Immigration Benefits and Relief

The enforcement of immigration laws is a complex and hotly-debated topic. Learn more about the costs of immigration enforcement and the ways in which the U.S. can enforce our immigration laws humanely and in a manner that ensures due process.

Recent Features

The Dream Act would permanently protect certain immigrants who came to the United States as children but are vulnerable to deportation. 

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  • Practice Advisories

Arriving Noncitizens and Adjustment of Status

This Practice Advisory discusses the impact of an interim rule repealing two former regulations which barred all “arriving aliens” from adjusting status if they are in removal proceedings.

All Immigration Benefits and Relief Content

  • Blog

Bill to Protect DACA Recipients Reintroduced in Congress

January 12, 2017

Bipartisan legislation was introduced today in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate called The Bar Removal of Individuals who Dream and Grow our Economy (BRIDGE) Act, which would...

  • Blog

Five Things to Look for on Immigration in the 115th Congress

January 9, 2017

When President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in later this month, for the first time in a decade, the Republican Party will have control of the House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, and the...

  • Blog

Ending DACA Comes With Costs to Business and Government

December 19, 2016

In June of 2012, President Obama used his authority to provide protection from deportation and work authorization to certain undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. In the ensuing...

  • Blog

Bipartisan Bill to Protect DACA Recipients Introduced

December 9, 2016

A bipartisan group of Senators introduced a bill on Friday to temporarily protect individuals eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Senators Durbin (D-IL), Feinstein (D-CA),...

  • Blog

Colleges Rally to the Defense of Undocumented Students

November 30, 2016

Among the many things President-elect Donald Trump has promised is undo President Obama’s executive action protecting young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as...

  • Blog

Supreme Court Won’t Rehear Executive Action on Immigration — What’s Next?

October 4, 2016

This week, the United States Supreme Court declined to rehear arguments in United States v Texas, the case challenging expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action...

  • Blog

New Lawsuit Challenges Preliminary Injunction in United States v. Texas

August 29, 2016

In February 2015, a court in Texas issued a nationwide preliminary injunction in the case challenging the expansion of President’s Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative...

  • Blog

DACA Still Has Room for Many Potentially Eligible Young Adults

August 12, 2016

Since the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative was first implemented back in August 2012, it has positively changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of young individuals in...

  • Blog

How DACA’s Success Can Be Built Upon

July 21, 2016

Last month marked the four-year anniversary of President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative. Since DACA was first announced in 2012, it has had positive impacts on...

  • Blog

Department of Justice Seeks Rehearing in United States v. Texas

July 18, 2016

Today, the Department of Justice filed a petition for rehearing with the Supreme Court in United States v. Texas.  In June, the Court issued a 4-4 one sentence nondecision affirming the Fifth...

  • Blog

Congress Reaches A Deal to Fund Government for the Year Without Solution for Dreamers

March 23, 2018

This week Congress passed a $1.3 trillion bill to fund the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year, running through September 30, 2018. Though the legislation includes record levels of...

  • Blog

The Invisible Wall That President Trump Has Already Built

March 21, 2018

Legal immigration and the number of foreigners visiting the United States has taken a serious hit within the last year, as the Trump administration makes changes to policies and procedures without...

  • Blog

Long-Residing Liberians Are at Risk of Losing Protection from Deportation by the End of March

March 15, 2018

While much of the national immigration conversation has focused on the fate of Dreamers and those with Temporary Protected Status, a little-known protection provided to Liberians is on the brink...

  • Blog

The March 5 DACA Deadline Is Here—What Does It Mean for Dreamers?

March 5, 2018

When President Trump terminated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative last fall, he only allowed those whose DACA was due to expire before March 5 an opportunity to renew....

  • Blog

Supreme Court Rejects the Government’s Premature Request to Hear DACA Case

February 27, 2018

The Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s request to hear an emergency appeal of a lower court’s January decision that prevents the government from fully ending the Deferred Action for...

  • Blog

USCIS Changes to Asylum Interview Scheduling Allows Long-Pending Cases to Languish

February 23, 2018

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) made abrupt and sweeping changes to how the agency will schedule interviews for affirmative asylum applications. Rather than interviewing those...

  • Blog

Lawsuit Asks Government to Stop Blocking Temporary Protected Status Holders from Applying for Green Cards

February 22, 2018

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is an important humanitarian protection for people who are in the United States when certain natural disasters or civil conflict strike their home countries,...

  • Press Release

Class Action Suit Challenges Government’s Denial of TPS Holders’ Green Cards

February 22, 2018
In violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act, USCIS denies the green card applications of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders who first entered the United States without going through an inspection process at a port of entry, ignoring the fact that they subsequently were inspected and admitted when they were granted TPS.
  • Litigation

Ending Obstacles for Temporary Protected Status Recipients Seeking Legal Permanent Residence

The American Immigration Council has filed a class action lawsuit against officials at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and U.S. Department of Homeland Security in a federal district court in New York, challenging the government’s unlawful practice of depriving certain Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders with close family relationships or employment in the United States from becoming lawful permanent residents.
  • Press Release

AG Jeff Sessions is unfit to decide immigration case, say immigration groups

February 21, 2018
The American Immigration Council, joined by several other immigration groups, submitted an amicus brief that argues that due process requires an impartial adjudicator and that Sessions’ anti-immigrant statements and actions prevent him from acting as one. The brief lays out Sessions’ decades-long public record of anti-immigrant statements, including specific statements evidencing prejudgment of issues in the case, and urges Sessions to either vacate the referral order or recuse himself from the case.

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