Featured Press Releases

March 29, 2023 – Today, Representatives Jesús "Chuy" García (IL-04), Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), and Greg Casar (TX-35) reintroduced the New Way Forward Act, a crucial piece of legislation that is a blueprint for beginning to write racism out of our immigration laws.
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March 7, 2023 – The National Immigration Project and Law Offices of Stacy Tolchin today filed a complaint in the United States District Court of the Central District of California under the Federal Tort Claims Act against ICE for the death of Martin Vargas Arellano on behalf of his son Martin Vargas.
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March 7, 2023 – Yesterday, The New York Times reported that the Biden Administration is "considering" a return to the cruel and abusive practice of detaining migrant families. The National Immigration Project condemns this practice and news of its possible revival in the strongest possible terms.
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January 13, 2023 – The National Immigration Project commends the Biden administration's move to ensure that workers who are potential victims or witnesses in pending labor investigations will temporarily live free from fear of deportation from the United States.
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January 11, 2023 – In 2022, as we marked 20 years of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the ACLU of Louisiana and immigrants' rights coalition partners - National Immigration Project (NIPNLG), Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (RFK), and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) - launched a legal rights initiative designed to provide people detained in Louisiana with knowledge about their right to seek relief before federal courts through the writ of habeas corpus. In conjunction with Covington & Burling LLP, the group developed and distributed "Pro Se" materials in eight languages to detention centers.
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December 29, 2022 – Earlier this week the United States Supreme Court decided to allow Title 42 to remain in effect, continuing a cruel and unjustifiable policy that will lead to further death and suffering for those fleeing harm. This move is the result of a last-minute request by states led by Republican governors who are motivated by anti-immigrant fervor.
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November 4, 2022 – More than 130 immigration, criminal justice, and civil rights organizations released a letter today urging the Biden administration to include immigrants in the pardon process. The letter is a response to President Biden's recent marijuana convictions pardon announcement, which explicitly excludes many immigrants and omits affirmative measures to ensure that all immigrants get meaningful relief from the immigration consequences that can follow marijuana convictions.
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October 6, 2022 – Today President Biden pardoned thousands of people who were convicted on federal charges of simple possession of marijuana from 1992 to 2021. While these pardons are long overdue and necessary, they regrettably fail to protect many immigrants from negative implications of marijuana-related activities on their immigration status.
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October 3, 2022 – he primary case seeking the release of immigrants detained in Maryland during the COVID-19 pandemic, Coreas v. Bounds, was dismissed without prejudice. Through this case, immigrants were supported by a coalition of groups, playing a crucial part in the national effort to protect detained individuals from COVID-19 and supporting the successful advocacy efforts to close all immigrant detention facilities in Maryland.
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August 16, 2022 – Today, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta (Advancing Justice-Atlanta), the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild (NIPNLG) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed an appeal on behalf of Kelvin Silva, a 45-year-old father and North Carolina resident who was deported on Feb. 15 to the Dominican Republic after growing up and living in the U.S. since he was 11 years old.
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August 9, 2022 – More than 40 social justice organizations sent a letter today to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) demanding an investigation into DHS' operations related to the University of Farmington and redress for the students who were targeted. In conjunction with the letter, attorneys representing the students also filed a civil rights complaint with the agency.
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July 26, 2022 – Today, Innovation Law Lab, a non-profit organization that seeks to advance refugee and immigrant justice, filed its appeal brief at the Fifth Circuit in Louisiana v. CDC, a case brought in the Western District of Louisiana by Arizona, Texas, and 22 non-border states seeking to stop the Biden Administration's termination of the Title 42 order, which has effectively shut down access to asylum at the southern border.
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July 22, 2022 – In light of the Supreme Court's rights-stripping decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, today, 156 immigration, criminal justice, and civil rights organizations sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) urging the agency to immediately issue clear guidance to prevent the Dobbs decision from adding another layer of danger for noncitizens who exercise control over their bodies and their reproductive futures and people who help them seek the same freedom.
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July 6, 2022 – Today, a settlement agreement on claims for injunctive relief was reached in Santos Garcia et al. v. Wolf et al., a case filed by the National Immigration Project (NIPNLG), Legal Aid Justice Center (LAJC), and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP on behalf of fifteen immigrants detained at the ICA-Farmville Detention Center during the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak at the facility.
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June 30, 2022 –Today the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Biden v. Texas that the Biden administration acted within its legal authority when it terminated the Trump-era so-called Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), or Remain in Mexico policy. The case, brought by the states of Texas and Missouri, challenged the Biden administration's formal termination of the callous policy last summer.
