Border Enforcement

The enforcement of immigration laws is a complex and hotly-debated topic. Learn more about the costs of immigration enforcement and the ways in which the U.S. can enforce our immigration laws humanely and in a manner that ensures due process.

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

  • Fact Sheet

An Unlikely Couple: The Similar Approaches to Border Enforcement in H.R. 1417 and S. 744

Publication Date: 
July 24, 2013
The House of Representatives and the Senate have embarked upon very different paths when it comes to immigration reform. On June 27, the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill—...
  • Fact Sheet

Lost in the Shadow of the Fence

Publication Date: 
May 9, 2013
The Important Economic Relationship of Mexico and the United States Mexico is the United States’ third largest trading partner, after Canada and China, in terms of total trade in goods, while the U.S...
  • Fact Sheet

Enforcement Without Focus: Non-Violent Offenders Caught in the US Immigration Enforcement System

Publication Date: 
April 2, 2013
Since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created in 2003, its immigration-enforcement agencies—Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—have been...
  • Fact Sheet

A Decade of Rising Immigration Enforcement

Publication Date: 
January 8, 2013
With roughly 11 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States, some question whether the nation’s immigration laws are being seriously enforced. In truth, due to legal and policy...
  • Special Report

Border Patrol Agents as Interpreters Along the Northern Border: Unwise Policy, Illegal Practice

Publication Date: 
September 25, 2012
Advocates along the Northern Border report a recent, sharp increase in the use of U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agents to provide interpretation services to state and local law enforcement officers and...
  • Fact Sheet

Authority of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agents: An Overview

Publication Date: 
February 23, 2012
As federal officers, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents may only exercise the authority granted under federal statutes and regulations. This fact sheet provides a snapshot of search, interrogation...
  • Fact Sheet

Fiscally Irresponsible: Immigration Enforcement without Reform Wastes Taxpayer Dollars

Publication Date: 
October 19, 2011
Many political pundits, GOP presidential aspirants, and Members of Congress want to have it both ways when it comes to federal spending on immigration. On the one hand, there is much talk about the...
  • Research and Analysis

Guns, Drugs, and Money: Tackling the Real Threats to Border Security

Publication Date: 
September 12, 2011
The external borders of the United States matter to security, but how and in what ways is neither automatic nor obvious. The current assumption is that borders defend the national interior against...
  • Special Report

How to Fix a Broken Border: A Three Part Series

Publication Date: 
September 1, 2011
If the United States wants effective border security, then more effective law‐enforcement measures must be taken.
  • Special Report

Back to the Border: A Historical Comparison of U.S. Border Politics

Publication Date: 
September 2, 2010
By Katherine Benton-Cohen and...
  • Litigation

Challenging the Expansion of Expedited Removal

The Trump administration wants to increase its power to deport immigrants without a fair day in court through expedited removal. We’re suing.
  • Advocacy

Why the Government Should End the Migrant Protection Protocols Policy

February 6, 2019
The Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP)—also commonly known as the "Remain in Mexico" policy—will put asylum seekers at grave risk of harm by forcing them to remain in Mexico pending their request for protection. Due to these concerns, immigration advocates submitted a letter to the government with first-hand testimonies of ten families attesting to the violence and harm–including rape, beatings, kidnappings, and ransom–they faced on the Mexican side of our southern border.
  • Advocacy

The Illegal and Systematic Practice of Coercing Separated Families Must Be Investigated

August 23, 2018

The Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy led to not only to the forcible separation of thousands of children from their parents, but the extreme duress and coercion of...

  • FOIA Litigation

FOIA Seeks Information Regarding CBP Responses to Complaints of Officer Abuse

This lawsuit seeks to compel U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to release records relating to CBP’s complaint process and actions taken in response to complaints made to CBP concerning its agents and officers since January 1, 2012.
  • Legal Resources and Litigation

Statement for Senate Committee on the Judiciary Hearing “Oversight of Immigration Enforcement and Family Reunification Efforts.”

July 31, 2018
The American Immigration Council submitted a written statement to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary for a July 31, 2018 hearing on “Oversight of Immigration Enforcement and Family Reunification Efforts.”
  • Litigation

Demanding Answers from ICE and CBP Regarding Their Aggressive Immigration Enforcement Tactics

The American Immigration Council filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with ICE and CBP on October 13, 2017, seeking data on enforcement actions and outcomes since January 2016. With this data, the Council will be able to assess who is being targeted for removal and what the consequences are of the current enforcement framework.
  • FOIA Litigation

Uncovering the Government’s Internal Family Separation Policies, Guidance, and Data

This lawsuit seeks to compel government agencies to produce documents regarding family separation policies.
  • FOIA Litigation

