AILA Past President Kathleen Campbell Walker on #ThinkImmigration: USCIS’s new enforcement authority disrupts the long-standing separation between benefits adjudication and enforcement, creating complex challenges for immigration lawyers and their clients. https://bit.ly/42KeJVQ

Hiring of military lawyers as immigration judges alarms legal experts since these lawyers lack immigration expertise www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

ICE's 287(g) Enforcement Program Reaches 1,000 Active Agreements Across 40 States New data reveals massive growth in the 287(g) program under the Trump administration, a 7.5x increase since January. Half are the most aggressive Task Force Model MOAs. austinkocher.substack.com/p/ices-287g-...

In creating DHS post-9/11, one critical reason Congress broke up the functions of the legacy INS and separated USCIS into a distinct agency was "its recognition that timely adjudication of benefits requests was key to ensuring safety and security" www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/uscis-s...

The Trump administration is QUIETLY KILLING DACA. Immigrant youth are our teachers, neighbors, farmworkers, and parents. They contribute billions to our economy. We will not stay silent as this administration dismantles DACA. #ProtectDACA

The number of partnerships between ICE and local police has exploded by more than 600% since the start of President Trump's second term. Tell Congress to cut funding for the dangerous 287(g) program NOW.

HAPPENING NOW: The Trump administration withdraws its claim that parents of the Guatemalan children it tried to send back last month had requested their return. DOJ says it has no basis for that claim now in light of contradictory info provided by the Guatemalan government.

For the first time, #USCIS will create “special agents” with powers to carry firearms and make arrests. Shev Dalal-Dheini (@aila.org) and @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social explain how this move defies Congress’ mandate and raises serious legal concerns. www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/uscis-s...

Yet another example of the cruelty being the point "What is clear...is that the government may have, in a single night, permanently scarred children who were just beginning to feel like they had found a safe place, far away from the danger and threats they had fled" msmagazine.com/2025/09/08/g...

Particularly notable given that Bove is now a judge on the court tasked with deciding whether or not Alina Habba legally has a job

NEW: AILA leadership expresses deep concern as the Trump Administration plans to train and arm agents at USCIS. Read the full statement from President Jeff Joseph and Executive Director Ben Johnson. https://bit.ly/41BPg0z

AILA Executive Director Ben Johnson responds to the Trump admin. eliminating the requirement that temporary immigration judges possess knowledge of immigration law & moving DoD attorneys over as judges: “It makes as much as sense as having a cardiologist do a hip replacement.” https://bit.ly/47pXSuP

HAPPENING NOW: Judge Paula Xinis holds a virtual scheduling conference in Kilmar Abrego Garcia's habeas case challenging the Trump admin's efforts to remove him to Uganda. 🧵

We're in court today fighting for the immediate release of Mario Guevara, a journalist who was arrested by police for covering a protest and then detained by ICE. The First Amendment is clear: The government can’t punish journalists for keeping the public informed.

Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith issued a memo allowing officers to notify ICE about people not in custody, such as during traffic stops. MPD is also allowed to help ICE transport detained subjects.

Because families belong together. Always.

📍 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋: The IRS has agreed to share confidential taxpayer data — like names and addresses — with ICE to aid deportations, breaking decades of privacy precedent. This chilling move undermines trust and sets a dangerous precedent for surveillance. #AbuseofPowerWatch

-CNN poll showed that 55 percent of Americans thought that the Trump administration had gone too far with deportations, up ten points since April -CBS poll showed 51 percent of Americans think Trump is focused too much on deportations via @the-independent.com www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Story: A deported British man says in a new Human Rights Watch report that he and other detainees at a Miami detention center were shackled and forced to eat without their hands, kneeling on their knees “like dogs” reason.com/2025/07/21/r...

The new system that the IRS is creating would give ICE "automated access to home addresses en masse, limiting the ability of IRS officials to consider the legality of transfers" and could result in immigration agents "raiding wrong or outdated addresses." www.propublica.org/article/trum...

Had missed this earlier. Trump CMS ending ability for states to cover kids via Medicaid/CHIP continuously from birth through age 6 without red tape www.finance.senate.gov/ranking-memb...

We need Colbert’s frank and biting commentary now more than ever, and to stop corporations like CBS from cowing to the political pressure of this administration. Add your name to the petition to demand that they reverse their decision and keep Colbert on air! sign.moveon.org/petitions/co...

CONFIRMED: Arturo Suárez, the musician imprisoned by the Trump admin without due process in El Salvador for 4 months is FREE. A video shows him telling his brother that while they were imprisoned, they were beaten daily by guards. Remember: this is the first ever mass release from CECOT.

More than 75 former judges: "Bove’s egregious record of mistreating law enforcement officers, abusing power, and disregarding the law itself disqualifies him for this position... [Bove] explicitly plotted to violate court orders and direct law enforcement officers to engage in illegal acts”

We wrote about the research that affirms this in our @migrationpolicy.bsky.social report on immigration court delays: People give up valid asylum claims because immigration detention conditions can be awful & wait times for decisions lengthy p. 10-11 www.migrationpolicy.org/sites/defaul...