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June 23, 2022 –The Ready to Stay Administrative Advocacy Working Group (RTSAAWG) released today a new report to provide the Biden administration feedback on its progress breaking down the barriers to immigration services and benefits erected by the Trump administration.
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June 6, 2022 – Innovation Law Lab, a non-profit organization that seeks to advance refugee and immigrant justice, has filed a motion to stay the nationwide scope of the injunction issued in Arizona v. CDC, a case brought in the Western District of Louisiana by Arizona, Texas, and 22 non-border states seeking to stop the Biden administration's termination of the Title 42 order.
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May 20, 2022 – A federal judge in Louisiana issued a ruling today that halts the CDC and Biden administration's move to end Title 42 on Monday, May 23. In Arizona, et al. v. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, et al. (Arizona v. CDC), Arizona, Texas, and a group of states - most of which have no international border - sought and were granted a nationwide injunction to prevent the termination of the border policy that has barred migrants from seeking asylum for more than two years.
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May 10, 2022 – A family seeking asylum at the California-Mexico border and Innovation Law Lab, a non-profit organization that seeks to advance refugee and immigrant justice, filed a Motion to Intervene in Arizona v. CDC. Arizona v. CDC is a case brought in the Western District of Louisiana by Arizona, Texas, and 20 non-border states seeking to stop the Biden Administration's termination of the Title 42 order which, for over two years, has effectively closed the border to people seeking asylum.
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April 27, 2022 – Today, 10 organizations filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) calling for an investigation of the Houston Asylum Office's handling of Credible Fear Interviews (CFIs) for asylum seekers.
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April 4, 2022 – Today, the Biden administration's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a new Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Cameroon, which will allow an estimated 40,000 Cameroonians currently residing in the United States opportunities to provide for themselves and their families and live without fear of deportation.
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April 4, 2022 – Last Friday, following guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Biden administration announced the termination of Title 42, a Trump-era policy that has blocked tens of thousands of people from accessing the U.S. immigration and asylum system since March 2020.
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April 1, 2022 – Today, the House of Representatives passed the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act by a bipartisan 220-204 majority. The MORE Act is the first bill to completely deschedule marijuana from the Controlled Substance Act and begin to address the deep harms that prohibition has caused communities.
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March 25, 2022 – Today, the National Immigrant Justice Center, National Immigration Project, and Detention Watch Network welcomed the announcement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will no longer use the Etowah County Jail (Etowah) in Alabama. This announcement is a credit to more than a decade of community organizing by Alabama immigrant rights activists and brave advocacy from people detained in the facility.
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March 21, 2022 – Government documents and stories of migrants who faced mistreatment, family separation, and even death as a result of migration-related criminal prosecutions reveal the extent to which the U.S. government, even under the Biden administration, continues to rely on a nearly century-old law with white supremacist origins to block migrants at the southern U.S. border.
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February 9, 2022 – Today American Immigration Lawyers Association, American Immigration Council, American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International USA, Detention Watch Network, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the National Immigrant Justice Center and the National Immigration Project (NIPNLG) sent a request to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the OIG for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requesting a formal review into the implementation of President Biden's Executive Order (EO) phasing out the use of private prisons by the DOJ.
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January 21, 2022 – U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas yesterday betrayed the Biden administration's commitments to disentangle local policing from the federal detention and deportation system and called on local law enforcement agencies to assist DHS in the enforcement of federal civil immigration law. His remarks oppose demands from communities around the country who have passed sanctuary laws and protections to avoid exactly such entanglement.
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November 19, 2021 – Yesterday, November 18th, immigrant rights advocates delivered a second demand letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after the agency failed to respond to a previous letter and continued to deny adequate access to legal support for a group of Haitian migrants detained at Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico.
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November 17, 2021 – Nearly two months after leaders of 43 prominent human and civil rights organizations delivered a letter to the White House urging the Biden administration to take immediate action to end the violent expulsions of Haitian and other Black asylum seekers at the U.S-Mexico border and to restore asylum access, the signatories are once again calling on the White House to immediately end Title 42 expulsions and related anti-asylum practices and policies, which have continued unabated.
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November 9, 2021 – Last Friday, November 5th, a group of immigrant rights advocates and organizations delivered a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) demanding access to legal services for Haitian migrants detained at Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico.
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October 5, 2021 – Today, the National Immigration Project delivered a demand letter to officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on behalf No More Deaths (NMD), a humanitarian aid organization based in southern Arizona, in response to Border Patrol's pattern of surveillance and harassment of NMD camps and volunteers.
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September 30, 2021 – Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a new memo outlining the agencys immigration "enforcement priorities." The memo continues an enforcement-first approach, targeting three broad categories of people for arrest, detention, and deportation, rather than prioritizing people for protection.