U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Port of Entry Practices FOIA Lawsuit

In the year and a half since the FOIA request was filed, CBP largely failed to provide any records in response to the request. On June 11, 2018, the Council, represented by O’Melveny & Myers LLP, filed a lawsuit to compel DHS and CBP to comply with FOIA and to release additional records related to the 2016 request.
  • Litigation

Holding CBP Accountable for Turning Away Asylum Seeker and Falsifying Paper Trail

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers all too frequently deny individuals fleeing persecution and torture their right to seek protection in the United States, issue summary removal orders against them, and then falsify documents to support their illegal actions.
  • Legal Resources and Litigation

Statement for House Homeland Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security Hearing “Stopping the Daily Border Caravan: Time to Build a Policy Wall”

May 22, 2018

The American Immigration Council submitted a written statement to the House Homeland Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security for a May 22, 2018 hearing on “Stopping the Daily Border Caravan:...

  • Blog

Texas’ Proposed ‘Border Protection Unit’ Doubles Down on Failed Deterrence Policies

April 21, 2023

With all eyes on the U.S.-Mexico border ahead of the end of Title 42 on May 11, Texas lawmakers are pushing to increase the state’s role in enforcing federal immigration laws—despite Supreme Court...

  • Blog

The Border Patrol’s Inhumanity Has Reached New Heights

April 20, 2023

A family with a baby, waiting outside in the cold overnight. A pregnant woman, enduring the elements for multiple days. An Afghan who worked for the U.S. Army as a translator, hoping for food and...

  • Blog

GOP’s Extreme Border Bill Rejects Solutions and Embraces Ending Asylum

April 19, 2023

On Monday, April 17, the House GOP introduced its first comprehensive border bill of the 118th Congress. The bill comes after months of disagreement within the caucus surrounding legislative...

  • Blog

Biden’s Reviving Phone-Booth Asylum. Here’s Why It Was a Disaster

April 10, 2023

The Biden administration is yet again turning to the Trump playbook as it tries to slap together a border crackdown to succeed the end of the Title 42 “public health” order next month. The latest...

  • Blog

Deadly Detention Center Fire Is a Reminder: Both the US and Mexico Are Failing Migrants

March 29, 2023

On Monday night, 39 migrants died, and another 27 were seriously injured, in a fire in a Mexican detention center in Ciudad Juarez. The migrants—most of them from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras...

  • Blog

Where the ‘Migrant Protection Protocols’ Stand, Four Years After Going Into Effect

March 24, 2023

Last week, a federal court in California issued a decision allowing asylum seekers and other plaintiffs to continue their legal challenge to the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” program, officially (...

  • Blog

Three Years of Title 42

March 17, 2023

In March 2020, the world came to an unfamiliar halt. The COVID-19 pandemic was no longer a looming and distant concern. Events rapidly fell off calendars, schools shuttered, and those who could...

  • Blog

This Is Pretty Simple, Mr. President: Don’t Restart Family Detention

March 7, 2023

The Biden administration is reportedly planning to detain large numbers of immigrant families again this spring. This is part of the administration’s plan to replace Title 42 with a new policy...

  • Blog

CBP One Is Riddled With Flaws That Make the App Inaccessible to Many Asylum Seekers  

February 28, 2023

In January and February of this year, the Biden administration announced new policies to process individuals seeking asylum at ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border. A key component of these...

  • Blog

Supreme Court Pauses Oral Arguments in Title 42 Case – What’s next?

February 17, 2023

In December 2022, the Supreme Court stepped in to keep Title 42 (the pandemic health policy that has allowed the United States to carry out over 2.5 million expulsions since March 2020) in effect...

  • Press Release

Court Says Turnbacks of Tens of Thousands of Asylum Seekers Are Unlawful

September 2, 2021
A federal judge declared unlawful the U.S. government’s turnbacks of asylum seekers arriving at ports of entry along the U.S southern border. The court ruled that the United States is required by law to inspect and process asylum seekers when they present themselves at ports of entry, and condemned the practice of denying access to the asylum process through metering and similar practices.
  • Press Release

Immigrant Rights Advocates Urge Court to Permanently End Trump-Era Policy that Turned Back Tens of Thousands of Asylum Seekers

September 1, 2021
Immigrant rights advocates released a statement after presenting oral arguments before U.S. District Court of the Southern District of California, where they urged the court to declare unlawful and permanently end the Trump-era turnback policy.
  • Press Release

The U.S. Supreme Court Decides to Send Asylum Seekers to Danger

August 24, 2021
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to stay a ruling from a lower Texas court that would force the Biden administration to revive the Migrant Protection Protocols.
  • Press Release

