Border Enforcement

While updating our immigration system has been a slow process, over the last decade, there have been efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation and the DREAM Act. Other reform efforts include executive actions such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA). Learn more about the ways America can upgrade its immigration system.

Recent Features

TESTIMONY
Providing Perspective on the Application of Immigration Law at the US Southwest Border

The reality at the U.S. southern border is complicated. Dive into the role and authority of the executive branch and immigration enforcement agencies. 

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FACT SHEET
Rising Border Encounters in 2021: An Overview and Analysis

For generations, the United States has seen periodic cycles of migration. The arrival of high numbers of asylum seekers is a humanitarian protection management challenge, not a security challenge.

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All Border Enforcement Content

  • Blog

Immigrants Are Now Five Times More Likely to Die Crossing the Border

August 7, 2017

The recent deaths of ten migrants who suffocated in the back of a tractor trailer as they were allegedly being smuggled into the United States has brought renewed attention to the grave risks...

  • Blog

Border Patrol Abuses Rarely Result in Any Serious Disciplinary Action

August 2, 2017

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the nation’s largest federal law-enforcement agency, has a long history of violating constitutional and other rights of both immigrants and U.S. citizens...

  • Blog

House Commits 1.6 Billion Taxpayer Dollars to Elusive Border Wall

July 31, 2017

The House of Representatives passed a spending bill last week which included $1.6 billion for expansion of a southern border wall. The bill, which passed largely along party lines, will now move...

  • Blog

Six Months of Immigration Enforcement Under the New Administration

July 21, 2017

Now that we have passed the six-month mile marker of the new administration, the wheels of immigration enforcement have had a chance to settle into their new rhythms. Enforcement targets have...

  • Blog

House Committee Funds Administration’s Super-Sized Immigration Enforcement

July 19, 2017

In the first week of his presidency, through executive orders, the president laid out harsh proposals for immigration enforcement and border security. However, much of what the president proposes...

  • Blog

Private Land Is Being Seized in Texas to Build the Border Wall

July 14, 2017

The House of Representatives unveiled their Fiscal Year 2018 budget for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) this week, which allocates $1.6 billion to begin construction of a border wall...

  • Blog

Groups Sue U.S. Government for Turning Away Asylum Seekers

July 12, 2017

Men, women, and children fleeing persecution, grave violence, and even death arrive daily at Ports of Entry (POE) all along the U.S.-Mexico border and present themselves to U.S. Customs and Border...

  • Blog

Parents Risk Prosecution for Helping Children Seek Safety in the United States

July 6, 2017

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials recently confirmed their plans to initiate criminal prosecutions and deportation proceedings against immigrant parents and guardians who help...

  • Blog

How to Get the Immigration System in Line With Our Nation’s Values and Interests

June 27, 2017

Over the past two decades, much of the immigration policy debate has focused on issues related to immigration enforcement. In fact, many argue that “enforcement first”—the notion that we must...

  • Blog

In the Days of Deportation, All Immigrants Are Targets

June 22, 2017

Since the Trump administration announced its crackdown on undocumented immigrants, stories of individuals abruptly deported have pervaded the news. The accounts of longtime residents who have...

  • Press Release

Parents and Children Torn Apart by Family Separation Policy Sue the Trump Administration

September 19, 2019
Five asylum-seeking mothers and their children who were torn apart under the Trump administration’s family separation policy filed a lawsuit against the United States for the cruel treatment and agony U.S. immigration agencies inflicted on them. The five parents and their children, who were as young as five at the time of the separation, claim that the U.S. government intentionally subjected them to extraordinary trauma that will have lifelong implications.
  • Blog

Why It’s Bad to Force Asylum Seekers to Seek Protection Elsewhere

September 12, 2019

The Supreme Court issued an emergency ruling on Wednesday allowing the Trump administration to implement a ban on asylum seekers at the southern land border. The ban applies to people who...

  • Blog

Chaos and Dysfunction at the Border: The Remain in Mexico Program Firsthand

September 9, 2019

The first thing many people forcibly returned to Mexico tell you is that they’re afraid. Afraid of the cartels, afraid of Mexican immigration officials, and afraid of the months of uncertainty....

  • Blog

Which Military Construction Projects Are Losing Funds to Build Trump’s Wall?

September 6, 2019

The Trump administration is raiding the Department of Defense’s budget to fund construction of its border wall. According to Pentagon officials, 127 military construction projects will be canceled...

  • Fact Sheet

The High Cost and Diminishing Returns of a Border Wall

Publication Date: 
September 6, 2019
The fact is that building a fortified and impenetrable wall between the United States and Mexico is unnecessary, complicated, ineffective, expensive, and would create a host of additional problems.
  • Blog

Investigation Demanded as Medical Care for Detained Immigrant Children Worsens

September 4, 2019

Border Patrol agents placed a detained 9-year-old girl with a kidney disease at high risk of a urinary tract infection by not allowing her to shower or change her underwear for five days. Agents...

  • Blog

Tent Immigration Courthouses Are Being Built at the Texas Border

August 29, 2019

Immigration judges from across the country will soon be reassigned from their normal caseload to  preside over thousands of immigration cases along the U.S.-Mexico border, reportedly in an effort...

  • Blog

US Government May Be Illegally Transporting Would-Be Asylum Seekers Back to Danger

August 26, 2019

Over 2,000 people from Central American who were seeking to live in the United States have reportedly given up and accepted a “free ride” home under a new, controversial program funded by the U.S...

  • Blog

Trump’s Latest Asylum Ban Goes Into Effect in Texas and New Mexico

August 20, 2019

The Trump administration’s latest asylum ban went into effect in New Mexico and Texas—but not California and Arizona—on Friday after a ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling...

  • Blog

Immigration Enforcement Expanding Its Use of Mass Surveillance

August 14, 2019

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is preparing to expand its use of facial recognition technology to screen everyone entering the United States through borders and ports of entry. The...

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