Interior 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.

Recent Features

Why Caution is Needed Before Hiring Additional Border Patrol Agents and ICE Officers

There are serious concerns that rapid expansion will bring about a resurgence of problems in the Border Patrol and also cause similar problems in ICE. 

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FACT SHEET
A Primer on Expedited Removal

Expedited removal is a process by which low-level immigration officers can quickly deport certain noncitizens who are undocumented or have committed fraud or misrepresentation. 

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All Interior Enforcement Content

  • Special Report

The Faulty Legal Arguments Behind Immigration Detainers

Publication Date: 
December 18, 2013
In late June 2012, the Supreme Court struck down three provisions of Arizona’s SB 1070 and left a fourth vulnerable to future legal challenge. As has been well documented, the Court’s rejection of SB...
  • Fact Sheet

The Criminal Alien Program (CAP): Immigration Enforcement in Prisons and Jails

Publication Date: 
August 1, 2013
The Criminal Alien Program (CAP) is an expansive immigration enforcement program that leads to the initiation of removal proceedings in many cases. While CAP has existed in one form or another for...
  • Fact Sheet

Enforcement Without Focus: Non-Violent Offenders Caught in the US Immigration Enforcement System

Publication Date: 
April 2, 2013
Since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created in 2003, its immigration-enforcement agencies—Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—have been...
  • Fact Sheet

A Decade of Rising Immigration Enforcement

Publication Date: 
January 8, 2013
With roughly 11 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States, some question whether the nation’s immigration laws are being seriously enforced. In truth, due to legal and policy...
  • Fact Sheet

Falling Through the Cracks

Publication Date: 
December 12, 2012
The Impact of Immigration Enforcement on Children Caught Up in the Child Welfare System One of the many consequences of an aggressive immigration enforcement system is the separation of children,...
  • Research and Analysis

From Fingerprints to DNA: Biometric Data Collection in U.S. Immigrant Communities and Beyond

Publication Date: 
May 23, 2012
The collection of biometrics—including fingerprints, DNA, and face-recognition ready photographs—is becoming more and more a part of society. Both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the...
  • Research and Analysis

The Myth of "Self-Deportation"

Publication Date: 
April 30, 2012
How Behavioral Economics Reveals the Fallacies behind “Attrition through Enforcement” By Alexandra Filindra, Ph.D....
  • Research and Analysis

Q&A on Office of Inspector General Reports on Secure Communities Program

Publication Date: 
April 17, 2012
In April 2012, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released two long-awaited reports on the Secure Communities Program: Operations of United States...
  • Special Report

Discrediting “Self Deportation” as Immigration Policy

Publication Date: 
February 6, 2012
By Michele Waslin The day that Alabama’s draconian anti-immigrant law...
  • Special Report

The Secure Communities Program: Unanswered Questions and Continuing Concerns

Publication Date: 
November 29, 2011
This paper describes the Secure Communities program, identifies concerns about the program’s design and implementation, and makes recommendations for the future of the program.
  • Blog

Biden Administration Halts Mass Worksite Raids By ICE

October 13, 2021

The Biden administration just took a significant step toward reining in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued a...

  • Blog

New Enforcement Priorities Show Some Improvement, Maintain Old Framework

October 1, 2021

On September 30, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued the long-awaited new set of enforcement priorities, entitled “Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil...

  • Blog

Court Allows ICE to Use Enforcement Priorities Set by the Biden Administration

September 16, 2021

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday stayed a significant part of an earlier decision by the Northern District of Texas that would have blocked the implementation of the Biden...

  • Blog

TX Court Issues Stunning Order: US Government Can’t Set Priorities for Immigration Enforcement

August 20, 2021

Judge Drew Tipton of the Southern District of Texas on August 19 blocked a set of enforcement priorities the Biden administration had issued in January and February 2021 in an attempt to focus...

  • Blog

ICE Announces New Victim-Centered Policy, Showing a Favorable Shift Toward Vulnerable Immigrants

August 13, 2021

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced this week a new policy designed to honor and protect vulnerable immigrants. The new policy addresses protections for survivors of violence...

  • Blog

ICE May Have Deported as Many as 70 US Citizens In the Last Five Years

July 30, 2021

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) keeps making an inexcusable error: it has been deporting U.S. citizens by mistake. 70 potential U.S. citizens were deported between 2015 and 2020, a...

  • Blog

Who Is Ed Gonzalez? Biden’s ICE Nominee Signals Few Changes for the Agency

July 15, 2021

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may soon have its first Senate-confirmed leader in nearly five years. On July 15, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee...

  • Blog

Biden’s Unfulfilled Promise to End 287(g) Agreements with Local Law Enforcement

June 24, 2021

During the 2020 campaign, President Biden pledged to end all 287(g) agreements made by the Trump administration. More than 150 days into his presidency, the promise remains unfulfilled. The 287(g...

