On Monday, Dawn Wooton, a whistleblower who formerly worked as a nurse at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Georgia filed a complaint to the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, detailing medical neglect and a high rate of hysterectomies in the facility. The facility is Irwin Detention Center, run by private corporation […]
Federal Court Blocks Trump Order Prohibiting Census from Counting Undocumented Immigrants
Yesterday, a three-judge panel in New York ruled unanimously that President Trump’s executive order to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census count was unlawful. The President’s July memo stated that undocumented immigrants should not count for purposes of deciding the reapportionment of the House. The court’s decision mandates that his order violates the 14th Amendment […]
ICE Expels Immigrant Children Even After Negative COVID-19 Tests
The Trump Administration is expelling immigrant children citing COVID-19 concerns, despite the children testing negative for the coronavirus before they are put on planes to their home countries. An article published Monday by The Texas Tribune and ProPublica reveals that the Trump administration had implemented a testing program in which every child is tested for […]
Acting Director of ICE Announces Retirement
On Friday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting director Matt Albence announced his retirement from the agency, after serving in his position for just over a year. Albence began his work in federal immigration enforcement in 1994 and has moved positions over the years. He had briefly led ICE before, between Ronald Vitiello’s departure and […]
Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration’s Immigration Wealth Test
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s wealth test that denied people permanent residency if they used or were deemed likely to use public services such as Medicaid or food assistance. The decision, from U.S. District Judge George Daniels, comes after New York and other states challenged the rule in light of the coronavirus pandemic, […]
Trump Administration Places Further Limitations on DACA in Defiance of Court Order
On Tuesday the Trump administration took further action to limit the scope of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA). Chad Wolf, Acting Secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), announced in a memo that the Trump administration would not accept new applications for DACA and would force those currently enrolled in […]
Parents in ICE Detention Must Keep Their Children in Detention or Release Them to Sponsors
Hundreds of parents in ICE custody are being forced to decide whether to release their children to sponsors or waive their children’s right to be released. Two court orders from separate human rights lawsuits have forced this choice. In the first decision, Federal Judge Dolly Gee in California demanded that ICE release all of the […]
Federal Judge Rejects Release of Detained Immigrant Families
On Wednesday, a federal judge rejected a plea to release immigrant families from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in response to growing concern over the spread of COVID-19. Judge James Boasberg, U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Columbia, denied the blanket release of all families, believing that other options need to be […]
Trump Signs Memo to Exclude Undocumented Immigrants from Census Numbers
President Donald Trump signed a presidential memo Tuesday aiming to exclude the number of undocumented immigrant populations when redistributing congressional seats following the 2020 census. The unprecedented move, which civil rights advocates say is unconstitutional, comes a year after the Trump administration tried and failed to include a citizenship question in the census. If implemented, […]
New Applications Rejected Despite Supreme Court DACA Ruling
Although the Supreme Court voted to uphold the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program nearly a month ago, the Trump Administration is still not accepting new applications. Renewals are being accepted and processed, but hundreds of thousands of first-time applicants are left fearful of their future in the United States. The DACA program protects […]
Three-Fourths of Detainees in ICE Detention Center Test Positive for COVID-19
COVID-19 outbreaks in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers have continued to grow with alarming speed. In Farmville, a Virginia ICE detention center, all those held at the facility were tested for COVID-19 after a number of new detainees tested positive for the virus. Of the 366 people being held at Farmville, only 19 […]
Trump’s Anti-Asylum Rule Will Harm Refugees Fleeing Gender Violence
In June, the Trump administration proposed a new rule that would make it virtually impossible for refugees to obtain asylum status in the United States. If implemented, the new regulation would eliminate gender-based asylum entirely and forbid asylum judges from hearing any cases involving “private” disputes wherein the persecutors are not directly linked to the […]
17 States Sue Trump Administration Over International Student Visa Rule
Amid rising unrest and uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration issued a directive last week that would endanger the visas of international students whose colleges or universities plan on implementing remote coursework this fall. This directive has forced international students as well as higher education institutions to reconsider their fall plans. This comes […]
ICE Transfers and Deportations Spread COVID-19 Within Detention Centers, Globally
As lockdowns, social distancing, and mask-wearing become the norm all across the world, ICE continues to detain people, moving them from state to state, often deporting them, which is contributing to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus both domestically and abroad. The Marshall Project and the New York Times conducted an investigation, published July […]
Trump Administration Is Now Blocking Most Legal Pathways to Immigration
In the last four months, the Trump administration has used fear of the coronavirus pandemic to severely restrict most avenues for legal immigration, effectively making it impossible to legally migrate to the United States. In early March, the administration issued a public health order that mandates the immediate removal of migrants, including children and asylum […]
ICE Says International Students Must Take In-Person Class to Stay in U.S.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced a rule Monday that prohibits international students from staying in the U.S. on their student visas if their college opts to hold courses entirely online. The order will affect F-1 and M-1 visa-holders, forcing students to either take in-person classes or risk deportation. Students in colleges teaching entirely online […]
Federal Judge Rules Against Trump Administration’s Strict Asylum Policy
On Tuesday night a federal judge ruled that the strictest asylum policy that the Trump administration created is illegal. This decision comes at the heels of the new Supreme Court decision, made on June 18, to uphold the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The “third-country asylum rule,” instituted in 2019, “prohibited immigrants from claiming […]
Recent Gallup Poll Suggests Support for Immigration Has Risen Significantly Among Americans
A recent Gallup Poll found that a larger margin of Americans are supportive of increased immigration to the United States than are unsupportive. Gallup has observed the trend in public opinion towards immigration since 1965, but its 2020 poll is the first time that more Americans prefer increased immigration than decreased immigration, and marks the […]
Judge Orders Release of Migrant Children from Family Detention Centers
This Friday, Judge Dolly M. Gee, a federal judge of the Central District of California, ordered the release of migrant children from family detention centers, primarily citing the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic as her reasoning. This order demands that the children must be released by July 17. The ruling applies to children who have […]
ACLU Secures the Release of 25 ICE Detainees in Rhode Island
The Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, Rhode Island has released 25 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees since a class-action lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Last month, the ACLU filed a federal class-action lawsuit asserting that it was not safe to keep detainees there amid the spread of COVID-19. […]