Felipe turned 11 years old in a shelter for unaccompanied migrant children this year, thousands of miles away from his parents. He had not arrived to the United States alone, but the U.S. government took him from his parents and sent them to a U.S. Marshals prison in Texas. Felipe was not able to…
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- The laws used to criminally prosecute people for entering and reentering the United States without permission are known as Sections 1325 (“unauthorized entry”) and 1326 (“unauthorized reentry”) of Chapter 8 of the U.S. Code. They originate from a law passed in 1929 amid the height of the eugenics…
- This joint webinar by the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) and the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights discusses our organizations' recent report, Punishing Trauma: Incident Reporting and Immigrant Children in Government Custody. Co-authors Azadeh Erfani of NIJC and Jane Liu of…
- This past year had a lot of unexpected challenges, and we wanted to say a big thank you to NIJC's amazing donors for your steadfast support of immigrants and asylum seekers. Colleen Kilbride, a senior attorney at NIJC who represents people and families seeking asylum, shares how your…
- Biden Administration Must Protect, not Punish, Survivors Last month, a group of people stopped for water near El Paso, Texas. They were migrating to the United States to reunite with family and seek protection. Two white men spotted the group and began shooting at them, killing one man and…
- Frequently Asked Questions In October, the Biden administration announced a narrow program to facilitate U.S. entry of Venezuelans in need of protection. Concurrently, the administration and the Mexican government reached an agreement for Mexico to receive expelled Venezuelans. Importantly, this…
- It’s Pro Bono Week! In the legal services community, this is the week every year when we pause to celebrate and thank the legions of attorneys, paralegals, and other volunteers who help us ensure members of our communities have access to justice. At the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC),…
- Today, NIJC and partner organizations delivered a letter to the Biden administration outlining the top immigration priorities that must be included in the country’s budget for Fiscal Year 2024. Immigrants bring vibrancy and resilience to the United States. Yet, for decades, the United States has…
- 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…