Press Releases

The U.S. Supreme Court, by a 7-2 vote, rejected government attempts to limit judicial review over deportation cases involving the Torture Convention. U.S. law forbids deporting someone to a situation where they will face torture, but the steady erosion of fairness in the immigration courts often…

On May 12, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced the HEROES Act, a $3 trillion relief package to lay the groundwork for Congress’s fifth stimulus bill responding to the COVID-19 crisis. Unlike the prior stimulus packages, the HEROES Act takes critical and overdue steps to address the needs of…

The American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, and National Immigrant Justice Center released a first-of-its-kind report today on immigration detention under the Trump administration: Justice-Free Zones: U.S. Immigration Detention Under the Trump Administration. The report looks at how the…

Statement of NIJC Executive Director Mary Meg McCarthy The new executive order to block immigration to the United States is the president’s latest xenophobic policy, intended to distract from this administration’s failure to address a global pandemic that has cost more than 44,000 lives in the U.S…

Update: The District Court for the Southern District of Illinois has ordered the release of Mr. Chavez Garcia on April 26, 2020. The District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin has granted the habeas petition for Mr. Morales Torres on May 5, 2020; he later received an immigration bond and…

Statement of National Immigrant Justice Center Executive Director Mary Meg McCarthy The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) calls on the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to urgently increase the pace of family reunifications for unaccompanied…

Update (April 13, 2020): The U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois has ordered the release of all three NIJC clients named in these lawsuits. KANKAKEE, IL (April 9, 2020) - The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) and Sidley Austin LLP filed lawsuits this week in the U.S.…

Detained Immigrants, Elected Officials, Lawyers, Medical Experts and Advocates Describe Hunger Strikes, New COVID-19 Cases and Fear Prevalent at Otay Mesa Detention Center and Western Regional Detention Facility SAN DIEGO (April 9, 2020) - Elected officials, medical experts, federal defenders,…

WASHINGTON (March 31, 2020)—On Monday, a federal court in Arizona allowed five asylum-seeking mothers and their children who were torn apart under the Trump administration’s family separation policy to move forward with a lawsuit against the United States for the cruel treatment and…

Applauds People-First Approach of House Bill As the United States has been forced to rapidly adjust to life under pandemic response conditions, it has become clearer than ever that we are all united—only as protected as the least protected among us. Now is the time for unity and smart public…