Press Releases

Statement of Mary Meg McCarthy, Executive Director, National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) This morning, The New York Times revealed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to jettison its standards for detained immigrants and shutter the office tasked with advancing reforms in an…

Statement of Mary Meg McCarthy, Executive Director, National Immigrant Justice Center The number of people entering the United States without authorization has been decreasing for years, yet U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ visit to the southern border today set the stage for the…

The Beristain Family is distraught the day after the U.S. government conducted a middle-of-the-night deportation of Roberto Beristain, an Indiana father and businessman whose detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in February during a check-in appointment attracted broad attention by…

The Illinois Senate Executive Committee took an important step today toward making our state safer for immigrants and their families. The TRUST Act (SB-31), filed by Senate President Cullerton, passed through the committee with 11 members voting in favor, five voting present, and no opposing votes…

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court hears oral arguments today in a case that could result in another legal blow to U.S. Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement’s (ICE) use of immigration detainers. The central question in the case, Lunn v. Commonwealth, is whether Massachusetts law enforcement…

Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) is deeply concerned about reports, and the continued lack of clarity, surrounding a botched U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid at a Chicago home where a federal immigration officer shot a family member of an individual…

Statement by Mary Meg McCarthy, Executive Director, National Immigrant Justice Center Only 12 hours after two federal courts halted the Trump administration’s second refugee and Muslim ban, finding there was a strong likelihood it would be found unconstitutional, the White House asked Congress for…

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, granted an appeal in Bringas Rodriguez v. Sessions. The case involved a man from Mexico who was sexually abused during his youth because he is gay. In this significant decision, the court recognized that LGBT people often…

Washington, D.C. – Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly has confirmed in numerous news reports that he is considering a plan to institutionalize a policy of separating mothers from their children upon arrival at the U.S. southern border. This measure, which the secretary has…

Statement of Mary Meg McCarthy, Executive Director, National Immigrant Justice Center With today’s revised executive order, the Trump administration admits that its original order blocking refugees and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries was a bad idea, yet continues to pursue unjust and ill…