American Immigration Council leads coalition letter to DHS requesting transparency into Family Expedited Removal Program

The American Immigration Council joined 45 other organizations in calling on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to provide more transparency into the Family Expedited Removal Program (FERM). The letter calls for DHS to:

1. Publish and maintain online a standing list of all FERM program locations, including point of contacts for FERM enrollees at local ERO, USCIS Asylum Office, and ISAP offices;
2. Include data specific to the FERM program in ICE’s biweekly detention statistics;
3. Include data specific to the FERM program in USCIS’s semi-monthly credible and reasonable fear statistics; and
4. Publish monthly cohort data on the FERM program through DHS’s Office of Immigration Statistics, including data similar to prior cohort disaggregating FERM outcomes and removals by cohort, representation status, nationality, family status, and Indigenous nation.