Asylum

People Continue to Die Because of U.S. Border Militarization Washington, DC – Yesterday, as many of us read The New York Times Magazine feature, “How U.S. Policy Turned the Sonoran Desert into a Graveyard for Migrants,” Edwin Rodrigo was dying.  According to Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, Edwin drowned ...

“It takes a certain kind of callous hypocrisy to profess to stand for law and order while unashamedly breaking it”  Washington, DC – The Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli have been unlawfully serving as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security and Acting Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), respectively. ...

CALL YOUR SENATORS AND TELL THEM TO INCLUDE IMMIGRANTS IN COVID-19 RELIEF! On Tuesday, August 11, please call your two senators in Washington, DC and tell them that we need COVID-19 relief for all workers, including immigrants! Call the Capitol Switchboard (202-225-3121), and ask to speak to your state’s senators. Each state has two senators. When you ...

Washington, DC – While the Trump administration continues its all-out assault on the legal right to request asylum, lawyers, human rights groups, and faith-based organizations have mounted a formidable defense.  This week alone, over 400 constituents from forty-five states and the District of Columbia are participating in virtual legislative visits with 185 congressional offices, calling on ...

Washington, DC – What do foreign students in the United States on visas, and people fleeing violence and seeking safety on U.S. soil have in common? They are both the subject of Trump administration attacks this week.  The latest is another all-out assault on “asylum,” the legal right enshrined in U.S. and international law to NOT ...

Join us in advocating for restoring life-saving asylum protections and defunding harmful asylum policies. Our goal is to ensure that Members of Congress are educated about the administration’s systematic attacks on the asylum system that has resulted in a complex web of harm against asylum seekers. As the administration wrongfully and immorally uses the COVID-19 ...

The Trump administration proposed yet another rule to gut the U.S. asylum system, a sweeping effort in a long line of restrictions and bans. The goal is to end asylum in the United States administratively, without an act of Congress, and keep people fleeing violence and murder in harm’s way. The public had until July ...

Washington, DC – Today, 339 faith-based organizations and 1,356 faith leaders from all fifty states, plus DC, are issuing an open letter to policymakers at all levels, demanding an end to anti-immigrant policies put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter comes on the same day that a proposed rule to completely gut the ...

“More People Will Die” Washington, DC – Yesterday the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security submitted a notice of proposed rulemaking to the Federal Register that proves these governmental bodies stand for neither justice nor safety.  The proposed rule further guts the U.S. legal system of asylum and other protections for people who are fleeing violence and ...

On June 3, the IIC held a webinar on detention, asylum, and enforcement issues during the COVID-19 pandemic with: Sharon Stanley-Rea, Director, Disciples Refugee & Immigration Ministries (RIM) Guerline Jozef, President of Haitian Bridge Alliance Chiqui Sanchez Kennedy, Immigration Legal Services Director, YMCA International Services Pedro Rios, Director of the U.S.-Mexico Border Program, American Friends Service Committee Hillary Kipnis, Migrant ...