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The “Mass Influx” Declaration
In 1996, Congress passed a law giving the federal government the power to declare an emergency relating to a “mass influx” of migrants. When this emergency provision is enacted, the government can both disburse funding to states and localities dealing with the “influx” and delegate authority to local law enforcement agents in those areas to […]
Read MoreICE’s Inadequate Recordkeeping on Treatment of Detained Asylum Seekers Threatens Their Lives
By Anne Peterson, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies As the Trump administration prepares for a dramatic increase in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, advocates are sounding the alarm that immigrants and people seeking asylum will suffer increasingly inhumane conditions in detention facilities. Immigration detention facilities—often run by private prison companies or by […]
Read MoreTrump’s Day 1 Orders Use Fearmongering to Expand His Immigration Authority
On January 20, 2025, the day President Trump took office for his second term, he issued a series of immigration-related executive orders and proclamations that will quickly re-shape the U.S. immigration system. These executive orders affect nearly every facet of a complex and demanding system. Most of the policy changes introduced through these actions are […]
Read MoreMisguided Laken Riley Act Does Nothing to Fix the Problems That Plague Our Immigration System
WASHINGTON, JAN. 22, 2025 — Today, the House voted in the final step for passing S. 5, legislation that will have devastating implications for many immigrants in the United States and our system of legal immigration alike. The bill eliminates due process for many immigrants, including some who have been living and working legally in the […]
Read MoreCentering Humanity in the Immigration Debate
“La tierra se secó.” That was my dad’s short explanation for why he left Mexico as a teenager in the 1970s. His family relied on their small farm in rural northern Mexico for subsistence. But when the droughts came, the land could no longer sustain them. So, he, like my mother, moved to the U.S. […]
Read MoreJudicial Review of Visa Decisions After the Supreme Court’s Decision in Department of State v. Muñoz
In Department of State v. Muñoz, 602 U.S. 899 (2024), the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that a U.S. citizen and her noncitizen spouse had no access to judicial review of a consular officer’s denial of an immigrant visa. The Court held that a U.S. citizen has no “fundamental liberty interest” in her spouse’s admission to the […]
Read MoreThe Supreme Court Cuts Off Judicial Review of USCIS Decisions Again
The Supreme Court recently cut off another path for judicial review of decisions by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) adjudicators. In Bouarfa v. Mayorkas, the Court held that a decision to revoke the prior approval of an immigrant visa petition filed by a U.S. citizen on behalf of her noncitizen spouse could not be […]
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