Author: Aaron Reichlin-Melnick

As 2018 Draws to a Close, Immigration Court Backlogs Reach Record Levels

In the first two years of the Trump administration, immigration hardliners made repeated attempts to reduce immigration court backlogs, from hiring nearly100 new immigration judges to limiting judges’ abilities to manage their dockets. However, a new report from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) shows that despite the administration’s efforts, the backlogs continue to grow […]

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How to Prevent More Deaths in Border Patrol Custody

In a year marked by the Trump administration’s cruel attempts to deter asylum-seeking families from coming to the United States, the news that a child had died in immigration custody appears to be a tragic low. While the circumstances of the death of 7-year-old Jakelin Caal is still being investigated, this tragedy came as no surprise […]

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Proposed ‘Public Charge’ Regulation Draws Hundreds of Thousands of Comments

On Monday night, the 60–day comment period for the Trump administration’s proposed public charge regulation drew to a close. More than 210,000 comments were submitted, with the majority of publicly available comments opposing the rule. Comments on the proposed regulation, which has the potential to drastically slash legal immigration, will now be reviewed before any […]

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Judge Blocks President Trump’s New Asylum Ban

Ruling in a lawsuit late Monday night, a federal judge in San Francisco put the Trump administration’s asylum ban—an unprecedented move that barred asylum to any individual crossing the Southern border between ports of entry—on hold. Citing the Immigration and Nationality Act, which provides that any person may apply for asylum “whether or not” they […]

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The Number of Immigrant Children in Detention Just Hit Record Levels – Again

After a summer in which almost 3,000 migrant children were separated from their parents at the border, the Trump administration admitted last week that it was holding a record number of children in government custody. Around 14,000 children classified as “unaccompanied children” are now being held in the custody of the Department of Health and […]

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