Border Enforcement

Recent Features

TESTIMONY
Providing Perspective on the Application of Immigration Law at the US Southwest Border

The reality at the U.S. southern border is complicated. Dive into the role and authority of the executive branch and immigration enforcement agencies. 

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FACT SHEET
Rising Border Encounters in 2021: An Overview and Analysis

For generations, the United States has seen periodic cycles of migration. The arrival of high numbers of asylum seekers is a humanitarian protection management challenge, not a security challenge.

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All Border Enforcement Content

  • Blog

The Trump Administration Is Separating Children From Asylum-Seeking Parents at the Border

December 11, 2017

An alarming trend along the U.S.-Mexico border has escalated within the last year: the inhumane practice of separating immigrant children from their parents at the hands of U.S. immigration...

  • Blog

DHS: Immigration Arrests Inside the U.S. Spiked While Border Crossings Dropped to Record Lows

December 6, 2017

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has publicly released immigration enforcement data for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, which shows that apprehensions at the border are at their lowest levels in...

  • Blog

Asylum Seekers Are Being Systematically Turned Away at the U.S.-Mexico Border

November 15, 2017

It is an egregious, well-documented reality that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) frequently turns away people seeking asylum along the U.S. southern border. But new evidence presented to...

  • Blog

Trump’s Nominee for DHS Secretary Commits to Continuing Kelly’s Legacy on Immigration Enforcement

November 8, 2017

The nominee to be the next Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kirstjen Nielsen, had her confirmation hearing before senators on Wednesday, during which she promised to largely...

  • Blog

Border Wall Prototypes Complete, Next Steps Unclear

November 2, 2017

Border apprehensions, which is the main indicator used to examine how many people are attempting to enter the United States are at record lows not seen since the 1970s. A September report released...

  • Blog

How Discretion Failed One 10-Year-Old Girl and What the Future Holds

October 30, 2017

Much has been said about Rosa María Hernández, the latest target of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has the responsibility and...

  • Blog

Senate Committee Holds Hearing on Nominee to Head Border Enforcement Agency

October 24, 2017

The Trump administration’s pick for the next Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, appeared before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday...

  • Blog

CBP Is Refusing to Be Transparent About Its Role in Domestic Law Enforcement

October 17, 2017

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has a long track record of operating in the dark, with little transparency and accountability.  The most recent examples come from the agency’s failure to...

  • Blog

White House Immigration Principles Are Released as DACA Deal Looms

October 10, 2017

The White House released its Immigration Principles and Policies late Sunday night, providing an outline of the Trump administration’s proposals on immigration. The principles were sent to...

  • Blog

The House Approves $10 Billion for Trump’s Border Wall

October 5, 2017

In an effort to fulfill the harsh requirements of the immigration executive order released during the Trump administration’s first week in office, the House Homeland Security Committee passed the...

  • Press Release

Lawsuit Demands Information on the Expansion of CBP’s Role in the Screening of Asylum Seekers

October 2, 2019
The American Immigration Council and Tahirih Justice Center filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in federal court to compel the government to release records about the Trump administration’s troubling new practice of allowing U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers to screen individuals seeking asylum in the United States. The lawsuit seeks these documents to shed light on changes to the asylum screening process, CBP’s role in conducting interviews and making determinations regarding an asylum seeker’s “credible fear” of persecution, and the measures taken by CBP, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the Department of Homeland Security to implement this new practice.
  • Press Release

After SCOTUS Ruling, Asylum Seekers Ask Court for Protection

September 26, 2019
Immigrant rights attorneys moved to block the Trump administration’s Asylum Ban from affecting tens of thousands of migrants who have already attempted to access the U.S. asylum process before the ban was implemented. With limited exceptions, the Asylum Ban prohibits anyone who traveled through a third country and did not seek protection there from obtaining asylum here. The request filed today is in the ongoing case challenging the Trump administration’s policy of turning back asylum seekers at ports of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border, including the “metering” policy.
  • Blog

The National Park Service Warns Border Wall Construction Could Destroy 22 Archaeological Sites 

September 23, 2019

In the Trump administration’s rush to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, 22 archaeological sites could be damaged or entirely destroyed. This warning comes from an internal National Park...

  • Blog

‘Don’t Let Them Take Me Away Again.’ Mothers and Children Sue Trump for Harm Inflicted by Zero Tolerance Policy

September 20, 2019

Five mothers and their children sued the U.S. government on Thursday for forcibly separating them in 2018. The five families are among the thousands of parents and young children who were split...

  • Blog

Government Watchdog Says US Officials Were Unprepared to Address Children’s Trauma After Family Separation

September 19, 2019

In summer 2018, the Trump administration attempted to deter asylum-seeking families from coming to the United States by separating children from their parents at the southern border. It was...

  • Press Release

Parents and Children Torn Apart by Family Separation Policy Sue the Trump Administration

September 19, 2019
Five asylum-seeking mothers and their children who were torn apart under the Trump administration’s family separation policy filed a lawsuit against the United States for the cruel treatment and agony U.S. immigration agencies inflicted on them. The five parents and their children, who were as young as five at the time of the separation, claim that the U.S. government intentionally subjected them to extraordinary trauma that will have lifelong implications.
  • Blog

Why It’s Bad to Force Asylum Seekers to Seek Protection Elsewhere

September 12, 2019

The Supreme Court issued an emergency ruling on Wednesday allowing the Trump administration to implement a ban on asylum seekers at the southern land border. The ban applies to people who...

  • Blog

Chaos and Dysfunction at the Border: The Remain in Mexico Program Firsthand

September 9, 2019

The first thing many people forcibly returned to Mexico tell you is that they’re afraid. Afraid of the cartels, afraid of Mexican immigration officials, and afraid of the months of uncertainty....

  • Blog

Which Military Construction Projects Are Losing Funds to Build Trump’s Wall?

September 6, 2019

The Trump administration is raiding the Department of Defense’s budget to fund construction of its border wall. According to Pentagon officials, 127 military construction projects will be canceled...

  • Fact Sheet

The High Cost and Diminishing Returns of a Border Wall

Publication Date: 
September 6, 2019
The fact is that building a fortified and impenetrable wall between the United States and Mexico is unnecessary, complicated, ineffective, expensive, and would create a host of additional problems.

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