  • Blog

Biden’s Actions on Immigration Enforcement Have Been Inconsistent Since Taking Office

May 20, 2021

The Biden administration inherited an immigration enforcement system devoted to detaining and deporting as many people as possible. During the Trump years, every undocumented immigrant in the...

  • Blog

Biden Moves to End Trump’s War on ‘Sanctuary Cities’

May 4, 2021

The Biden administration has ended a Trump-era policy of denying so-called sanctuary cities from receiving certain forms of federal funding. The policy had been used in retaliation against local...

  • Press Release

After Successfully Delaying the Deportations, Groups Demand Meeting with DHS Sec. Johnson

January 6, 2016

Washington, D.C. - Today, the American Immigration Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association 

  • Press Release

Statement on Administration’s Plans to Round up Central American Families for Deportation

December 24, 2015

Washington D.C. - Late last night, The Washington Post broke th

  • Press Release

Time for Congress to Go Back to Bi-Partisan Comprehensive Solutions to Immigration

October 20, 2015

Washington D.C. - Today, the Senate rejected the motion to proceed on Senator David Vitter’s (R-LA) “Stop Sanctuary Policies and Protect Americans Act” (S. 2146).

  • Press Release

Practical, Comprehensive Immigration Solutions Promote Public Safety

July 21, 2015

Washington D.C.

  • Press Release

United States Agrees to Settle Lawsuit Alleging Wrongful Deportation

July 2, 2015
  • Press Release

Second Circuit Narrowly Interprets Aggravated Felony Bar Under INA § 212(h)

January 27, 2015

Washington, D.C.—Recently, the U.S.

  • Press Release

Groups Ask Court to Block Deportation Hearings for Children Without Legal Representation

August 1, 2014

Washington D.C. – The American Immigration Council, American Civil Liberties Union, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Public

  • Press Release

Groups Sue Federal Government over Failure to Provide Legal Representation for Children

July 9, 2014
The American Civil Liberties Union, American Immigration Council, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Public Counsel, and K&L Gates LLP today filed a nationwide class-action lawsuit on behalf of thousands of children who are challenging the federal government's failure to provide them with legal representation as it carries out deportation hearings against them.
  • Press Release

Understanding ICE’s Release of Immigrants with Criminal Convictions

May 15, 2014

Washington D.C. - Understanding the complexities of immigration law and its intersection with criminal law is not easy.

  • Press Release

New Report from Center for Immigration Studies on Deportation Data Misleads and Misinforms

March 31, 2014

Washington D.C. – Today the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released a new report that makes a range of false claims about deportation data.

  • Advocacy

The Council and AILA submit comment on DHS rule allowing electronic service of cash bond notices

Publication Date: 
September 7, 2023
The Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association comment on DHS's Interim Final Rule on its plan to electronically serve bond-related notifications to obligors to release immigration...
  • Practice Advisories

Practice Alert: Overview of the Supreme Court's Decision in Pugin v. Garland

Publication Date: 
August 22, 2023
This practice advisory looks into the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court issued in Pugin v. Garland, 143 S. Ct. 1833 (2023). This immigration decision addressed the generic definition of the obstruction of justice aggravated felony ground at 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(S).
  • Blog

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

August 9, 2023

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...

  • Press Release

Groups File Motion in Lawsuit to Block Florida’s Anti-Immigrant Law SB 1718

August 8, 2023
Legal organization filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to block Section 10 of Florida’s draconian anti-immigrant law, Senate Bill 1718.
  • Press Release

Civil Rights and Legal Advocates File Lawsuit Against Florida’s Anti-Immigrant Law SB 1718

July 17, 2023
Legal organizations filed a federal lawsuit challenging Florida’s new anti-immigrant law, Senate Bill 1718.
  • Blog

Supreme Court Allows Biden Administration to Reinstitute Its Immigration Enforcement Priorities

June 27, 2023

Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in U.S. v. Texas, which allows the Biden administration to resume its implementation of guidelines for immigration enforcement within the...

  • FOIA

ICE Didn’t Follow Federal Enforcement Priorities Set by Biden Administration

In 2021, the Biden administration issued policy guidance on how ICE should carry out immigration enforcement. This report is a breakdown of how ICE carried out these policies.
  • Press Release

U.S. Supreme Court Resoundingly Upholds Executive Authority on Immigration Enforcement Priorities, Rejects State Challenge

June 23, 2023
The U.S. Supreme Court held in an 8-1 decision that states do not have the authority to challenge the executive branch’s authority to establish enforcement priorities.
  • Letters

Advocacy Groups Urge ICE to Preserve the Option of In-Person Bond Payments

Publication Date: 
June 1, 2023
The American Immigration Council urged ICE to preserve the option of in-person bond payments and raised concerns about the web-based system Cash Electronic Bonds Online (CeBONDS).
  • Blog

Newly Introduced Border Bill Would Create More Chaos at the Border, Not Less

May 9, 2023

With the pandemic-related expulsion policy “Title 42” set to expire May 11, the House GOP introduced its first large-scale border and immigration package on Monday. The bill combines three...

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