Interior Enforcement

Our legal system rests upon the principle that everyone is entitled to due process of law and a meaningful opportunity to be heard. But for far too long, the immigration system has failed to provide noncitizens with a system of justice that lives up to this standard. Learn about ways in which the immigration system could ensure that all noncitizens have a fair day in court.  

Recent Features

Why Caution is Needed Before Hiring Additional Border Patrol Agents and ICE Officers

There are serious concerns that rapid expansion will bring about a resurgence of problems in the Border Patrol and also cause similar problems in ICE. 

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FACT SHEET
A Primer on Expedited Removal

Expedited removal is a process by which low-level immigration officers can quickly deport certain noncitizens who are undocumented or have committed fraud or misrepresentation. 

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All Interior Enforcement Content

  • Fact Sheet

The Ones They Leave Behind: Deportation of Lawful Permanent Residents Harm U.S. Citizen Children

Publication Date: 
April 26, 2010
Many people believe that only illegal immigrants are deported. However, thousands of long-term legal immigrants are deported each year. While some are deported for committing serious crimes, many...
  • Special Report

DHS Progress Report: The Challenge of Reform

Publication Date: 
March 2, 2010
The month of March marks the seventh anniversary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its immigration agencies. It also marks the end of a sweeping internal review ordered by Secretary...
  • Fact Sheet

Protecting Children in the Aftermath of Immigration Raids

Publication Date: 
February 22, 2010
Study Finds Significant Behavioral Changes in Children After Raids Children of unauthorized immigrant parents are often forgotten in debates over immigration reform. There are roughly 5.5 million...
  • Research and Analysis

The Criminal Alien Program: Immigration Enforcement in Travis County, Texas

Publication Date: 
February 17, 2010
The Criminal Alien Program (CAP) is a program administered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that screens inmates in prisons and jails, identifies deportable non-citizens, and places them...
  • Research and Analysis

A Stimulus for Fear: Anti-Immigration Groups Raise Specter of Undocumented Construction Workers and Call for Ensnaring All U.S. Workers in

Publication Date: 
March 9, 2009
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), as well as the Heritage Foundation, have recently claimed that up to 300,000 construction jobs...
  • Research and Analysis

Balancing Federal, State, and Local Priorities in Police-Immigrant Relations

Publication Date: 
June 1, 2008
Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, changes in federal, state, and local law-enforcement priorities and practices have had a profound impact on America’s Muslims, Arabs, and South...
  • Fact Sheet

Money for Nothing: Immigration Enforcement without Immigration Reform Doesn’t Work

Publication Date: 
May 22, 2008
While the U.S. government has poured billions upon billions of dollars into immigration enforcement, the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States has increased dramatically. Rather than...
  • Special Report

The Social Security Administration No-Match Program: Inefficient, Ineffective, and Costly

Publication Date: 
May 1, 2008
This report provides an overview of SSA’s no-match letter program, a summary of DHS’s new supplemental proposed rule regarding no-match letters, and an overview of the unintended consequences of no-...
  • Research and Analysis

Administration Announces New "No-Match" Regulations: DHS Regs Pass Burdens to Social Security Administration, Small Businesses, and Citizens

Publication Date: 
March 25, 2008
Provides a summary of the new proposed "no-match" regulations and their harmful impact on workers, employers, and the Social Security Administration.
  • Research and Analysis

Targets of Suspicion: The Impact of Post-9/11 Policies on Muslims, Arabs and South Asians in the US

Publication Date: 
May 1, 2004
In response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. government began a campaign of aggressive immigration enforcement targeted at Muslims, Arabs and South Asians. Rather than first...
  • Blog

The Trump Administration Is Sending SWAT Teams Into So-Called Sanctuary Jurisdictions

February 18, 2020

The Trump administration is continuing to wage an escalating war on so-called sanctuary jurisdictions across the country. This is part of an ongoing campaign to coerce state and local governments...

  • Blog

Trump Bars New Yorkers From Traveler Programs Over State’s Refusal to Cooperate With ICE

February 10, 2020

The Trump administration is cracking down on New York over its refusal to share residents’ driver’s license records with immigration authorities. Now, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has...

  • Blog

Privacy Concerns Grow as Federal Immigration Agencies Use More Surveillance Technology

October 24, 2019

Federal immigration officials are beginning to expand their use of surveillance technology to collect information on immigrants. As officials gather more tools in their arsenal—from DNA collection...

  • Blog

Prosecutions from Workplace Immigration Raids Overwhelm Mississippi Legal System

October 22, 2019

The consequences of record-breaking workplace immigration raids are still overwhelming the legal system in southern Mississippi. After the Trump administration repeatedly threatened mass raids...

  • Blog

Federal Court Blocks Error-Prone ICE Deportation Program

October 10, 2019

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested millions of people based on unreliable electronic databases. In a recent court decision with nationwide impact, a federal judge in...