The Trump admin sent an Irish tourist in ICE custody to a federal prison that was leasing beds to ICE, where he says "we were treated less than human." Staff at the prison would throw his medicine on the ground rather than deliver it to him in person.

“This is their way of putting in place nationwide a method of detaining even more people,” said Greg Chen, senior director of government relations at AILA. “It’s requiring the detention of far more people without any real review of their individual circumstances.”

A much needed historical view of the long-running debate over immigration and the idea that people need to "come the right way": open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

Last month, we launched "the Amplifier," a new monthly e-mail briefing that rounds up the latest news about how policy, politics, and the law are impacting Asian Americans. Sign up for AALDEF's email list here: www.aaldef.org/take-action/...

Yesterday, AALDEF monitored 40+ high-density Asian polling sites, observing and addressing confusion around provisional ballots, voter registration, and the ballot itself. With the intro of ranked choice voting, language access is more important than ever to protecting the Asian American vote.

Under the Trump administration's cruel immigration enforcement agenda, it's important we all know our rights. Everyone — no matter our immigration status — has constitutional rights in the U.S. Make sure you know what to do if you encounter ICE:

A key question raised by SCOTUS' decision in the birthright citizenship case: "Is the Court envisioning that some fundamental constitutional questions, such as birthright citizenship, could have different answers and applications in different parts of the country?"

This is urgent: The Reconciliation bill would further erode our rights, deepen poverty, and enable the disappearance of our neighbors — all paid for by taxpayer dollars. Take action now to fight against rising authoritarianism and for our future:

Chang Chang is a great restaurant. Peter Chang, who opened it, is a legend who worked his way from anonymity as a cook in restaurant kitchens to having multiple restaurants of his own through his hard work.

"All these decisions are pointing in the same direction, which is that the Alien Enemies Act should only be used in time of war or invasion,” said Christopher Slobogin, a criminal justice professor at Vanderbilt University Law School www.cnn.com/2025/05/06/p...

"While ostensibly targeting immigrants, what is being constructed is both the infrastructure and compliance that will facilitate a broader loss of rights for all Americans." Puffin Prize recipient and @nilc.org president Kica Matos for TIME: time.com/7280107/trum...

This is why I am working on a portrait series of important historic Asian American court cases, including this one of Wong Kim Ark. My next work in progress portrait is of Bhagat Singh Thind. @bsky.art @abbetuck.bsky.social

The Trump admin's response to Judge Xinis and the Supreme Court have been utterly defiant. Despite the Supreme Court saying that the Trump admin should "share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of future steps," the Trump admin is refusing to do so.

Important note and context from my colleague @jonesieman.bsky.social on the Khalil news today: "The ruling is far from the final word on whether Mr. Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident, will be deported." www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/n...

"The Trump administration will end temporary protections for more than 10,000 people from Afghanistan and Cameroon, putting them on track for deportation in May and June, Department of Homeland Security officials said on Friday."

NEW from judge in Maryland immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia's case: "For the reasons discussed during today’s status conference, the Court finds that the [Trump admin] have failed to comply with this Court’s Order..." Next hearing: Tuesday, April 15 at 4 pm storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

There are some very bad stories going around about the Mahmoud Kahlil case. The hearing today was before an immigration judge — which is located within the Justice Department. They are NOT a "federal judge" in the sense that anyone reading at least one nationwide story saying so thinks of it.

If you are taken by ICE, here are important reminders to ensure you know your rights & know how to take action. Don't forget to take a look at our other know your rights materials on what to do if you run into ICE at home, at work, or on the street & how to identify different types of warrants.

Are you undocumented? Do you live in New York? Have you been threatened because of your immigration status? 👉Learn how to respond to these threats.

Trump's recent executive order invokes the Alien Enemies Act, last used in WWII to imprison Japanese American families. Even the mention of this law prompts traumatic memories for Japanese people and other Asians who suffered harassment and violence incited by the vilification of this group.

Rest in power, K.W. Lee

Also the "diplomatic relationships" appear to be the deal with a foreign dictator to hold people disappeared from American soil without process in a concentration camp to be subjected to inhumane treatment and forced labor. To suggest this is not a legal issue would be risible were it not Orwellian

While executive order “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship” might have sounded like banal lip service, reaffirming a commitment to the First Amendment, "In reality, it was the start of an Orwellian effort to root out wrongthink from government ranks and the private sector"

In 2018 Las Vegas artist Izaac Zevalking painted this mural. It appears to have been updated today for current events by Bill Bramhall of the NYDN. Sadly still relevant, maybe getting worse.

The United States Institute of Peace is suing over DOGE’s “lawless assault” on the independent non-profit organization established by Congress. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...