A recent report from the Deportation Data Project revealed that ICE quadrupled during the first nine months of Trump’s second term. Additionally: ➡️ Deportations and street arrests surged ➡️ Arrests of people with no criminal record rose 600 percent www.kqed.org/news/1207137...

Second look laws offer an opportunity to revisit long prison sentences, recognizing that people can change while behind bars. Learn how advocates in four states overcame resistance to pass these reforms by pairing evidence with values-driven narratives:

Power outages, frost-covered cells, interrupted medical care, limited food and water, and unsafe labor requirements: as low temperatures sweep across the U.S., incarcerated people face heightened threats to their lives due to these extreme weather conditions.

Recent national and city crime data show notable declines in homicide and other serious crime categories across the U.S.—a welcome trend backed by real data: wtop.com/national/202...

Ramsey County is modernizing traffic stops & minor violations that do not impact roadway safety—cutting minor-violation stops by 86%, narrowing racial disparities, & keeping communities safe. Data-driven reforms like this build trust and justice. Watch the new video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6JJ...

Across the country, immigrants face increasingly complex and often times violent federal enforcement and removal proceedings, with no government appointed lawyer and incredibly high stakes.

Over 16 years, ICE has detained people across 1,397 facilities total—not only private detention facilities and local jails, but also unexpected places that are excluded from public reporting, such as hotels, hospitals, airports, and military bases. #ImmigrantRights

Expanded detention and deportation. Militarized enforcement and weaponized courts. Gutted protections for due process. Families torn apart and communities devastated. This is the brutal reality one year into President Trump's war on immigrants. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHunuGIvvf4

Americans don't want the same old "tough on crime" politics. They want their leaders to offer solutions that deliver real safety. Vera's new platform outlines a roadmap to deliver safety, accountability, and justice for all: www.vera.org/publications...

More than 50 years after its construction and eight years after prison officials closed it over safety concerns, Camp J—a unit in the notorious Louisiana State penitentiary—reopened in 2025 becoming a new frontier for immigration detention, harm, cruelty, and neglect.

The Trump administration is inflicting unprecedented violence on immigrants, alarming legal service providers who are working to protect clients’ rights and defend due process in an increasingly dehumanizing immigration system. #Immigration #ImmigrantsRights

Using a funding deadline for leverage, last week Democratic leadership revealed their list of ten demands for holding ICE accountable. Notably missing: talk of cutting funding—the most obvious way to rein in ICE. Here's what you need to know:

In turbulent times, we look to those who refused to accept injustice as inevitable. These Black leaders took on the fight against mass incarceration—inspiring ongoing efforts to ensure racial equality and justice for all: www.vera.org/news/5-black... #EndMassIncarceration

Crime was down in 2025—but the latest claims that Trump “made it happen” don’t match the evidence. Here’s what the data actually shows:

The Trump administration is systematically dismantling due process and inflicting undeniable harm on immigrants. As federal immigration enforcement continues down this path, essential industries, the economy, and the U.S. are destabilizing.

Public safety should work like education, transit, or housing: reliable, community-based, not one-size-fits-all. Vera’s new resource explains how Public Safety Anchor Institutions (PSAIs) put that principle into practice: www.vera.org/publications...

Creating a Department of Community Safety was a central piece of New York City Mayor Mamdani's platform. So what does it take to launch one? This new guide explains how the Mamdani administration can create a DCS—with an evidence-based, public health roadmap for community safety:

Almost 450,000 people return from prison every year. The impact of Pell restoration—which took effect in July 2023—is substantial: filling employment gaps, putting families on new economic trajectories, and ending the cycle of incarceration.

The vast majority of people incarcerated in U.S. prisons will eventually return home. A new bill proposed in New York would create a pilot program to improve reentry support—helping more people get a fair chance to rebuild their lives after incarceration.

The Trump administration's cruel mass detention and deportation agenda is devastating many immigrant New Yorkers. It is critical NY leaders meet the full-scale of the moment and take bold action by passing the New York for All and Access to Representation Acts.

➡️ $175 million in funding for immigration legal services ➡️ The passage of the Access to Representation Act and the Building Up Immigrant Legal Defense Act Together, these actions are the humane solutions needed to protect immigrant New Yorkers from Trump’s cruel detention and deportation agenda.

In the words of Vera’s Claudia Gonzalez, “Punishment is not prevention, and prison is not a path forward.” Diversion programs provide a non-punitive alternative to incarceration and addresses trauma, promotes healing, and helps break the cycle of incarceration. www.marinij.com/2026/01/28/o...

Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly known as Angola, is adding a grim chapter to its dark and abusive history: immigration detention. State-sanctioned cruelty is happening before our eyes. www.vera.org/news/reopeni...

Expanding immigration detention, expediting deportations, punishing people following the law, undermining judicial independence: the Trump administration has exploited every avenue to weaponize the immigration system and dismantle due process. www.vera.org/explainers/w...