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September 22, 2021 – Leaders of 39 human and civil rights organizations delivered the following letter to the White House on Tuesday evening to oppose the Biden administration's violent expulsions of Haitian asylum seekers at the U.S-Mexico border and its recent move to appeal a federal court ruling that would have brought an end to additional expulsions of asylum-seeking families.
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September 16, 2021 – As Congress begins to return from summer recess and the Biden administration enters the final quarter of its first year in office, the National Immigration Project released a new policy brief, Transforming the Immigration System: The National Immigration Project's Priorities for Executive and Legislative Action.
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August 16, 2021 – Immigration advocates filed an amended complaint in a class action lawsuit challenging the continuing effects of the "Remain in Mexico" policy on asylum-seeking individuals who remain stranded outside the United States and legal service providers seeking to represent them.
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August 4, 2021 – On August 4, 2021, the Until We Are Free table, led by the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), sent an open letter to President Joseph Biden and his administration...
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July 16, 2021 – Following yesterday's Senate confirmation hearing for Ed Gonzalez, the Biden administration's nominee to become the next director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the National Immigration Project issued the following statement...
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July 15, 2021 – On Thursday, July 15, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on the confirmation of Ed Gonzalez as Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a key leadership position within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Gonzalez, the Sheriff of Harris County (which includes Houston) in Texas, was nominated by President Biden in April. The We Are Home campaign, a nationwide campaign to fight for immigrant communities, has made immediately cutting detention and deportation and overhauling the interior system priorities for the campaign. The following are statements by key leaders within the We Are Home campaign in advance of the Thursday hearing.
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June 30, 2021 – Today, the National Immigration Project, the national ACLU, and the ACLU of New Jersey launched a federal class-action lawsuit that seeks to immediately block the long-distance transfer of ICE detainees from the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark, N.J...
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June 15, 2021 – On the nine-year anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the National Immigration Project released the following statement: Today, we join our communities and fellow advocates in celebrating and honoring the tremendous grassroots efforts that led to the creation of the DACA program and in calling on the Biden administration to deliver permanent protections to all immigrant community members - without exclusions...
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June 2, 2021 – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement failed to properly monitor informed consent protocols used by a doctor accused of performing non-consensual gynecological procedures on women detained at Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia, according to a new report published today by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the National Immigration Project and Project South.
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June 3, 2021 – Nearly 200 immigration, criminal justice, and civil rights organizations released a letter today urging the Biden administration to include immigrants in the pardon process, following news that the Biden administration is planning a process that focuses on racial equity.
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May 28, 2021 – The Defund Hate campaign and immigrant rights groups who monitor technology surveillance programs expressed frustration after President Biden released a Fiscal Year 2022 budget request of $8.4 billion for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and $16.3 billion for Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The president's budget contradicts his commitments to help communities rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic and pursue government policies that end racial inequities, and instead continues to direct billions of taxpayer dollars toward agencies and private prison corporations which have a nearly 20-year pattern of fiscal mismanagement, separating families, and violating people's civil and human rights.
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May 26, 2021 – Recently released data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shows that the Biden Administration has increased by 50% the number of people in immigration detention since coming into office. The We Are Home campaign and partners are expressing growing alarm in response to the dramatic increase in detention.
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May 20, 2021 – The Biden administration announced this morning that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will sever its ties with the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC), a private prison operated by LaSalle Corrections in Ocilla, Georgia, after over 40 immigrant women came forward with their experiences of medical and gynecological abuse at the facility, as well as retaliation for speaking out about it. Survivors who experienced and witnessed such abuse at ICDC are pleased with this development but say the administration must do more to protect immigrants from severe harm.
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March 31, 2021 – Immigrant advocates introduced a report today containing brand new, state-by-state data on people living in the United States with Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Nearly a year after advocates from the Temporary Protected Status Advocacy Working Group filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, followed by litigation from the National Immigration Project at the National Lawyers Guild (NIPNLG), Alianza Americas, the Catholic Immigration Network (CLINIC) and members of the National TPS Alliance, the government finally released records about to the Trump administration’s termination of TPS for hundreds of thousands of individuals.
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March 29, 2021 – Today, 160 immigrant rights and legal services organizations called on the Biden administration to implement an effective case review process to consider the release of nearly 14,000 people who remain in immigration detention, at grave risk of contracting COVID-19, more than a year into the pandemic.
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March 3, 2021 – “Instead of bold and courageous leadership on legalization, legislators have chosen to turn their backs on those who are most harmed by the immigration system. And they did so behind closed doors, without any transparency or accountability to the people they represent.”
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