On April 23, 2010, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law a controversial state immigration bill. The bill, SB1070, restricts employment of unauthorized immigrants, directs police officers to investigate suspected unauthorized immigrants, and penalizes government agencies that do not enforce immigration laws.

What is “Operation Stonegarden”? Operation Stonegarden is a federal grant program administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as part of the State Homeland Security Grant Program. Operation Stonegarden provides funding to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies to enhance their capabilities to “support … Continued

Asking the U.S. District Court in Arizona to void the decisions to stop border wall construction and the “Remain in Mexico” policy until the federal government complies with its obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act.

A handful of Arizona officials have joined 80 House Democrats and members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in demanding that the Trump administration “safely and swiftly” release children and adults held in immigration detention centers due to the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. : The group sent a letter to Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Matthew T. Albence following an order from a federal judge on June 26 saying that all children who have been detained for more than 20 days at three facilities should be released. : “We write to you to urge you to safely and swiftly release all parents and children that are detained at the Karnes County Residential Center (“Karnes”), the South Texas Family Residential Center (“Dilley”), and the Berks County Residential Center (“Berks”)—the three Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) facilities that detain family units with their children—by July 17, 2020,” the letter reads. : [jump] : Arizona Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (CD-2) announced her addition to the call for family release in a press release yesterday. : “I have worked with my congressional colleagues to formally address our various concerns with ICE, and we have largely been ignored,” Kirkpatrick said in a statement. “I have been raising these issues and communicating with local leaders, advocacy groups, and through my platforms–separating families, and having people detained in COVID infected facilities is horrendous. The reports from migrant detention facilities are becoming increasingly alarming and we need people to know what is happening. We must demand more accountability and oversight, ICE must commit to family unity, investigate the treatment and facility condition complaints and comply with CDC guidelines, or people will die in these facilities.” : Kirkpatrick is joined by fellow Arizona representatives Ruben Gallego (CD-7), Greg Stanton (CD-9) and Raúl Grijalva (CD-3). : “Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Members of Congress, advocates, attorneys, and doctors have continuously urged ICE to use its authority to release detained families,” the letter reads. “Instead of releasing families, ICE has used the pandemic to implement cruel and inhumane policies toward immigrants. For example, in May, following another order from Judge Gee that required ICE conduct individualized release assessments for children in detention-the agency asked detained parents to sign documents without counsel present, leading those parents to believe they were forced to choose between indefinite detention with their children, and the release of their children alone, without them.” : Read the full text of the letter below: : Dear Acting Secretary Wolf and Acting Director Albence: : We write to you to urge you to safely and swiftly release all parents and children that are detained at the Karnes County Residential Center (“Karnes”), the South Texas Family Residential Center (“Dilley”), and the Berks County Residential Center (“Berks”)—the three Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) facilities that detain family units with their children—by July 17, 2020. : On Friday, June 26, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, Judge Dolly Gee of the United States District Court of the Central District of California ordered ICE to release all children who have been detained for more than twenty days at Karnes, Dilley, and Berks by July 17, 2020. Flores v. Barr, 2:85-cv-4544-DMGAGR (C.D. Cal. June 26, 2020). Medical experts have continuously warned that detention increases the risk of transmission of the virus among detained individuals and facility staff. As Judge Gee observed, these facilities are now “on fire” due to ICE’s failure to ensure “the basics,” such as adequate social distancing, masking, and testing, and because of COVID-19 outbreaks in each facility’s surrounding area. Flores, at 3. ICE has confirmed that at least 11 children and adults and one GEO employee who works at Karnes, and at least two ICE officials and three CoreCivic employees who work at Dilley, have tested positive for COVID-19. : Just last week, three Members of Congress visited the ICE family detention center in Dilley and spoke with at least six families who are currently detained. After the visit, the Members of Congress raised concerns about the unsafe conditions they witnessed, and the need to immediately release families amid the pandemic. Despite the heightened precautions taken at the Dilley facility during the visit, the Members of Congress who toured the facility were exposed to an ICE officer who tested positive for COVID-19 mere days after the Congressional visit. : Since the COVID-19 crisis started, Members of Congress, advocates, attorneys, and doctors have continuously urged ICE to use its authority to release detained families. Instead of releasing families, ICE has used the pandemic to implement cruel and inhumane policies toward immigrants. For example, in May, following another order from Judge Gee that required ICE conduct individualized release assessments for children in detention, the agency asked detained parents to sign documents without counsel present, leading those parents to believe they were forced to choose between indefinite detention with their children, and the release of their children alone, without them. : We know the Administration has a history of separating thousands of children from their parents. Family separation should never be this country’s policy. Medical organizations have long stated that the practice creates extraordinary harm to children. Detention of children for any amount of time, even with their parents, causes 2 physical harm and irreparable trauma. We call upon ICE to act with compassion and release families together. These families have relatives and sponsors who are immediately available to provide them with care so that they may shelter-in-place. : The Administration must stop using this public health crisis as a means for implementing unlawful and inhumane immigration policies. In these extraordinary times, human suffering need not be compounded through traumatizing and instilling fear in the hearts of migrant parents. ICE has long had the authority and discretion to swiftly and safely release families together into the U.S. and should act to do so immediately. Once these families are free from detention, together, we urge ICE to commit to a permanent policy of family unity and to seek alternatives to family detention– including release on recognizance or community-driven support - in every case. : Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey spent much of his first term working to repair the damage to the state's reputation caused by a 2010 tough-on-immigrants law known as SB 1070 that his predecessor signed.

