Deny Birth Certificates to Children of Immigrants
More than a year ago, Texas county officials began to require that foreign passports presented by parents seeking to obtain their child’s birth certificate include a valid U.S. visa. The state also ended its practice of accepting Mexican “matriculas” as a form of identification. As a result, many… Read More
Ninth Circuit Decision Should Prompt End to Family Detention
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the Flores Settlement (a 1997 agreement that set legal standards for the detention and release of immigrant children) applies to both unaccompanied and accompanied minors. The Court also found that neither Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) detention and release policies at existing… Read More
This Lawsuit Seeks to Determine Whether Customs and Border Protection Has Improved Its Complaint System
Two years ago, the American Immigration Council released an analysis of data it had obtained from the Department of Homeland Security detailing an utter lack of responsiveness to complaints filed against agents employed by United States Border Patrol. In fact, the report, No Action Taken: Lack of CBP Accountability… Read More
Lawsuit Against DHS and USCIS Seeks Transparency in H-1B Lottery Process
Each year, U.S. employers seeking highly skilled foreign professional workers submit petitions on the first business day of April to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for the limited pool of H-1B nonimmigrant visa numbers available for the coming fiscal year, which are capped at 65,000 for new hires… Read More
U.S. Sentencing Commission Proposes Further Criminalizing Migrants
At a time when there is a great deal of national attention being placed on criminal-justice reform, it is troubling that the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) is now proposing, new amendments to Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which could lead to increased sentences for those convicted of “Unlawfully Entering or Remaining… Read More
U.S. Sentencing Commission Proposes Further Criminalizing Migrants
At a time when there is a great deal of national attention being placed on criminal-justice reform, it is troubling that the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) is now proposing, new amendments to Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which could lead to increased sentences for those convicted of… Read More
Judge Who Believes Toddlers Can Represent Themselves, Only Part of the Problem in the Battle over Representation for Kids
Over the past week, several media outlets reported that Assistant Chief Immigration Judge (ACIJ) Jack Weil claimed that he could teach immigration law to three- and four-year-old children such that the children could represent themselves in immigration court. Now, Attorney General Loretta Lynch claims that the… Read More
Hundreds of Groups Weigh in on Immigration Case Headed to Supreme Court
A diverse coalition of 326 immigration, civil rights, labor, and social service groups filed an amicus (friend-of-the-court) brief with the U.S. Supreme Court today in United States v. Texas, urging the court to lift the injunction that has blocked the deferred action initiatives that President Obama announced in November 2014. Read More
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