
IMMIGRATION POLICIES, ANALYSIS, AND RESOURCES
Latest Immigration Posts
Quantity Over Justice: The Coming ICE Expansion (Immigration Policy Brief #190)
If you have been following the news surrounding Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” one of the provisions you would see is the $170 billion for immigration enforcement & border security. Of this $170 billion, approximately $75 billion represents an increase in funding to ICE, making it the highest-funded law enforcement branch of the federal government. The funding for ICE is intended to build more detention centers, aid in retention through bonuses, & expand the total number of personnel.
It Is Not an Invasion: How Undocumented People Got Here, Where They Live, & Why They Stay (Immigration Policy Brief #145)
According to estimates from Pew & the American Community Survey, there are between 10.5 & 11 million undocumented people living in the United States. For perspective, that’s fewer—by about 2 million—than the population of the L.A. metro area. On the one hand, that’s a large number; on the other, it’s far from an invasion in a country of 340 million people.
Justice Delayed: The Mounting Crisis of America’s Immigration Court Backlog (Immigration Policy Brief #144)
There are over 3 million cases currently pending in U.S. immigration courts, with the trend steadily rising since 2012, according to Syracuse University’s TRAC project. These cases reflect more than just bureaucratic dysfunction—they represent a failing immigration system. The problem goes beyond inefficient government & red tape; it’s a legal & human rights crisis affecting families, asylum seekers, & entire communities.
How ICE Works (Immigration Policy Brief #144)
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was created in 2003 as a component of the Department of Homeland Security to enforce immigration laws inside the United States and investigate transnational crime. Twenty‑two years later, the agency employs more than 20,000 personnel across more than 400 domestic and foreign offices.
Deporting Democracy: The Crackdown on Foreign Student Visas (Immigration Policy Brief #143)
Institutions of higher education are under attack. Since the return of the Trump administration, more than 1,500 international students and recent graduates from over 240 institutions, across at least 45 states and Washington, D.C., have had their F-1 academic and J-1 exchange visas revoked.
A Fear-based Immigration Policy (Immigration Policy Brief #142)
Trump’s mass deportation efforts remain ongoing across the U.S., capturing headlines with the arrests of student activists like Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk, and the deportation of alleged Tren de Aragua members/Venezuelans legally here on asylum, not to Venezuela but El Salvador, including a U.S. resident misidentified as a gang member. Despite the high-profile raids and fiery rhetoric, government data shows that deportations under Trump still lag behind levels seen under the Biden administration.
An Update on Trump’s Mass Deportation Efforts (Immigration Policy Brief #141)
As we enter the second month of Donald Trump’s return to office, his stance on immigration remains as hardline as ever—if not more extreme. He has ramped up his rhetoric against so-called “criminals,” but communities across the country are feeling the tangible effects of his deportation policies. Friends, neighbors, workers, and community members are being forcibly removed, leaving behind fractured families and economic instability.
Exploring Different Types of Immigrants & Immigration Realities (Immigration Policy Brief #140)
The Trump administration has recently begun redefining its view on what it sees as the appropriate options for gender in the education system. The newly released Trump executive order on “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling” released on January 29 seeks to prohibit federal funding for schools that are teaching gender ideology and critical race theory in the classroom.
Who’s Being Deported? Our Neighbors, Friends, and the Workforce (Immigration Policy Brief #139)
Given the start of the Trump era and ICE raids occurring across the country it is timely to remind people who immigrants are and more importantly who they are not. The initial figures released by ICE at the start of the new era of raids on immigrants reported that they had arrested 472 people on average in the first 3 days.