In the midst of California’s COVID-19 lockdown, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are continuing to make arrests, despite calls from immigration advocates for a suspension of enforcement activities. To limit the spread of COVID-19, Los Angeles has shut down a range of public services and business, including libraries, movie theaters, clubs, gyms, and concert […]
Immigration Courts to Stay Open During Coronavirus Pandemic
The Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review declared “operations as usual” for proceedings involving non-detained immigrants on Sunday night. The decision comes after Seattle’s immigration court was shut down last week after a report of second-hand exposure to coronavirus; it will remain shut until April 10. The order states that master calendar dates, […]
Guatamalan Refugee Maria Celeste Ochoa Yoc de Ramirez Dies in ICE Custody
22-year-old Maria Celeste Ochoa Yoc de Ramirez died in ICE Custody in Fort Worth, Texas, on Sunday. This marks the eighth death in ICE Custody since October. The cause of death was “autoimmune hepatitis, complicated by septic shock and acute liver failure,” according to an ICE Press release. Ochoa Yoc de Ramírez had been hospitalized […]
Pulitzer Winner Talks Immigration at Literacy Event
Jose Antonio Vargas, critically-acclaimed author and winner of the Pulitzer prize, began his lecture at the Washtenaw Reads event put on by Ann Arbor District’s Library this past week by saying, “If you want to call ICE on me, please wait ‘til after the lecture.” The annual event in Michigan is designed to “promote reading […]
Women and Children Make Up Majority of Deportees to Guatemala Under New Deal
The majority of the nearly 400 asylum seekers that are being deported back to Guatemala under the Trump administration’s controversial deal with the country are women and children. U.S. immigration officials have denied the opportunity to seek asylum of 378 migrants from Honduras and El Salvador as of Tuesday of this week, forcing them to […]
New State Department Regulations Could Restrict Pregnant Women’s Ability to Come to the U.S.
A department official from the State Department and a congressional aide reportedly said Wednesday that the U.S. State Department has a plan that could potentially make it more difficult for pregnant women to acquire visas to visit the United States. These impending regulations are presumably the most recent in a string of attempts by the […]
Supreme Court to Hear Oral Arguments on DACA Case
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments regarding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) case. The Obama-era federal program that has allowed over 700,000 undocumented immigrants to avoid deportation, was rolled back by the Trump administration. The initiative allows children of undocumented immigrants who’ve arrived in the US when at a very […]
More Than 700 Women Lost in ICE Detention
More than 700 women were moved out of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center, some with serious medical conditions, and lawyers have no information as to where they are. Starting in September, women were moved out of the Karnes County Residential Center and sent to detention centers around the country so the Texas center […]
Pregnant Migrant Woman Had Labor Stopped By American Doctors, Taken Back to Mexico By U.S. Customs and Border Patrol
An eight-and-a-half month pregnant migrant woman travelling from El Salvador was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol after crossing the Rio Grande, and while the anonymous woman began experiencing labor contractions U.S. border agents took her to a hospital where American doctors gave her medications that would stop her labor and was quickly sent […]
Trump Administration Ends Deferred Action Program for Immigrants Seeking Medical Treatment
This week the Trump administration ended deferrals of deportation for immigrants with severe medical conditions, giving them only 33 days before they must leave the country and lose access to live saving treatment that they cannot receive in their home countries. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sent out letters this week without any formal announcement […]
Department of Homeland Security Blocks Congressional Oversight Committee from Visiting Detention Centers
Rep. Elijah Cummings sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security yesterday expressing his alarm at DHS’s decision to block the House Oversight Committee from visiting 11 detention centers after previous visits revealed serious problems with the treatment of migrants being held in ICE custody. In his letter Cummings wrote that detainees had said in […]
Trump Administration Instates Rules to Detain Migrant Children Indefinitely
The Trump Administration has moved to enact new rules that would overturn protections that mandate safe and sanitary conditions at detention facilities and allow border agents to detain migrant children indefinitely, claiming it will allow them to keep families together. Currently, the Flores settlement mandates that the government has 20 days to transfer migrant children […]
680 Arrested in Largest Recorded ICE Raid
This ongoing debate on immigration reform in the United States reached a new tipping point yesterday after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents invaded a food production plant in Morton, Mississippi, arresting 680 undocumented workers who were unable to provide identification. This is believed to be the largest single-state immigration arrest in the history […]
ACLU Argues Trump Separated Almost 1,000 Children in Past Year
Yesterday, ACLU lawyers argued in a court filing in U.S. District Court in San Diego that the Trump administration has separated almost 1,000 children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border since U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the Trump administration to curtail family separations and reunite families more than a year ago. While Acting […]
Four Democratic Congresswomen Call Trump’s Racist Tweets a Distraction
Yesterday, four democratic congresswomen of color held a joint press conference to address a series of racist tweets made by President Trump in which he called for the women to “go back” to the countries they came from. The four women, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib, condemned his words as […]
As the Border Crisis Persists, Take Action Today
The most recent string of reports from the border demand our attention—and our action. Earlier this month, the Homeland Security Inspector General released a scathing report detailing overcrowding and other inhumane conditions at detention centers along the border, much of which has been confirmed by recent visits to facilities by lawmakers. “After I forced myself into a […]
ICE Raids Plan to Arrest and Deport Thousands of Immigrant Families
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is scheduled to begin raids in major cities this Sunday to deport thousands of undocumented migrants, according to former and current officials of the Department of Homeland Security. This order is known as “collateral” deportations, which targets families, and includes the deportation of over 2,000 migrants. The New York Times states […]
