NIJC, Sept. 20, 2024 "The U.S. government spends over three billion a year on the largest immigration detention apparatus in the world to detain and deport people who have lived in the U.S. for...
Heritage Foundation v. DHS "In this Freedom of Information Act case, Plaintiffs seek the disclosure by the Department of Homeland Security of certain immigration records relating to the Duke of...
In pending litigation in federal district court in Alexandria, Virginia, USCIS Asylum Division Chief John L. Lafferty provided this sworn declaration dated July 26, 2024.
IRHTP, PLS, Sept. 2024 "Consistent complaints over the last twenty-five years reveal a disturbing pattern of systemic abuse and mistreatment of ICE detainees at Plymouth County Correctional Facility...
DHS, Sept. 24, 2024 "Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas, in consultation with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, designated Qatar into the Visa Waiver Program (VWP)....
"Numerous questions about immigration detainers have been raised recently as a result of the Secure Communities program. These questions include (1) whether DHS’s detainer regulations and practices are beyond its statutory authority; (2) whether states and localities are required to comply with immigration detainers; (3) who has custody of aliens subject to detainers; and (4) whether detainer practices violate aliens’ constitutional rights.
The Obama Administration’s recent announcement that it is discontinuing the Secure Communities program and replacing it with a new Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) seems likely to lessen the salience of at least some of these questions. Immigration detainers will still be used with the PEP program, but generally only when an alien has been convicted of (rather than just arrested for) certain “priority” offenses. Further, under PEP, detainers will generally be used only to request that state and local law enforcement officials notify ICE prior to the alien’s release from custody for the state or local offense, rather than to request that state and local officials hold the alien for a period of up to 48 hours (excluding weekends and holidays) so that ICE may assume custody. Detainers may, however, continue to be used to request holds in cases where (1) the alien is subject to a final order of removal, or (2) there is probable cause to believe the alien is removable.
Even this more limited use of detainers could continue to raise questions in particular cases, though. Note also that future administrations could adopt different policies as to the use of immigration detainers, and some Members of Congress have recently introduced legislation that could potentially result in increased use of such detainers." - CRS, May 7, 2015.