Border Enforcement
Migration at the border is a multifaceted issue, challenging the U.S. to secure our borders while upholding the human rights of individuals seeking safety and better opportunities. Balancing national security with compassion and our legal obligations to asylum seekers presents intricate dilemmas, and we collaborate with policymakers to advance bipartisan, action-oriented solutions.
Immigration Policy Fifteen Years After 9/11
Fifteen years ago on September 11, 2001, it appeared that comprehensive immigration reform was imminent. The prior week, President Vicente Fox of Mexico visited the U.S. and spoke to President Bush and Congress about the need for reform, and serious momentum was growing. However, the tragic events on September… Read More
Why “Family Detention” is a Misnomer
More than two years after the Obama Administration launched its aggressive expansion of family detention in an attempt to “deter” the arrival of asylum-seeking Central American families, numerous problems associated with such practice have been brought to light.One such issue is the separation of family units while… Read More
Why Going Home First to Get Legal Status (“Touchback”) Makes No Sense
No one is quite sure where Donald Trump stands on immigration anymore. More precisely, experts are trying to divine what Trump would do with the 11 million undocumented immigrants now living in the country. When he first launched his campaign, Trump proposed a “deportation force” that would, presumably,… Read More
Why the Department of Homeland Security Should Also End Private Prison Contracts
For two years, women and children from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala have been fleeing to the United States to escape the extreme violence of gangs which control large swaths of territory within their home countries. And for two years the Obama Administration has responded to this humanitarian crisis… Read More
Lengthy Detention and Reprehensible Conditions in Border Patrol Facilities, New Evidence Shows
Each year, the Border Patrol—a division of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—holds hundreds of thousands of individuals in detention facilities near the U.S. southern border. These facilities are meant to hold individuals for a short time while they undergo initial processing and until a decision is made about the appropriate… Read More
Court Orders Release of Graphic Photos of Arizona Border Patrol Detention Facilities and Damning Expert Witness Testimony
Today, groups made public damning evidence, including expert testimony and video stills illustrating the deplorable and unconstitutional conditions detained individuals are subjected to in Border Patrol custody in the agency’s Tucson Sector. Read More
Immigration Enforcement Still Missing the Mark on Detainers
In November 2014, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the end of the Secure Communities program and the launch of its replacement: the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP). Under PEP, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claims to focus its efforts on apprehending individuals actually convicted of specified crimes. ICE… Read More
Donald Trump’s Shortsighted Immigration Plans Won’t Secure the Homeland
As any serious national security expert will tell you, trying to find a potential terrorist by treating all immigrants or Muslims as security risks is far too vague to be effective. Accurate intelligence and effective information-sharing across agencies is the key to national security—not profiling. Yet in a bombastic August… Read More
Why 22 Mothers Are On a Hunger Strike at the Berks Family Detention Facility
In protest of their families’ ongoing and prolonged detention in the Berks County Residential Center, a group of mothers began a hunger strike on Monday, August 8. They penned a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson explaining why: We left our homes in Central America… Read More
Government Sued For Withholding Records on Immigration Raids
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is continuing to defend the controversial “Operation Border Guardian” program that took more than 100 Central American women and children from their homes in two days of immigration raids last January. According to a lawsuit filed this week by the Southern Poverty Law… Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone