South Carolina, District 7
On Trial: Inhumane Conditions in Customs and Border Protection Facilities in Arizona
After more than four years of gathering evidence of the substandard conditions in the government’s short-term detention facilities in Arizona’s Tucson Sector, a case challenging these conditions called Doe v. Wolf went to trial on Monday. Over the course of the trial, plaintiffs will show how… Read More
The Decade Ends with Another Death in Immigration Detention
The government closed out the decade with yet another person’s death in immigration detention. Fiscal year 2019 was one of the most fatal years on the books for immigrants held in the custody of both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Eight people died while… Read More
Republican and Democratic Officials Continue to Accept Refugees, Rejecting Trump’s Executive Order
Update: On January 15, federal Judge Peter Messitte issued a preliminary injunction temporarily blocking the Trump administration from enforcing its executive order giving state and local governments the power to opt out of refugee resettlement. Judge Messitte ruled the executive order was likely unlawful. In his decision, he called… Read More
New Jersey Caps Off A Tremendous Year for Expanding Access to Driver’s Licenses
Many New Yorkers had a reason to celebrate on December 16, as they were permitted to apply for a driver’s license for the first time, even if they lacked permanent immigration status. Now, thanks to a new law passed on December 19, their neighbors in New Jersey will be… Read More
Trump Implemented Family Separation After Government Officials Raised Red Flags
Government officials were aware of the harm family separation would cause and were critical of the practice years before the Trump administration established it as an official policy. Advocates unearthed this and other details about the “zero tolerance” policy in response to a series of Freedom… Read More
Thousands in ICE Detention Sue Private Prison Company for Forced Labor
A recent federal court ruling in California could allow hundreds of thousands of immigrants currently and previously detained by private prison companies to demand compensation and damages for work completed behind bars under threat of retaliation. The decision follows a series of lawsuits filed against GEO… Read More
The Number of People in ICE Detention with Criminal Records Continues to Drop
As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has expanded immigration capacity across the country in recent years, the number of people held in its facilities with actual criminal records dropped, according to a new report from Syracuse University’s TRAC Center. Since October 2017, the number of… Read More
Detention of Pregnant Women Increases 52% Under the Trump Administration
The rate at which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained pregnant women increased 52% during the first two years of the Trump administration, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released last week. 2,098 pregnant women were detained by ICE in 2018, compared to… Read More
‘Zero Tolerance’ Overwhelmed Courts and Diverted Resources From Criminal Investigations
Attorney General Sessions’ orders to prioritize prosecuting people for immigration-related offenses in 2017 and 2018 put a significant strain on law enforcement across the border, diverting resources away from drug and organized crime prosecutions. The increase in immigration prosecutions, which played a primary role in the… Read More
The Government Knew It Didn’t Have the Technology to Track Separated Families. It Did So Anyway.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—the agency responsible for systematically separating thousands of migrant families in the summer of 2018—lacked the technology or mechanisms to record and track the separations, a government watchdog group recently found. Family separations—done under the Trump administration’s “Zero Tolerance policy”—started before the policy was… Read More
Make a contribution
Make a direct impact on the lives of immigrants.
