ICE contended that forcing Contra Costa County to divest from cooperation in immigrant detention would harm the detainees — an argument similar to those heard during the fight for divestment from apartheid in South Africa.
A spike in immigration prosecutions comes only a few months after Justice Department data showed that the Trump administration has overseen a 20-year low in white-collar criminal prosecutions.
Attorneys are gearing up for an intensification of a brutal, two-year fight to protect immigrant communities from an increasingly punitive federal government and its enforcement agencies.
Co-published by Fast Company
Republican immigration reform proposals may be dead, but Republican guest worker proposals live on.
This week the high court upheld the Trump administration’s travel ban that barred nearly all travelers from five mostly Muslim countries.
Co-published by Newsweek
In a rush to create detention space, ICE has used opaque noncompetitive contracts called Intergovernmental Service Agreements to quickly bring beds online. A result has been the government’s inability to impose accountability standards on its sprawling immigrant-prison system.
The medical care Olubunmi Joshua received for high blood pressure, anemia, anxiety, dental pain and other conditions was delayed, denied or mishandled by her detention center’s staff, ICE reported.
After complaining of chest pains and dizziness, Igor Zyazin was given an EKG, but not a blood test to determine if he had suffered a heart attack. The next day he was dead.
The Wiesenthal Center called on “our leaders to solve the humanitarian crisis at hand” — without naming Donald Trump or Jeff Sessions.
Scenes from a chaotic week in the Trump administration’s border crackdown.
Co-published by International Business Times
Before Stephen Miller, who is said to be an architect of Trump’s zero-tolerance border policy, began espousing far-right views as a teenager, his family belonged to Santa Monica’s progressive Temple Beth Shir Shalom.
Seven Republican congressional districts in California went for Hillary Clinton in 2016. CA-4 was not one of them but Democrats are hoping to unseat Tom McClintock in November.
Co-published by International Business Times
Attorneys say private-prison company CoreCivic is engaged in a “deprivation scheme” aimed at forcing detainees to keep the detention center running at a fraction of the cost of hiring local workers.
Protest marches, which also commemorated the birthday of UFW co-founder Cesar Chavez, follow several months of UFW activity opposing immigration enforcement, and of organizing workers to defend themselves against it.
Co-published by International Business Times
Vietnamese immigrants thought they were safe. Now they fear deportation.
Greyhound allows U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents to carry out random searches for undocumented immigrants on their buses without a warrant. The ACLU wants passengers left alone.
Co-published by the Daily Beast
Astrid, an eighth grader in Easton, Pennsylvania, awoke one morning last month to armed immigration agents standing above her bed. She’s been held in a detention facility ever since.
Co-published by International Business Times
The missteps and errors of ICE and its contractors have led to concerns about the safety of immigrant detainees with mental health issues.
Immigrant detainees represent more than $38 million a year for CoreCivic, a for-profit prison company that is the largest employer in one of Georgia’s poorest counties.
Co-published by International Business Times
A Capital & Main examination of Georgia’s Stewart Detention Center reveals new details about events surrounding the suicide of a young detainee, plus an interactive map providing information about each of the 179 immigrant detainees who have died in custody since 2003.
State officials argue that the state’s sanctuary laws make Californians safer. The acting ICE director argues the laws have made immigration enforcement more dangerous.
Over the years, vigils at one immigrant-detention center in Richmond, California have changed, with some churches providing sanctuary to migrant families threatened with deportation, and raising funds for bonds and other forms of emergency support for detainees.
A clash between two Americas can be seen in the story of Haitian immigrants. One is a welcoming, pluralist America; the other is the nativist country that birthed Donald Trump.
Co-published by The American Prospect
An undercount will lessen California’s political clout.
Co-published by The American Prospect
New proposed restrictions mean that immigrants are more liable to be turned away at points of entry, or have their applications to extend their stays in the country be denied.
Of California’s roughly 223,000 DACA recipients, an estimated 5,000 are working teachers, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank.
Each day that Congress fails to find a solution for Dreamers, another 122 DACA recipients lose their legal status, according to the Center for American Progress.
Photographer Ted Soqui documents life in a Haitian refugee center on the outskirts of Tijuana. Barred from entering the U.S., the Haitians live near a polluted stream but are building new living spaces on a church’s property.
The death of an undocumented laborer raises questions about detention translation protocols for non-English speakers, delays in providing needed care and inadequate medical staffing.
Capital & Main has launched a new investigative project examining detention deaths, just as ICE signals a move toward even less openness than it has previously displayed.