Congress
By Eliminating the Polygraph Test, Corruption among Border Agencies Could Run Rampant
The House and Senate Homeland Security Committees took action this month on two nearly identical bills that seek to fast-track the hiring of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers and Agents by weakening CBP hiring standards. If passed, these bills would eliminate critical polygraph requirements that are widely used… Read More
ICE Wants to Deport Immigrants Congress is Trying to Protect Through Private Bills
Democratic and Republican Members of Congress alike introduce “private immigration bills” designed as a last-minute effort to protect some immigrants facing deportation. This week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that it would no longer issue stays of removal (temporary protection from deportation) for many individuals named in these private immigration… Read More
Congress Is Checking the Trump Administration on Their Immigration Agenda
After threats of a government shutdown echoed throughout Capitol Hill in early May, Congress finally passed a bill to fund the government through the remainder of the Fiscal Year. Though much of the attention centered on the lack of funding for a border wall and massive detention expansion—there was… Read More
Spending Deal Expands Parts of Immigration Enforcement, but Not the Wall or Immigration Agents
Congress reached an agreement this week to fund the government through the rest of the Fiscal Year which ends on September 30, 2017. This agreement does not fund many of President Trump's immigration priorities like the border wall. However, it does provide additional funding for immigration detention and border security measures. Read More
Congress Goes to Recess with No Action on Immigration
President Trump’s campaign promise to ramp up immigration enforcement and build a beautiful wall along the southern border have found little support on Capitol Hill. As Congress leaves for spring recess it’s unclear which of the president’s immigration promises they are willing to help him fulfill. Permanent changes to… Read More
Border Wall May Be an Expensive Solution to a Nonexistent Problem
If the Trump administration fulfills its promise to build a “big, beautiful wall” along the entire length of the U.S.-Mexico border, it will be a very costly solution to a problem that no longer exists—and may not exist again for a very long time. A report from the… Read More
Supreme Court Hears Case on Shooting of Sergio Hernandez by U.S. Border Patrol Agent
Officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—the federal agency which includes the Border Patrol—are rarely held accountable for their actions. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the case of Sergio Hernandez, a 15-year-old boy shot dead in 2010 in Mexico by a Border Patrol agent who fired… Read More
Homeland Security Secretary Tells Congress Immigration Executive Order Should Have Been Delayed
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly testified for the first time since being confirmed by the U.S. Senate in front of the House Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday in a hearing titled “Ending the Crisis: America’s Borders and the Path to Security.” While the hearing was supposed… Read More
Supreme Court Nominee Neil Gorsuch on Immigration
President Donald Trump announced his choice Tuesday to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia nearly one year ago. In nominating Tenth Circuit Judge Neil Gorsuch, a Harvard Law School graduate who was confirmed to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in… Read More
Will Congress Fund President Trump’s Executive Order on Border Enforcement?
President Donald Trump’s Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements executive order is an attempt to fulfill his campaign pledge to build a wall at the southern border, to provide additional resources to Border Patrol agents, to curtail due process at the border, and to increase detention along the southern… Read More
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No one should face the immigration system alone
