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Why We Do It We have a proud—and complicated—history as a nation of immigrants. Our immigration system and the way it treats immigrants often fail to live up to our highest values and ideals. Not only have we failed, in many cases, to afford basic due process rights, but in countless ways, our outdated immigration […]
Read MoreTexas Judge Continues to Delay the Licensing of State Detention Centers as Childcare Facilities
On Friday, a Texas judge extended the temporary restraining order preventing Texas from licensing the Dilley detention center as a childcare facility. Dilley is one of two privately operated detention centers in Texas that house Central American mothers and children who fled violence and poverty in their home countries and are seeking protection in the […]
Read MoreWhat the New Citizenship Fee Structure Means for Aspiring Americans
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) is primarily a fee-funded agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Every two years they are required to review the fees they collect and adjust as needed. Earlier this month USCIS announced they have completed their “fee study” and have proposed raising fees across the board by an […]
Read MoreWeekend Reading: Highlights from this week’s immigration news (May 2-6)
Politico reporter Seung Min Kim reports that lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are working to effectively expand the number of low-skilled H-2B worker visas available each year. Sending a letter to the Appropriations Committee, which oversees funding for the Department of Homeland Security, nine representatives are hoping to see a higher cap for […]
Read MoreTwo People Died in Immigration Detention This Week
For more than a decade, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been criticized for the inadequate medical care available in its detention facilities, which has had deadly repercussions. This week, two more people died while in ICE custody—Jose Leonardo Lemus Rajo, 23, of El Salvador and Igor Zyazin, 46, of Russia. Rajo, who was in […]
Read MoreWhat You Need to Know About the Temporary Worker Bill Introduced by Senator Flake
Last week, Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) introduced the Willing Workers and Willing Employers Act of 2016, which would establish a 10-year guest worker pilot program. According to Flake, the bill offers new thinking on how to bridge the gap between existing temporary worker programs for seasonal workers and the H-1B program for highly-skilled immigrants. Flake’s […]
Read MoreNew Data Sheds Light on Sprawling, Often For-Profit, Immigration Detention System
It is easy to forget at times just how sprawling and labyrinthine the U.S. immigration detention system truly is. But this is an important fact to keep in mind. Due to the sheer size and complexity of the detention system, detainees are easily “lost” to their family members and attorneys. At any time, with no […]
Read MoreEarth Day: Immigrant Contributions to Clean Tech in America
Today is Earth Day, a globally celebrated movement for education, action, and change around environmental issues that began in 1970. Like Elon Musk, many immigrants have contributed to building a clean and green future in the United States by creating many environmentally focused start-ups here. Here are a few examples of how energy-conscious immigrants used […]
Read MoreImmigration Court Backlog Shows No Sign of Shrinking
The latest figures show that the number of cases pending in immigration court continue to grow. According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), there were 486,206 cases in the backlog as of the end of March. This is almost 30,000 more pending cases than Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) Director Juan Osuna reported […]
Read MoreCustom and Border Protection Use–of-Force Data Raises More Questions
Use-of-force by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel in Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 declined more than 26 percent compared with the previous year, according to statistics released last week by CBP. During FY 2015, which ended in September of last year, CBP reported 756 uses-of-force, down from the 1,037 in FY 2014 and 1,215 […]
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