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The State of Immigration in Our Union
Three years into the Trump administration, it’s become clear that we have lost our rudder. For a nation that long-provided a welcome mat to the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, our immigration policies are not welcoming. They are punitive and isolationist. We have seen a decrease in legal immigration alongside an historic increase in […]
Read MoreLas Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center v. Wolf
The American Immigration Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association submitted an amicus brief in Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center v. Wolf, a case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas, the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, and ACLU of the District of Columbia. The amicus brief urges the court to stop a policy […]
Read MoreCalls for Independent Immigration Court Grow Louder at Congressional Hearing
A congressional oversight committee held a hearing this week on the need for immigration court reform and the systemic due process challenges within the immigration court system. The House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship heard from several experts on the issue. Most experts made the case that the immigration court should transfer from […]
Read MoreNew Data Shows Immigrants Make Up More Than 60 Percent of Middlesex County’s STEM Workers and Nearly Half of Business Owners
Immigrants held $9.4 billion in spending power– 42.8 percent of the total spending power in the county–and contributed more than $4 billion in taxes in 2018. Middlesex, NJ — Despite making up 34.5 percent of Middlesex County’s population, immigrants accounted for 64.4 percent of the county’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) workers and 49 […]
Read MoreImmigrant restaurateur gives back to the community through Lebanese cuisine
Gus Sleiman’s family left their homeland in 1989 to escape the Lebanese Civil War, a 15-year conflict that killed an estimated 150,000 people and displaced another 900,000 — about one-fifth of the population. Sleiman was 16. The family moved to Michigan then New York and, while visiting a church in Somerset, New Jersey, fell in […]
Read MoreNew Americans in Middlesex County
New research from New American Economy shows that immigrants held $9.4 billion in spending power — 42.8 percent of the total spending power in the county — and contributed more than $4 billion in taxes in 2018. The report, New Americans in Middlesex County, was prepared in partnership with the Middlesex County Regional Chamber of […]
Read MoreDemographic Change Is Hard, Especially When Our Leaders Stoke Our Worst Fears
After more than 20 years in the immigrant justice movement, I confess that I missed the mark. In my drive to improve the lives of immigrants and refugees, I was blind to some key realities taking root in America. I failed to see the surge of cultural anxiety driven by demographic, economic, and social change […]
Read MoreA Humanitarian Catastrophe at the Border: One Year of the ‘Migrant Protection Protocols’
One year ago today, a confused Honduran man seeking asylum in the United States became the first person to be turned away from the border and sent back to Mexico to await a U.S. court hearing. He would become the first of nearly 60,000 people subjected to the so-called “Migrant Protection Protocols” (MPP). Under MPP—also […]
Read MoreStatement for the House Judiciary Committee on “Courts in Crisis: The State of Judicial Independence and Due Process in U.S. Immigration Courts”
The American Immigration Council submitted a written statement to the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship for a January 29, 2020, hearing on “Courts in Crisis: The State of Judicial Independence and Due Process in U.S. Immigration Courts.” The statement shares our analysis and research regarding the systemic pattern of dysfunction and lack […]
Read MoreWhat’s Happening to Trump’s Travel Ban?
Monday marks the third anniversary of the Trump administration’s travel ban—a presidential proclamation that needlessly divides families on the basis of their religion and nationality. The proclamation restricts travel to the United States by nationals of five majority-Muslim nations (Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen). Venezuela and North Korea are also included in the ban. […]
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