Focusing on criminals distorts immigration policies

In a welcome bipartisan moment, Democratic Senator Richard Durbin and his Republican colleague Lindsey Graham introduced a revamped version of the Dream Act, a long-stalled proposal to grant legal status to young immigrants brought here as children. Like earlier versions, the Dream Act’s latest iteration would not help youth who have committed a variety of crimes. Though a White House official said that the president is unlikely to support it, immigrants’ rights groups applauded Durbin and Graham and launched campaigns to pressure more legislators to follow suit. A day later, news broke that [...]

How Immigrant Defense Funds Reduce Detentions and Deportations

Inside a gleaming office tower in downtown Denver, people file into one of the country’s sixty immigration courthouses. Single men, women, children, even entire families, present themselves before an immigration judge. When their names are called, they learn why the federal government wants them removed from the United States. A trained prosecutor employed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announces the government’s charges, then the judge turns to the immigrants. Some are fortunate to have a lawyer who can push back. Maybe the government has the facts wrong. Perhaps there is a bit [...]

Time for Denver to haul ICE into court

Under President Trump, ICE has displayed an unprecedented aggressiveness towards migrants. ICE agents have tackled a man in the doorway of Denver’s Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse. They have arrested someone at a home next to a public school during the morning drop-off window. Last week they opened fire on a man in a Denver street. Denver officials have complained. So far, they have been rebuffed. In a letter published last week by the Denver Post, ICE told Mayor Michael Hancock that it will continue its single-minded focus on arresting people it thinks might be in the United States without the [...]

Gianforte heads to Congress while immigrants are deported for much less

Greg Gianforte body-slammed a reporter. After pleading guilty to assault this week and receiving a sentence of community service and anger management classes, he will soon become the newest member of Congress. For doing much less, tens of thousands of immigrants are deported every year. Gianforte’s assault of a reporter illustrates a double-standard that runs through immigration law: immigrants are held to a higher standard than citizens. Yet politicians, Republicans and Democrats alike, regularly tout schemes to separate the good from the bad immigrants. Gianforte’s experience illustrates [...]

Texas Republican Admits He’s Pushing Private Prison Corporation’s Bill

A Republican state representative admits that he is promoting a bill written by the private prison corporation GEO Group. The bill would make it easier for private prison corporations to help the federal government lock up migrant families. “I've known the lady who’s their lobbyist for a long time,” Representative John Raney reportedly told the Associated Press last week. “That’s where the legislation came from.” The second-largest private prison operator in the United States, GEO runs an immigration prison in Karnes City, Texas, about sixty miles south of San Antonio, where it holds entire [...]

Public Safety and the Fourth Amendment Work Together

By Christopher N. Lasch and César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández On Monday, the Colorado Senate is expected to consider a bill to prohibit cities and counties from limiting their role in enforcing federal immigration law. Senate Bill 17-281, the Colorado Citizen Protection Against Sanctuary Policies Act, relies on two fallacies perpetuated by the Trump administration in its campaign against so-called “sanctuary” cities. First, President Trump claims sanctuary jurisdictions endanger the public. S.B. 281 likewise claims that sanctuary policies are “contrary to the safety” of Coloradans. This [...]

Improving justice one case at a time

There are currently 540,000 people in deportation proceedings somewhere in the United States. Most will make their final stance against forced separation from their families and homes without an attorney. This is a shameful mark on our nation’s commitment to justice that should stop. Earlier this month, New York officials took a significant step in that direction by funding a state-wide network of attorneys to represent people undergoing immigration court proceedings while detained. More cities and states should follow New York’s lead. Despite what politicians frequently suggest, deciding [...]

Attorney General delivers fiery speech in defense of the status quo

Visiting the southwest border for the first time since becoming Attorney General, today Jeff Sessions delivered a campaign-style speech promising to bring the federal criminal justice system to bear against immigration law violators. Standing before Customs and Border Protection officials in Nogales, the Attorney General described beheadings, machete attacks, and gang violence. “Criminal aliens, and the coyotes and the document-forgers seek to overthrow our system of lawful immigration,” he claimed. In response, the Justice Department that he leads will “take our stand against this filth” [...]