“Diversion programs are proven methods of accountability that allow participants to avoid the harms of incarceration. I like to think of them as an off-ramp for people before many of the consequences of the criminal legal system come into force.”—Vera’s Meghan Nayak

#BreakingNews: New York Governor Kathy Hochul just introduced a proposal that addresses protections for immigrants, acknowledging the grave harm of local law enforcement colluding with ICE. The #NY4All Coalition issued the following statement: www.bronxdefenders.org/new-york-for...

Securing stable employment is a critical factor in reducing recidivism among formerly incarcerated people. Vera's new report explores how vocational training programs in New York State prisons can be improved to better prepare people for well-paying jobs:

A year into Trump’s second term, his administration has made it nearly impossible for immigrants to access due process. As Amica Center for Immigrant Rights' Hayley R. Hutchins puts it, now more than ever, universal representation is “necessary to ensure accountability and fairness.”

Last week, the House of Representatives passed a federal spending bill that funnels more resources to the Department of Homeland Security to further expand its violent detention and deportation agenda.

Full #NY4All campaign statement here: www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/farmers-farm...

Minneapolis has become the epicenter of a familiar pattern: federal force, disputed narratives, and public trust collapsing in real time. ICE's deadly violence makes all of us less safe. Enough is enough.

Ending mandatory immigration detention, shrinking ICE’s budget, and permanently closing detention facilities will help us end mass incarceration once and for all. Get the facts and learn more: www.vera.org/ending-mass-...

The chief federal judge in Minnesota ruled that the Trump administration failed to comply with court orders and ordered ICE acting director Todd Lyons to appear in court over repeated failures to provide bond hearings for detained immigrants. apnews.com/article/immi...

In 2025, we saw the Trump administration work to systematically dismantle due process in the United States immigration system. Just one month into 2026, these attacks are intensifying, putting immigrants and their loved ones at imminent risk. www.vera.org/explainers/w...

“Once home, I was often at a loss for words when asked what prison was like. How do you convey the terror of lying in your bunk, counting the footsteps of guards approaching?” —Alex Duran, program director at Galaxy Gives and a co-producer of The Alabama Solution

The U.S. faces mounting injustices, from mass deportations to the elimination of essential services. Our commitment burns brighter than ever: to end the criminalization and mass incarceration of people of color, immigrants, and people experiencing poverty.

Renee Nicole Good’s killing is the latest tragedy in ICE’s history of violence, and a moment that may be destabilizing for the Trump administration. www.vera.org/explainers/t...

Under current #NY law, Shawn Peace, a person sentenced to 110 years in prison for a crime committed at age 22, has no meaningful opportunity for resentencing even though he has taken responsibility, grown, and led violence prevention programs. gothamist.com/news/escape-...

We thank the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus for recognizing the urgent need for immigrant New Yorkers to seek safety without fear and to access legal representation when facing deportation in the People’s Budget. static1.squarespace.com/static/5bcca...

To protect immigrant New Yorkers from detention and deportation, state leaders must invest $175M in immigration legal services and pass both the Access to Representation and Building Up Immigrant Legal Defense Acts. davisvanguard.org/2026/01/new-...

President Trump’s first year back in office has had a devastating impact on the criminal justice and immigration systems, and he’s not slowing down. Vera experts break down five issues to watch out for in the year ahead:

“I do this work for the generations after me.” Meet the Vera staff working every day to transform the immigration and criminal legal systems, so that each and every one of us is treated with dignity and fairness, for generations to come.

Survivors of abuse often find themselves entangled in the criminal legal system. Vera’s Claudia Gonzalez shares her experience as a survivor caught in a cycle of incarceration, and how a diversion program gave her the off-ramp she needed to change her life:

Collaboration is the only way to truly deliver community safety. As Mamdani’s administration builds NYC’s Department of Community Safety, Vera’s Daniela Gilbert outlines three key actions that will help it thrive alongside existing services, most notably the NYPD:

#GoodNews: New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s executive budget proposal includes $72.4 million for immigration legal services. The CARE for Immigrant Families coalition welcomes this step forward, but more is needed to counter federal aggression. www.vera.org/newsroom/adv...

Immigration court should be impartial, but the Trump administration is manipulating them to push an anti-immigrant agenda. The latest move in this unjust agenda was to shutter the San Francisco immigration court. www.npr.org/2026/01/13/g...

For a year, Trump’s mass deportation agenda has instilled fear in our communities. ICE is showing up in our neighborhoods, grabbing people off the street, entering homes without warrants, and using racial profiling to question and detain people, including U.S. citizens.

"We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now." This #MLKDay and beyond, we continue to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy through our work to build a more just future. The fight continues until everyone is treated with fairness and dignity.

Earlier this season, the Denver Broncos joined Vera as we visited the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in #Colorado to see the transformative work happening at ChangeMaker Village. www.denverbroncos.com/video/watch-...

Cities across the country are creating new departments of community safety, which coordinate crisis response, violence prevention, survivor support, and more. Learn how this approach can help cities deliver the safety their communities deserve: www.vera.org/redefining-p...