As President Trump’s deportation plans for undocumented immigrants made headlines across the nation, a less publicized response is underway. Mexico’s plan for receiving repatriated citizens, called “Mexico Embraces You” or “Mexico te abraza,” was announced in late January. Government officials began developing the program after then-presidential nominee Trump’s Sep. 13 campaign promise to carry out […]
U.S. Catholic Bishops Sue Trump Administration Over Refugee Resettlement Funding Freeze
U.S. Catholic bishops have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its sudden halt to refugee resettlement. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has long provided care for thousands of refugees assigned to them after being granted legal status. In the lawsuit, they claim they have been wrongfully targeted as part of Trump’s […]
Plan to Shut Down Afghan Resettlement Office Leaves Thousands of Afghan Allies in Limbo
The U.S. State Department has ordered the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) to prepare for closure by April 2025, a decision that has raised significant concern among advocates and Afghans awaiting resettlement. The decision affects some 200,000 individuals, including family members of Afghan-American U.S. military personnel, minors awaiting reunification with their […]
Over 100 Organizations Urge Congress to Reverse Trump’s Executive Order on Refugee Resettlement
A coalition of 123 national, state, and local organizations from across the United States (U.S.) is calling on Congress to rescind President Trump’s executive order “Realigning USRAP.” The executive order has suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and frozen humanitarian assistance to millions of people needing assistance. The Feminist Majority Foundation, among the signatories, […]
The Trump Administration Sends Migrants to Guantánamo Bay
The Trump administration has begun transferring migrants to Guantánamo Bay, reviving one of the darkest chapters of U.S. immigration history. The decision to detain people, many of them fleeing violence and poverty, at a military base infamous for human rights abuses is nothing short of cruel and dehumanizing. Reports indicate that the first group of […]
Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump From Ending Birthright Citizenship
Photo by Nitish Meena on Unsplash On Thursday, January 23, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship, or automatic American citizenship for all babies born in the United States. The executive order—called Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship—was part of the flurry of anti-immigrant EOs Trump signed on his […]
The Laken Riley Act Signals a New Era of Immigration Policy
Photo by Louis Velazquez on Unsplash Republicans in Congress are moving toward reshaping U.S. immigration policy with a harsh immigration detention law, The Laken Riley Act. This bill requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to detain non-citizens who have been arrested for nonviolent crimes including burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting of $100 or more. […]
Afghan Earthquake Survivors Struggle to Make it Through Winter
On October 7th, multiple earthquakes hit Afghanistan. Thousands of people were killed and injured and the survivors continue to grapple with hardships. Since then, survivors spend their days digging through rubble looking for the bodies of family members and digging mass graves for the thousands of victims. People are reeling from losing their entire families […]
Afghan Refugees in Pakistan Face the Risk of Deportation and Human Rights Abuses
The spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed concern over Pakistan’s plan to deport undocumented Afghan refugees on November 1st. This will disproportionately affect more than a million Afghans who moved to Pakistan for safety. The plan for mass deportation was announced earlier this month, after which, 59,780 individuals left […]
Poll Reveals Majority of Americans Support Upholding the “Pledge” to Afghan Allies. Afghan Allies Remain in Limbo With Thousands Still Awaiting Evacuation.
A new poll conducted in early October by With Honor Action and Ipsos found that 89% of Americans said they support keeping our pledge to Afghans who helped U.S. forces against the Taliban, with 56% of Americans “strongly” supporting the claim. 92% of Democrats and 87% of Republicans agreed, demonstrating strong bipartisan support for our […]
Pakistan Threatens to Deport All Afghan Refugees, Violating Refugee Rights and Putting Afghans at High Risk
Last week, Pakistan ordered all “illegal” migrants to leave the country, leaving millions, including long-term residents with valid documents, vulnerable to being returned to Afghanistan. According to Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti, “illegal” Afghan migrants are those without Proof of Registration (PoR) cards or expired Afghan Citizen cards (ACC) issued by the Pakistani government. The […]
The Costly Price of Gender Apartheid: Afghanistan’s Brain Drain in the Face of Taliban Rule
Afghanistan faces a bleak future as the Taliban’s oppressive regime takes hold, exacerbating the country’s brain drain crisis, with educated Afghans seeking safety elsewhere, leaving behind a fractured society struggling to retain its intellectual capital. Many Afghans have sooner or later come to realize that the Taliban’s empty promises of a reformed leadership were crafted […]
Afghan Refugee: “Our lives in Pakistan are no lives at all” On World Refugee Day, Recognize the Struggles of Afghan Refugees.
Earlier today, Amnesty International released a statement for World Refugee Day imploring the Pakistani government to “stop harassing and arbitrarily arresting Afghans seeking refuge.” Since the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in August 2021, many Afghans have fled to the bordering countries of Pakistan and Iran, becoming refugees. While Amnesty International’s statement focuses on […]
Biden Administration Proposes New Rule to Protect DACA
The Biden administration published a rule Tuesday that could help to preserve Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in the administration’s latest attempt to protect the program from legal challenges. The rule would cement DACA, protecting hundreds of thousands of people without documentation who were brought to this country as children from losing their ability […]
Thousands of Haitians Deported from Texas While Some are Released into U.S. as Border Crisis Continues
Nearly 14,000 Haitian migrants have come to the U.S. border near Del Rio, Texas in recent days hoping to be admitted to the United States. The Biden administration has already deported over 1,000 people since the weekend, while some Haitians have been released into the U.S. for immigration processing. Haitian migrants have created an enormous […]
Biden Administration Will Raise Refugee Cap to 125,000 for the Upcoming Fiscal Year
The State Department announced Monday that the Biden administration plans to raise the maximum number of refugees allowed to enter the U.S. in the upcoming fiscal year to 125,000 people, fulfilling President Biden’s 2020 campaign promise to reverse Donald Trump’s restrictive refugee policies. Starting October 1, the refugee admission cap for the 2022 fiscal year […]
Biden Administration Appeals Ruling that Found DACA Illegal
The Biden administration appealed a federal district court ruling on Friday that declared the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program illegal and blocked new applicants from receiving the program’s benefits. The appeal challenges a ruling made by Texas federal district Judge Andrew Hanen in July. Judge Hanen ruled that DACA was unlawful because it […]
Supreme Court Denies Biden Administration’s Request to Pause Reimplementation of “Remain in Mexico” Policy
The Supreme Court ordered the Biden administration Tuesday to reimplement former President Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy that requires migrants to wait in Mexico until their immigration hearing in the United States. Earlier this month, a federal judge in Texas ordered the Biden administration to revive the policy, which had been formally ended by the […]
Texas Federal Judge Orders Biden to Reimplement Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” Migrant Policy
A federal judge in Texas ruled Friday that the Biden administration must reimplement former President Trump’s border policy that requires migrants to wait in Mexico until their immigration hearing in the United States. The Migrant Protection Protocols policy, or “remain in Mexico,” forces migrants, many of whom are not originally from Mexico, to stay in […]
Federal District Judge Rules DACA Illegal and Blocks New Applications
Judge Andrew Hanen, a federal district judge in Texas, ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was unlawful on Friday. While the decision will not immediately affect current DACA recipients, it will temporarily prevent new applicants from being admitted to the program. Former President Obama created the DACA program in 2012 by executive […]
