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US Immigration Policy
President Donald Trump's zero-tolerance immigration policy split more than 5,000 children from their families at the Mexico border during his first term. Border crossings sit at a record low nearly a year into his second administration and a new wave of immigration enforcement is dividing families inside the US. Federal officials and their local law enforcement partners are detaining tens of thousands of asylum-seekers and migrants. Detainees are moved repeatedly, then deported, or held in poor conditions for weeks or months before asking to go home. The federal government was holding an average of more than 66,000 people in November, the highest on record. During the first Trump administration, families were forcibly separated at the border and authorities struggled to find children in a vast shelter system because government computer systems weren't linked. Now parents inside the United States are being arrested by immigration authorities and separated from their families during
The US Treasury Department said Thursday it plans to reclassify certain refundable tax credits as federal public benefits," which will bar some immigrant taxpayers from receiving them, even if they file and pay taxes and would otherwise qualify. Tax experts say immigrants brought to the US illegally by their parents as children, known as DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients, and immigrants with Temporary Protected Status are most likely to be affected by the planned change. Foreign workers and student visa holders as well as some families with children who are US citizens could also be affected, depending on how the rule is written, they say. The Treasury Department's announcement was the latest sign of how the Trump administration has been taking a whole of government approach when it comes to immigration enforcement and looking to departments across the federal government not just Homeland Security to come up with ways to help carry out the president's hardli
Sami Hamdi, a British political commentator, was being held Monday by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement after he was detained by ICE officers at San Francisco International Airport, according to federal officials. One senior US official said the detention was related to comments he has made about the Middle East. Hamdi, who is Muslim, was on a speaking tour in the US and on Saturday had addressed the annual gala for the Sacramento, California, chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. Earlier this morning, ICE agents abducted British Muslim journalist and political commentator Sami Hamdi at San Francisco Airport, apparently in response to his vocal criticism of the Israeli government during his ongoing speaking tour, the group said in a Sunday social media post. The detention is the latest in the Trump administration's ramped up efforts to identify and potentially expel thousands of foreigners in the United States who it says have either fomented or ...
The US government plans to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia, and could do so as early as Octobrt 31, according to a Friday court filing. The Salvadoran national's case has become a magnet for opposition to President Donald Trump's immigration policies since he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, in violation of a settlement agreement. He was returned to the US in June after the US Supreme Court said the administration had to work to bring him back. Since he cannot be re-deported to El Salvador, ICE has been seeking to deport him to a series of African countries. Meanwhile, a federal judge in Maryland has previously barred his immediate deportation. Abrego Garcia's lawsuit there claims the Trump administration is illegally using the deportation process to punish him for the embarrassment of his earlier mistaken deportation. A Friday court filing from the Department of Homeland Security notes that Liberia is a thriving democracy and one of the United States's closest partner
Apple and Google blocked downloads of phone apps that flag sightings of US immigration agents, just hours after the Trump administration demanded that one particularly popular iPhone app be taken down. US Attorney General Pam Bondi said such tracking puts Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at risk. But users and developers of the apps say it's their First Amendment right to capture what ICE is doing in their neighborhoods and maintain that most users turn to these platforms in an effort to protect their own safety as President Donald Trump steps up aggressive immigration enforcement across the country. ICEBlock, the most widely used of the ICE-tracking apps in Apple's app store, is among the apps that have been taken down. Bondi said her office reached out to Apple on Thursday demanding that they remove ICEBlock" and claiming that it is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs. Apple soon complied, sending an email Thursday to the app's creator, Joshua