Immigration News Resources

After months of uncertainty, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Thursday that it will extend—but not redesignate—Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Syria. This life-saving humanitarian program protects foreign nationals from being deported back to a country that is facing ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other temporarily dangerous conditions. The 18-month extension will […]

The post Syria Is Not Redesignated for TPS, Despite Ongoing Armed Conflict  appeared first on Immigration Impact.

There is a disturbing trend in aggressive immigration enforcement that is appearing more and more recently: the detention of U.S. citizens. There are clear indications that U.S. immigration agents are locking up people they assume must be non-citizens, but who are in fact U.S. citizens. These abuses transcend any presidential administration. But there are indications […]

The post US Citizens Caught in Immigration Dragnet As Enforcement Gets More Aggressive appeared first on Immigration Impact.

Attorney General William Barr issued a decision that significantly restricts the ability of many current asylum seekers to win their cases on Monday. In Matter of L-E-A-, Barr issued a new immigration court decision that says people should generally not be granted asylum if they face persecution because of who their family is. Many individuals […]

The post Attorney General Barr Rolls Back Asylum Protections for Families appeared first on Immigration Impact.

USCIS leadership recently testified about a backlog reduction plan which, AILA Policy Counsel Jason Boyd argues, would simply move the goalposts and not solve the backlog at all, writing "We deserve a USCIS that rises to its processing time goals, not one that runs from them."

From the highest levels of corporate America to virtually every level of the labor force, immigration creates new jobs in the U.S. economy. The businesses founded by immigrant entrepreneurs directly employ all types of workers. Immigrant workers also support the jobs of other workers through the wages they spend and the work they perform. This […]

The post Immigrants and Their Children Founded Almost Half of All US Fortune 500 Companies appeared first on Immigration Impact.

The Trump administration signed an agreement with Guatemala last Friday that appears to allow the U.S. government to send certain asylum applicants to Guatemala, forcing them to seek asylum there. Framed by the president as a “Safe Third Country” agreement, this move will place thousands of asylum seekers at risk in a country ill-prepared to […]

The post Why a Safe Third Country Agreement with Guatemala is Unsafe and Unworkable appeared first on Immigration Impact.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision clarifying limits on when federal prosecutors can charge immigrants with illegal entry and reentry into the United States this week.  Under this decision, it will be more difficult for the government to criminally charge immigrants who attempt to enter the United States outside a port of […]

The post Appeals Court Decision Means Hundreds of Migrants Were Unlawfully Convicted appeared first on Immigration Impact.

A federal judge in California blocked the implementation of a new rule yesterday that would have prevented most immigrants who arrive at the U.S. southern land border from qualifying for asylum in the United States. This decision came just hours after a D.C. court ruled in the opposite direction. The nationwide preliminary injunction issued by […]

The post California Judge Blocks Implementation of Trump’s New Asylum Rule appeared first on Immigration Impact.

Allegra Love urges an end to the detention of asylum seekers, highlighting the immense harm of detention via two videos writing, "It is time we act, so the story of our country is the bravery and resilience of people like Alpha and Luz, and not the brutality of detention that further harms them."

  As I wrote this blog post, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were preparing to launch raids targeting undocumented immigrant families with final deportation orders in major US cities.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday night on legislation that would designate Venezuela as an eligible country for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The Venezuela TPS Act of 2019 would permit nationals of Venezuela to register for TPS and maintain the designation for 18 months. The bill was introduced by two congressmen from Florida, Democrat […]

The post The House Votes on TPS for Venezuela as ‘Humanitarian Disaster’ in the Country Escalates appeared first on Immigration Impact.

Over 2,000 immigrant children are being detained by the Trump administration at a “temporary emergency” facility in Homestead, Florida. All of the children at the facility have been designated by the government as “unaccompanied” minors. However, not every “unaccompanied” child came to the border alone—some were intentionally separated from their guardians by U.S. officials. Under […]

The post No Freedom, Education, or Privacy: Over 2,000 Immigrant Children Detained at the Homestead Shelter appeared first on Immigration Impact.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Monday morning that it would vastly expand “expedited removal,” a provision of the law that permits the agency to rapidly deport certain individuals without an opportunity to see an immigration judge. Under the expansion, DHS can rapidly deport undocumented immigrants in the United States who crossed the […]

The post Trump Implements Nationwide ‘Send Them Back’ Immigration Policy appeared first on Immigration Impact.

Explicit Racism’s Silver Lining On July 14, President Trump fired off a series of tweets intended to undermine the growing clout of four Freshmen Representatives, all women of color.

Since the mid-1980s, immigration courts have operated the Institutional Hearing Program (IHP). The program is designed to quickly deport people serving criminal sentences. Despite how long it’s been in operation, little is known about the IHP. With a lawsuit filed earlier this week, advocates hope to shed light on this inherently secretive, newly-expanded program that […]

The post Advocates Seek Information About a Secretive Program That Fast-Tracks Deportations appeared first on Immigration Impact.

AILA Secretary Kelli Stump highlights recent efforts by AILA and its partners to urge Congress to establish an Article I immigration court system to ensure that "when cases are as serious as they are, when lies and livelihoods are on the line” justice is served and people get a fair day in court.

This rapid response blog introduces CSII's upcoming blog series exploring new migration flows, asylum seekers, and refugees at the U.S. border. The series will be published weekly as a lead up to CSII's event "If Walls Could Talk: Reflections and responses to refugees at the Border" at USC on September 26, 2019.

While members of Congress were struggling to reach a bipartisan deal in February in order to end the government shutdown, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) quietly expanded its complicated network of immigration jails—this time in the Deep South. In late June, ICE started using three jails in Louisiana and Mississippi, with bed-space for 4,000 […]

The post ICE Quietly Expands Immigration Detention in the Deep South appeared first on Immigration Impact.

In this blog post, AILA member Ola Mohamed draws attention to the conditions migrant children have been subjected to and encourages a "grassroots movement, a sustained outcry for the abolishment" of the detention of migrant children.

Despite losing at the Supreme Court, the Trump administration still managed to ask nearly a quarter of a million U.S. households about the citizenship status of their household members. That’s because the administration had already started mailing out its 2019 Census Test—a nationwide test used to inform the upcoming 2020 Census—two weeks before the Supreme […]

The post Census Bureau Asked 250,000 Households About Their Citizenship Status, Despite Court Ruling appeared first on Immigration Impact.