NIJC Commentary

Last week, I traveled to Laredo, Texas, to represent a client, a Central American woman seeking asylum under the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP, or “Remain in Mexico” program), for her final asylum hearing. The trip was significant both because it meant my client would be one of the very few…

“Title 42” refers to Section 265 of the Public Health Service Act, a statute last invoked in 1929 to bar the entrance of ships during a meningitis outbreak. In 2020, the Trump administration retooled this public health statute to permit the mass expulsion of virtually all non-citizen/residents…

The Biden administration is ramping up the use of criminal prosecutions to punish migrants arriving at the U.S. border, despite decades of evidence showing these prosecutions cause widespread harm and are ineffective toward the government’s stated goal of deterring future migration. Largely unused…

Today, NIJC joined more than 200 civil society organizations in a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives leadership, urging members of Congress to ensure that a legislative provision that would indefinitely continue mass expulsions at the southern border not receive a vote on the House floor…

After fleeing violence in Honduras and surviving detention in the U.S., Gemina is together again with her daughters and has obtained legal status. Robert achieved citizenship and added stability for his family. Sylvester fled persecution in Nigeria because of his sexual orientation and has found…

Why are there so many LGBT Asylum Seekers? Two-spirit native North Americans. The third gender Fa’afafine from Samoan cultures. Voudou spirits that present as both male and female. When we look at past and current cultural traditions from around the world, there are countless examples of…

Aleksei Borovikov has talked to dozens of LGBTQ+ individuals from post-Soviet bloc countries. A friend who must hide his partner of nearly a decade in the bathroom of their studio apartment whenever video calling his family back in his hometown in Siberia. A Russian ballet dancer who toured with…

For 10 months, unaccompanied Afghan children in the United States have been longing for their families left in Afghanistan, with significant impact on their mental health and sense of stability. Some children have been in U.S. federal custody since they fled their homes during the U.S. withdrawal…

Each year at NIJC’s annual Human Rights Awards, we recognize attorneys who have demonstrated extraordinary commitment to ensuring access to justice for immigrants by devoting substantial time to NIJC pro bono work, serving a significant number of NIJC clients, and/or representing clients with…

In 2021, the Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) jointly proposed a new regulation that prioritized speed over fairness for processing asylum seekers’ claims. The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) filed a comment…