A Georgia student's story highlights the need for immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for the 11 million people who have become part of the American fabric, and aspire to become citizens, but currently have no way to attain legal status.
I came to the U.S. from India at the age of 7. Living in the U.S. has provided me with a life that I would have never been able to have back in India. The U.S. has always been and will always be my home. I have received a great high school education, which helped me graduate from Georgia Tech, a college that has the second-best program in my chosen field, biomedical engineering.
On Thursday, the ACLU of New Mexico Regional Center for Border Rights will join the Programa de Defensa e Incidencia Binacional (Bi-national Defense and Advocacy Program, PBID), a delegation of Mexican non-governmental organizations, as they travel to Washington, D.C., to present the results of a study that illustrates the abuses experienced by migrants at the hands of authorities in the United States and in Mexico.
By Michael Macleod-Ball, Chief of Staff, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 1:57pm
The full U. S. Senate took up the potentially historic bill to overhaul the country's immigration system last week.
At the top of the week, things looked rosy. S. 744 flew through initial procedural hurdles to allowing the chamber to take up the bill, with rare flying colors. This might have led to a surge in optimism about the bill, especially given the heady tone of the markup sessions in the Senate Judiciary Committee just two weeks earlier.
By Michael Tan, Staff Attorney, Immigrants' Rights Project, ACLU at 9:37am
One year ago, the immigrant youth movement won the most important immigrants' rights victory in recent memory: the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which grants young immigrants who came to the U.S. as children—or Dreamers—the ability to live and work in the country legally. As of this May, about 365,000 young immigrants have been granted DACA, and are working hard, going to school, and giving back to their communities—a preview of the benefits all of us stand to gain should Congress pass immigration reform this year.
Every movement needs a face – someone whose story transcends traditional dividing lines and has the capacity to change hearts and minds. For immigration reform, it's not just one story, but rather the collective stories of DREAMers, undocumented youth who came to the U.S. as children. By sharing their powerful stories of how they are American in all but paperwork, DREAMers have shifted public opinion in a way that wouldn't have seemed possible a few short years ago: A poll released yesterday found that there is overwhelming bipartisan support for immigration reform (up to 78 percent support in some states).
I recently learned about a group of young people who did something extremely brave. They were invited to lunch with Nebraska's Governor, Dave Heineman...
By Brian Hauss, Legal Fellow, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 3:49pm
In response to an ACLU Freedom of Information Act request, the Department of Homeland Security has at long last released its December 2011 Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Impact Assessment of its policy of conducting suspicionless searches of electronic devices at the border. Because of the sensitive, personal nature of the records we all carry with us on our laptops and phones, both the First and Fourth Amendments prohibit the government from searching these devices at the border, absent reasonable suspicion that a search will turn up evidence of wrongdoing.
By Lucero Chavez, ACLU of Southern California & Sean Riordan, ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties at 7:35pm
Why are so many Mexican nationals with deep family ties in the United States and strong claims to reside here lawfully instead "choosing" to be immediately expelled from the country? Because immigration enforcement authorities in Southern California routinely pressure these immigrants – some of whom have been here for decades – to surrender their right to seek legal status. Through abuse of a process known as "administrative voluntary departure," Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers compel these immigrants to involuntarily sign summary expulsion orders. Today, the ACLU and Cooley LLP filed suit in California to challenge these endemic abuses.
By Andre Segura, Immigrants' Rights Project at 10:13am
Plaintiffs have established that the MCSO had sufficient intent to discriminate against Latino occupants of motor vehicles. Further, the Court concludes that the MCSO had and continues to have a facially discriminatory policy of considering Hispanic appearance probative of whether a person is legally present in the country in violation of the Equal Protection Clause. The MCSO is thus permanently enjoined from using race, or allowing its deputies and other agents to use race as a criteria in making law enforcement decisions with respect to Latino occupants of vehicles in Maricopa County.