Advocates Urge Supreme Court to Stop Revival of Migrant Protection Protocols

August 23, 2021
Immigration groups and judges urged the U.S. Supreme Court in an amicus brief to stay a Texas court ruling that would force the Biden administration to revive the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) – an illegal policy that forced asylum seekers to await their U.S. court dates in perilous conditions in Mexico.
  • Press Release

Federal Judge Blocks ICE Enforcement Guidelines and Attempts to Upend Prosecutorial Discretion

August 19, 2021
A Texas judge blocked the Biden administration’s immigration enforcement priorities. The decision was issued in a case challenging ICE’s enforcement activities outside the scope laid out in the Feb. 18 enforcement memo.
  • Press Release

Advocates Submit Brief to Stop the Revival of Migrant Protection Protocols

August 18, 2021
The Council and partner immigration groups and former immigration judges filed an amicus brief to stop the reinstatement of the Migrant Protection Protocols.
  • Press Release

Lawsuit Seeks to Advance Public Understanding of ICE and CBP Enforcement Operations and Practices

June 21, 2021
The American Immigration Council filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against DHS and its two primary immigration enforcement agencies requesting information about the obscure network of databases, information systems, and data sharing methods that are largely shielded from public view.
  • Press Release

Biden Budget Request on Immigration is a Missed Opportunity for Meaningful Change

May 28, 2021
The Biden administration disclosed today a $54.2 billion budget request for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for fiscal year 2022. The request is is deeply disappointing and a missed opportunity to set immigration enforcement in the United States on a new path.
  • Press Release

Facts About the Current Situation at the Border

March 23, 2021
The nation has turned its attention to the current situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, including the rise in immigrant children in U.S. government custody. Much of the conversation has focused on a supposed surge in arrivals under the Biden administration, but the current increase began well before President Biden took office.
  • Press Release

US Government Records Reveal Expanded Methods to Rush Deportations at Border

January 27, 2021
Newly released government records reveal U.S. immigration agencies' efforts in 2019 to rapidly deport thousands of people from the United States through the little-known Electronic Nationality Verification program.
  • Fact Sheet

The “Migrant Protection Protocols”

Publication Date: 
February 1, 2024
Under the “Migrant Protection Protocols”, individuals who arrive at the southern border and ask for asylum (either at a port of entry or after crossing the border between ports of entry) are given...
  • Blog

Biden Administration Can Remove Texas’ Razor Wire Barrier at the Border, Supreme Court Rules

January 23, 2024

Buoy barriers with chainsaw devices in the Rio Grande river. Coils of concertina wire along the riverbank. Armored Humvees blocking access roads. Piles of dirt rendering gates unusable. Governor...

  • Blog

Biden v. Texas – A Legal Showdown on the Southern Border Wages On 

January 18, 2024

Written by Chelsie Kramer, Texas State Organizer and Emma Winger, Deputy Legal Director  Texas is once again making national headlines after a woman and two children drowned in the Rio Grande...

  • Comments

Council and Partners Oppose CBP's Proposal to Dispose of Medical Records of People in CBP Custody

Publication Date: 
January 18, 2024
The Council, along with the ACLU National Prison Project and the Texas Civil Rights Project, led efforts to oppose U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) proposal to destroy records of medical...
  • Blog

White House Leans Into Trump-Era Immigration Policy Changes to Get Ukraine Aid

December 13, 2023

The Biden administration signaled on December 12 that it is willing to make disastrous—and permanent—changes to asylum and immigration policy to obtain temporary military aid for Ukraine, Israel,...

  • Fact Sheet

A Primer on Expedited Removal

Publication Date: 
December 12, 2023
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.
  • Blog

Biden’s Emergency Funding Proposal Seeks $14 Billion for Immigration System From Congress

October 25, 2023

On October 20, the Biden administration renewed its request for emergency supplemental funding for border management from Congress. This new $14 billion request represents more than a $10 billion...

  • Press Release

Immigrant Rights Groups Sue for Information on Asylum Turnbacks

October 18, 2023
The American Immigration Council and the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS) have filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit to compel the Biden administration to release information on its new policy of turning back people who request asylum without first obtaining an appointment via the government’s CBP One smartphone app.
  • Blog

CBP’s Own Website Provides Insight Into Its Agents’ Corruption and Misconduct

October 6, 2023

Corruption within U.S. Custom and Border Protection’s workforce often has been hidden behind bureaucratic red tape. But what was once shrouded in mystery is now plainly available—on CBP’s own...

  • Blog

New Report Uncovers CBP’s Role in Policing Racial Justice Protests in Summer 2020

September 21, 2023

Co-Authors: Emily Creighton and Tsion Gurmu In the summer of 2020, after George Floyd’s murder, racial justice protests took hold in cities throughout the country. The massive mobilization...

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