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Federal Court Orders Government to Recognize American Samoans as US Citizens
In a landmark decision last week, a federal court in Utah ordered the U.S. government to extend birthright citizenship to people born in the U.S. territory of American Samoa. In a lengthy decision, Judge Clark Waddoups declared that his decision was “required by the mandate of the Fourteenth Amendment as construed and applied by Supreme […]
Read MoreThousands 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 Group, the largest private prison corporation in the United […]
Read MoreLaunch of Looking for America: Northwest Arkansas, part of a new dialogue and art initiative that is touring six dynamic U.S. cities
Looking for America: Northwest Arkansas is part of a new dialogue and art initiative that began in Detroit and toured four other cities across the United States before coming to Northwest Arkansas. The Looking for America tour is an effort to hear different perspectives on immigration in America through the lens of very different communities. […]
Read MoreThe 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 individuals in ICE detention with serious criminal convictions dropped […]
Read MoreDetention 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 1,380 in 2016. The increase aligns with a December […]
Read MoreThe Economic Costs for U.S. States Who Opt Out of Refugee Resettlement
In late September, the Trump Administration issued an executive order that requires state and local governments to give written consent to accept refugees. If a state or a locality fails to submit such consent before January 21, agencies will be unable to resettle refugees in those jurisdictions. This will ultimately keep U.S. families from reunifying […]
Read MoreUSCIS Plans Massive Fee Hike for Access to Genealogical Records
If you have ever wanted to trace your family’s immigration history, you should do it now—accessing genealogical records from the 1800s and 1900s may soon become far more expensive than ever before. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is planning to increase its fees to access millions of historical records held under the agency’s Genealogy […]
Read MoreAsylum Seekers Ask Court for Protection from Latest Trump Effort to Eviscerate America’s Asylum System
Immigrant rights attorneys filed an emergency motion to block the government from applying another Trump administration rule to asylum seekers forced by a government policy known as “metering” to wait in Mexico to access the U.S. asylum process. The rule — the latest of the administration’s numerous attempts to eviscerate America’s asylum system — sends asylum seekers to third countries, including Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, to seek protection and would deny those previously subject to the government’s metering policy the opportunity to seek asylum in the United States.
Read MoreImmigration Courts Further Limit Legal Help Available to People Facing Deportation
Every year, thousands of people are forced to face the complex deportation system without an attorney representing them. Now, the immigration courts are seeking to limit the assistance that these individuals can receive from “friend of the court” attorneys. The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the agency which includes the nation’s immigration courts, released […]
Read MoreStephen Miller‘s Racially Motivated Animus Toward Immigrants Is Revealed
White House Senior Policy Adviser Stephen Miller is no friend to immigrants—particularly those he views as racially “lesser than.” While this is evident from the anti-immigrant policies Miller has promoted over the past three years, it is also crystal clear in the private messages he sends to other anti-immigrant activists. In these unguarded moments, Miller […]
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