NIJC Commentary

Highway approaching Cibola Correctional CenterIt’s pretty hard to find the Cibola Correctional Center in the village of Milan, New Mexico. You can’t get a strong wifi signal on your phone, so unless you printed out directions ahead of time you might end up driving around for a while. Eventually you…

Today the House Judiciary Committee will consider H.R. 391, legislation that would exile most asylum seekers to destruction and death in a crippling affront to American values. The Asylum Reform and Border Protection Act of 2017 (H.R. 391) seeks to reform asylum so it would exclude refugees from…

As Congress debates this week how to spend tax dollars next year, including how much of that money should go to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) efforts to increase its arrests and detention of immigrants, ICE had the audacity to submit a separate request for even more money to be…

NIJC Opposes the “No Sanctuary for Criminals Act” and “Kate’s Law” This week the House of Representatives will vote on two bills that attempt to re-write our nation’s immigration laws to reflect a dangerous philosophy of governance. For decades now, elected officials across the bipartisan divide…

U.S. House members led by Representative John Carter are advancing legislation that would exile migrant children to destruction and death. Using the cynical misnomer the Protection of Children Act (H.R. 495), this bill seeks to eliminate the basic child welfare protections currently afforded to…

When President Trump released his budget proposal, most public attention focused on his desire to spend billions of dollars to expand his deportation apparatus. Those costs include: An overall request for $7.9 billion for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), $1.8 billion more than in…

“They transferred me to a privately run detention center… There, I experienced the worst days of my life… [T]he barracks resemble a stable for livestock…  small, with metal bunks, worn-out rubber mattresses, wooden floors, bathrooms with the walls covered in green and yellow mold, weeds everywhere…

NIJC Executive Director Mary Meg McCarthy delivered the 2017 commencement address at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. It was an honor for NIJC to be acknowledged in this way as a leader in ensuring justice and due process for all in the United States. Watch the speech below (begins at 43…

  For refugees like George and Grace, finding an attorney can make a difference between a life of freedom and security or return to violence and persecution.

The immigration executive orders on signed by President Trump on January 25 and the implementation memo signed by Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly on February 20 will impact American communities in profound ways, some immediately and others long-term. The administration’s…