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Local Officials in Massachusetts, New York Challenge ICE Courthouse Arrests
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has dramatically increased enforcement actions in and around state and local courthouses since 2017. As part of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement agenda, ICE began using courthouses to conduct frequent civil immigration arrests. In practice, this means ICE agents—often unidentified and in plainclothes—have a greater presence in civil and […]
Read MoreReligion News Service Opinion: Four decades after Saigon fell, we still need refugees as much as they need us
The day Saigon fell, on April 30, 1975, my mother and her family knew they could not stay in their native Vietnam. They joined the tens of thousands of South Vietnamese civilians who had evacuated the country to avoid massacre by the communist Viet Cong, who had captured Saigon. As refugees, my relatives began life […]
Read MoreWhy It’s Critical to Take a Closer Look at Foreign-Worker Petitions Data
American businesses rely on foreign-born workers in many industries and the country’s immigration system has channels specifically dedicated to employment-based immigration. The Trump administration, however, has deliberately restricted and slowed the pace of these legal immigration channels. This is reflected in an abrupt jump in immigration application denial rates, increased scrutiny of nonimmigrant and immigrant […]
Read MoreImmigrants Denied Citizenship for Working in the Legal Marijuana Industry
Oswaldo Barrientos has lived as a legal immigrant in Denver, Colorado for almost his entire life. Now 30, he and his mother immigrated to the United States from El Salvador when he was a year old. But in his recent interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), he was denied American citizenship—simply because he […]
Read MoreTrump Threatens to Close the Border After Cutting Aid to Central American Countries
President Trump has threatened to close the U.S.-Mexico border—again. As families continued to arrive at the border in March—typically the busiest month for border crossings—Trump declared he would close the border and cut off aid to three Central American countries for not stopping people from coming to the United States. This marks at least the […]
Read MoreAn Update on TPS: A Promising New Bill, More Lawsuits, and an Uncertain Future
More than 300,000 Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders whose status was due to expire in the coming months have new reasons to be hopeful. On the legislative front, Congress proposed a new bill to provide permanent status in the United States for many TPS holders and Dreamers. Separately, the Trump administration gave TPS holders from […]
Read MoreFederal Judge Rules Government Must Reunite Thousands More Separated Families
In recent weeks, alarming stories have surfaced indicating that thousands more children were forcibly separated from their parents at the southern border than originally thought. In response to this and earlier reports that the government had begun separating parents as early as 2017, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) asked a federal judge to expand […]
Read MoreAfter Shutdown Loss, Trump Doubles Down on Immigration in His New Budget
After weeks of tense negotiations, Congress averted a second government shutdown last month by reaching a bipartisan agreement on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 budget—a budget which gave President Trump very little of his border demands. Undeterred, the president made a budget request for the next fiscal year on Monday. He called for $8.6 billion […]
Read MoreAmerica’s Asylum System Must Ensure the Protection of LGBTQ People
A group of drag queens—clad in feathered boas and wigs—gathered at a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas last week to protest construction of President Trump’s border wall. Lip-syncing to the tunes of Lady Gaga, they hoped to raise money in support of LGBTQ asylum seekers. Though the performance was meant to be lighthearted, […]
Read MoreHow FL Senate Bill 168 & House Bill 527 Would Hurt Florida’s Economy
Florida State Senator Joe Gruters recently introduced Senate Bill 168, which would effectively force local and state law enforcement to become federal immigration agents. Along with House Bill 527, SB 168 would ban policies that limit local cooperation and information-sharing with federal authorities on immigration matters. These bills would create a hostile environment in Florida, […]
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