U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued an order yesterday seeking to speed up the handling of deportation cases, telling immigration judges they should only issue continuances in immigrant removal proceedings for “good cause.” The “good-cause standard,” he noted, “limits the discretion of immigration judges and prohibits them from granting continuances for any reason or no […]
ACLU claims that immigrant agencies set up “traps” for immigrants
August 14, 2018 By
Two federal immigration agencies coordinated to bring unauthorized immigrants who were seeking legal residency in for interviews at government offices, where they were then arrested and in some cases deported, according to internal agency communications. The interviews were timed at the convenience of ICE agents, who asked government officials to space out the meetings so […]
ACLU after ICE: Claims agency withheld deported parents information from lawyers
August 13, 2018 By
The ACLU is claiming that ICE for more than a month purposefully withheld hundreds of migrant parents’ contact information from their lawyers. “The numbers have been [in the children’s files] for a while, and we should have had them for a while,” Lee Gelernt, the lead lawyer for the ACLU’s lawsuit against ICE, told HuffPost. […]
Immigration judges unite against Sessions and claim they want their independence back
August 9, 2018 By
In an uncharacteristically public move, the union representing immigration judges on Wednesday criticized the Attorney General Jeff Sessions led Department of Justice for interfering with the courts’ independence. “The agency’s actions violated the independence of the judge’s decision-making authority and undermined the integrity of immigration courts,” Judge Ashley Tabaddor, speaking as president of the National Association […]
Trump Administration considering proposal that would make it difficult for legal immigrants to become citizens
August 7, 2018 By
A proposal being considered by top aides to President Trump would reportedly make it more difficult for legal immigrants to get green cards or become U.S. citizens. NBC News reports that under the proposal, a creation of senior White House aide Stephen Miller, migrants who have in the past benefited from welfare programs, including Social Security […]
DACA headed for a court showdown
August 6, 2018 By
A federal judge on Friday upheld his order that DACA should be fully restored, setting a 20-day deadline for the administration to do so. DC District Judge John Bates said the Trump administration has still failed to justify its decision to end the Obama-era program that has protected from deportation nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants […]
Federal judge orders the administration to transfer immigrant children out of facility after abuse allegations
July 31, 2018 By
Yesterday a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to transfer all immigrant minors out of a detention facility in Texas due to allegations of abuse and over-medication against the children. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ruled that conditions at the Shiloh Residential Treatment Center in Manvel, Texas, violate a 1997 court settlement that dictates how the […]
Texas businesses concerned about the future of DREAMers and the impact on the economy
July 26, 2018 By
As the state of Texas continues to pursue litigation aimed at ending DACA, some members of the Texas business community are pushing back. A group of Texas Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, businesses and business associations filed a brief opposing a lawsuit filed earlier this year by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton challenging DACA’s legality. The […]
As deadline approaches, Trump Administration trying to hurry family reunification efforts
July 26, 2018 By
For 24 hours, attorney Ofelia Calderon couldn’t find her client, Bety Mena Torres, a migrant who had been depressed since she was separated from her daughter at the border. Mena had been held in Port Isabel Detention Center since June, but last week Calderon received a call from another detainee saying that Mena had disappeared. […]
Trump administration will be reviewing cases of immigrants who already have citizenship
July 23, 2018 By
The Trump administration is stepping up efforts to curb legal immigration, taking a series of actions in recent weeks that could lead to deportation for people who already have citizenship. The director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) told The Associated Press recently that the agency is hiring dozens of lawyers and immigration […]
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