Enforcement

The enforcement of immigration laws is a complex and hotly-debated topic. Learn more about the costs of immigration enforcement and the ways in which the U.S. can enforce our immigration laws humanely and in a manner that ensures due process.

Fifth Circuit Allows Texas to Keep Its Controversial ‘Buoy Barrier’ in Place for Now

Since President Biden took office, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been escalating both rhetoric and action in response to a rise in migration across the Rio Grande. Right now, challenges to his latest maneuver—installing 1,000 feet of “marine barrier” in the middle of the Rio Grande—are making their way through the courts. As of September […]

Biden Administration Fights to Keep Private Immigration Jails Open, Despite Promises

“There should be no private prisons, period, none, period. And we are working to close all of them.” Those are the words of President Joe Biden in April 2021, when he was called out by immigrant rights activists at a rally celebrating his 100th day in office. This was a welcome promise to immigrants and […]

Biden Keeps Ties with Billion-Dollar Business of Immigration Detention, Despite Reports of Serious Abuse

On Thanksgiving Day 2017, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arrested Kamyar Samimi—a lawful permanent resident with a decade-old conviction for drug possession—and sent him to the privately run ICE Processing Center in Aurora, Colorado. Two weeks later, he was dead. Facility staff had forced him to stop methadone treatment cold turkey and then […]

CBP’s Continued ‘Turnbacks’ Are Sending Asylum Seekers Back to Lethal Danger

On April 8, a family came to the San Ysidro port of entry in Tijuana and asked to be let into the United States to seek asylum. The husband’s arm was bleeding. He’d been shot. The cartel that had driven him and his family from Jalisco the previous fall, when he refused to cooperate with […]

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Enforcement Priorities Are Back. What Will ICE Prosecutors Do With Them?

The Biden administration has officially reinstated its enforcement guidelines for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The move comes after the Supreme Court reaffirmed the federal government’s authority to set priorities in immigration enforcement – and to discourage federal agents from spending time and energy on noncitizens who aren’t priorities. This includes not just the […]