Immigration News Resources

In this blog post, AILA Media Advocacy Committee Member Fiona McEntee reflects on NDA 2019 and the successful effort to have Congress hold USCIS accountable for crisis-level processing delays.

The Florida legislature recently passed SB 168 with the stated intent of ensuring that state officials and agencies fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities in enforcing immigration law. SB 168 could have far-reaching consequences in a state where one in five residents is an immigrant. SB 168 would prohibit any state/local entity or law enforcement […]

The post How Florida’s SB 168 Will Benefit the Private Prison Industry appeared first on Immigration Impact.

New York Magazine, this week, tells the story of a Trump-Loving Town and its Favorite Undocumented Immigrant. The story features Alex Garcia, a native of Honduras, who has built deep personal relationships with his working class, Trump-supporting neighbors who are now organizing to prevent his deportation. Alex moved to Poplar Bluff, Missouri (population 17,000) in […]

The post Trump-Supporting Missouri Town Mounts Campaign to Protect One of Its Own from Deportation appeared first on Immigration Impact.

  May 8, 2019 Undocumented immigrants have long faced barriers in accessing mortgages and government housing assistance due to their legal status.

AILA member John Manley explains why the citizenship of the new British royal baby is even a question, and highlights some of the complexities of U.S. immigration law.

Each new generation of immigrants to the United States has, in time, achieved a high degree of integration into U.S. society. Whether it was immigrants from southern and eastern Europe a century ago, or immigrants from Asia and Latin America today, newcomers eventually master English, settle into U.S. communities and workplaces, and contribute to the […]

The post How Has Immigration Changed in the Last 100 Years? appeared first on Immigration Impact.

AILA Executive Director Ben Johnson details recent misinformation from the president about the border, immigrants, and asylum seekers, and notes, “Sadly, the Trump administration’s border enforcement strategy remains largely unchanged even as the nature of the challenge has changed dramatically.”

May 7, 2019 On April 19, 2019, the New York Times reported that United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), a right-wing militia group, was detaining immigrants at the New Mexico-Mexico border.

A federal district court recently prevented U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) from imposing a new policy that radically changed how the agency determines when a foreign student or exchange visitor is “unlawfully present” in the United States. “Unlawful presence” is a legal term used to describe any time spent in the United States after […]

The post Federal Court Stops USCIS Policy Harmful to Students and Exchange Visitors appeared first on Immigration Impact.

In a move designed to ratchet up pressure on Congress, last week the White House sent an emergency budget request to Congress asking for $4.5 billion of funding to deal with increased numbers of families arriving at the border. The money includes a request for funds that would permit Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to […]

The post White House Demands Additional $4.5 Billion for Border appeared first on Immigration Impact.

AILA Senior Legal Editor Rizwan Hassan highlights a visual artist and community educator, Michelle Angela Ortiz, who has brought attention to families detained in Berks, PA, writing "we must use whatever skills and talents we have at our disposal to battle the injustices we see."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has dramatically increased enforcement actions in and around state and local courthouses since 2017. As part of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement agenda, ICE began using courthouses to conduct frequent civil immigration arrests. In practice, this means ICE agents—often unidentified and in plainclothes—have a greater presence in civil and […]

The post Local Officials in Massachusetts, New York Challenge ICE Courthouse Arrests appeared first on Immigration Impact.

Many South Africans are dissatisfied with the state of their democracy. Confidence in some civic institutions declined from 1990 to 2013.

The post In South Africa, racial divisions and pessimism about democracy loom over elections appeared first on Pew Research Center.

Only weeks after being named the new Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kevin McAleenan made his first appearance in front of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees this week. While it’s clear DHS will not change course on many of the policies implemented by former Secretary Nielsen, McAleenen seemed intent on […]

The post Acting DHS Secretary McAleenan Attempts to Reset Relationship with Congress appeared first on Immigration Impact.

President Trump is calling for new regulations that will target asylum seekers arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. These new rules would accelerate court hearings, limit options for relief, create new fees for an asylum application, and eliminate work permits for most asylum seekers. Taken together, the rules could prevent many from winning asylum and leave […]

The post Trump Wants to Make These 4 Disastrous Changes to the Asylum System appeared first on Immigration Impact.

We need to understand the views native-born Americans hold toward immigrants. This is central to building more welcoming communities and toning down our polarization. Unfortunately, most public opinion polls only reveal Americans’ conflicted views on immigration. There is little understanding about why Americans hold the views they do. A new report from the American Immigration […]

The post Personal Values and Friendly Contact Associated With Positive Attitudes Toward Undocumented Immigrants appeared first on Immigration Impact.

AILA Policy Counsel Jason Boyd highlights data from a recent USCIS response to Congress, noting evidence that “USCIS policies are undermining the agency’s statutory mandate to efficiently process applications and petitions for immigration benefits” and calling for USCIS to be held to account.

Acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kevin McAleenan will testify before two congressional committees this week. He is likely to be asked questions about the government’s family separation polices, it’s poorly executed family reunification efforts, and what comes next for the families seeking protection inside the United States. McAlennan previewed what are sure to […]

The post Newly Unveiled Government Documents Show DHS’ Plans to Punish and Criminalize Parents appeared first on Immigration Impact.

  The Trump administration’s emphasis on immigration has often stoked partisan political battles. Those debates, as loud as they are, sometimes obscure the fact that immigrants are about 14% of the U.

The U.S. population is aging quickly. Baby boomers are retiring en masse and Americans are having far fewer children, on average, than any other time in our history. The median age in this country was 38 as of 2017. America now runs the risk of becoming an aging nation with few youthful replacements if we […]

The post Record Low U.S. Birth Rate and Retirements Will Result in Contracting U.S. Prosperity, If Unaddressed appeared first on Immigration Impact.