  • Blog

Federal Judge Blocks the Expansion of Fast-Track Deportation Program, Expedited Removal

September 30, 2019

A federal judge blocked the expansion of a fast-track deportation program, known as “expedited removal,” minutes before the government said it would begin implementing its expansion on September...

  • Blog

ICE Plans to Build ‘Hyper-Realistic’ Tactical Training Facility That Can Simulate ‘Urban Warfare’

September 18, 2019

At a new training facility at Fort Benning in Georgia, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is reportedly planning to build “hyper-realistic” simulations of homes, schools, courtrooms,...

  • Blog

ICE Targets Mississippi Food Plants in Largest Set of Immigration Raids

August 8, 2019

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted coordinated raids in several small Mississippi towns on Wednesday. With reports of 680 arrests, the raids may be the largest ICE worksite...

  • Blog

Trump Administration’s Plan to Subject Hundreds of Thousands to Fast-Track Deportations Faces New Lawsuit

August 6, 2019

The Trump administration recently announced it would start applying a fast-tracked deportation process known as “expedited removal” to hundreds of thousands more people than ever before. People...

  • Blog

US Citizens Caught in Immigration Dragnet As Enforcement Gets More Aggressive

August 1, 2019

There is a disturbing trend in aggressive immigration enforcement that is appearing more and more recently: the detention of U.S. citizens. There are clear indications that U.S. immigration agents...

  • Press Release

Georgia State Legislature Pursuing Budget Busting Solutions to Immigration

March 1, 2011

Washington D.C. – In the face of a $1.7 billion budget shortfall in fiscal year 2011, Georgia state legis

  • Press Release

E-Verify: Burdens Businesses and Displaces U.S. Workers

February 10, 2011

Washington D.C. - Today, the House Immigration Subcommittee held its second hearing of the new session.

  • Press Release

The American Immigration Council Addresses Problems with Draft Immigration Detainer Policy

October 5, 2010

Washington D.C. - The American Immigration Council has joined a number of organizations in formally

  • Press Release

Second Grader Speaks to First Lady on behalf of 5.5 Million Children in the U.S.

May 20, 2010

Washington D.C. - In the midst of a loud, long and contentious battle over immigration, a soft voice emerged yesterday which spoke volumes about our nation's broken immigration sys

  • Press Release

Enforcement Gone Wild

April 2, 2010

Washington, D.C. - Today, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued a long-awaited report that offers a damning critique of the 287(g) prog

  • FOIA Litigation

Council Sues to Obtain ICE’s Reports on Enforcement Actions and Removals

This FOIA lawsuit seeks to compel DHS and ICE to disclose the weekly reports ICE was required to produce about their enforcement activities and removals pursuant to the DHS’ January 20 and February 18 memos establishing new immigration enforcement priorities.
  • FOIA Litigation

Council Sues to Press for Records About the Treatment of Black Immigrants in Detention

This FOIA suit seeks to compel ICE to release information about conditions, treatment, and outcomes in eight immigration detention facilities in the U.S. South.
  • Blog

DHS Issues New Memo Restricting Enforcement Activities in ‘Protected Areas’

October 28, 2021

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued “Guidelines for Enforcement Actions in or Near Protected Areas”—a new memo that provides a framework for when and where DHS law enforcement...

  • Blog

Biden Administration Halts Mass Worksite Raids By ICE

October 13, 2021

The Biden administration just took a significant step toward reining in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued a...

  • Letters

Council and AILA Follow Up with DHS Regarding a Functioning System of Discretionary Release from ICE Detention

Publication Date: 
October 5, 2021
The Council and AILA, through their Immigration Justice Campaign followed up on their March 25, 2021 letter to the DHS and ICE with examples of unfair denials of requests for release at ICE...
  • Blog

New Enforcement Priorities Show Some Improvement, Maintain Old Framework

October 1, 2021

On September 30, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued the long-awaited new set of enforcement priorities, entitled “Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil...

  • Blog

Court Allows ICE to Use Enforcement Priorities Set by the Biden Administration

September 16, 2021

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday stayed a significant part of an earlier decision by the Northern District of Texas that would have blocked the implementation of the Biden...

  • Amicus Briefs

Amicus Brief Filed with Supreme Court of Michigan in Support of State FOIA Request in Wrongful Detention Case

Publication Date: 
September 10, 2021
In the amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court of Michigan, the Council and partners reject Calhoun County's position to withhold records that otherwise would be released under the Michigan state FOIA.
  • FOIA

Seeking Records About ICE’s Compliance with DHS’s Enforcement Priorities

This FOIA requests effort seeks records on ICE reports about its enforcement activities, whether the people arrested by ICE fit into the DHS’s enforcement priorities, and information about instances when officers pursued enforcement actions against individuals who would not be considered priorities for immigration enforcement.
  • Fact Sheet

Prosecuting People for Coming to the United States

Publication Date: 
August 23, 2021
Over the last two decades, the federal government increasingly has utilized the criminal courts to punish people for immigration violations. This overview provides basic information about entry-...

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