News about Arizona Immigration Law (SB 1070), including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

The Dignity Not Detention Act mirrors legislative efforts to take on the rogue agency in states like Maryland and California.

The Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School went to federal court to challenge the Trump administration’s termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

Immigrants facing deportation are less likely to have access to a lawyer in Georgia than in nearly every other state.

Lawmakers have called for a probe following reports from a whistleblower into the treatment of immigrants at an ICE center in Georgia.

In a 5-4 decision led by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court on Thursday blocked President Trump’s attempt to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. The federal program created by President Obama in 2012 protects from deportation about 700,000 immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children. Luis Cortes, one of the lawyers who defended DACA at the Supreme Court, says the key to the victory was being able to share the stories of DACA recipients. “What moved Chief Justice Roberts in our case was the stories,” says Cortes, who is a DACA recipient himself. We also speak with Erika Andiola, advocacy chief at RAICES, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, and host of the podcast “Homeland Insecurity.” #DemocracyNow Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on nearly 1,400 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream 8-9AM ET: https://democracynow.org Please consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! today: https://democracynow.org/donate FOLLOW DEMOCRACY NOW! ONLINE: YouTube: http://youtube.com/democracynow Facebook: http://facebook.com/democracynow Twitter: https://twitter.com/democracynow Instagram: http://instagram.com/democracynow SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/democracynow iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/democracy-now!-audio/id73802554 Daily Email Digest: https://democracynow.org/subscribe

https://democracynow.org - Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are continuing to debate the future of DACA, the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which gives some 800,000 young undocumented immigrants permission to live and work in the United States. Republican lawmakers are pushing to include an amendment to punish so-called sanctuary cities as part of any immigration legislation to protect DREAMers. Meanwhile, a second federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from canceling DACA. On Tuesday, Judge Nicholas Garaufis in New York issued an injunction to keep the program temporarily in place, warning its cancellation would have “profound and irreversible” social costs, writing, “It is impossible to understand the full consequences of a decision of this magnitude.” For more, we speak with Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), vice ranking member of the House Budget Committee and vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on nearly 1,400 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream 8-9AM ET: https://democracynow.org Please consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! today: https://democracynow.org/donate FOLLOW DEMOCRACY NOW! ONLINE: Facebook: http://facebook.com/democracynow Twitter: https://twitter.com/democracynow YouTube: http://youtube.com/democracynow SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/democracynow Daily Email: https://democracynow.org/subscribe Google+: https://plus.google.com/+DemocracyNow Instagram: http://instagram.com/democracynow Tumblr: http://democracynow.tumblr.com Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/democracynow iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/democracy-now!-audio/id73802554 TuneIn: http://tunein.com/radio/Democracy-Now-p90/ Stitcher Radio: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/democracy-now

Rays Talk Show Episode 257: Host Ray Collazo is joined by Immigrant lawyer Jose Sanchez and Political Strategists Elbert Garcia and Madeleine Villanueva to discuss our reactions to President Trump's decision to end the Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Sanchez explains the legal ramifications for DACA recipients while Garcia lays out the feelings of activists in Florida and around the country.  Panel lays out the key next steps we must undertake to advocate for the successful passage of DACA into federal law while supporting Dreamers in their day to day lives.  Continued prayers for victims of Hurricane Harvey and everyone in path of Hurricane Irma.

Immigration-related bills in the U.S. Congress.

The 68 immigrants and children of immigrants in the 116th Congress claim heritage in 37 countries and are overwhelmingly Democrats.

The Center for Comparative Immigration Studies CCIS University of California, San Diego

The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplomats. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first and only major U.S. law ever implemented to prevent all members of a specific national group from immigrating to the United States.

The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the Asian Exclusion Act and National Origins Act, was a United States federal law that prevented immigration from Asia and set quotas on the number of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. It also authorized the creation of the country's first formal border control service, the U.S. Border Patrol, and established a "consular control system" that allowed entry only to those who first obtained a visa from a U.S. consulate abroad.

The Page Act of 1875 was the first restrictive federal immigration law in the United States, which effectively prohibited the entry of Chinese women, marking the end of open borders. Seven years later, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act banned immigration by Chinese men as well.

The United States Immigration Commission was a bipartisan special committee formed in February 1907 by the United States Congress, President of the United States and Speaker of the House of Representatives, to study the origins and consequences of recent immigration to the United States. This was in response to increasing political concerns about the effects of immigration in the United States and its brief was to report on the social, economic and moral state of the nation. During its time in action the Commission employed a staff of more than 300 people for over 3 years, spent better than a million dollars and accumulated mass data.

The Biden administration formally ended the Trump-era policy of returning asylum seekers to Mexico until their court dates in the United States, according to a memo issued by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

The Senate isn’t likely to consider the bill, but it signals a key Democratic priority ahead of the presidential election.

Corporations and industry groups are mobilizing along with civil and immigrant rights organizations, educational institutions, and religious groups to lobby Congress to make permanent the Obama-era program that protects nearly 650,000 people brought to the U.S. as children.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) criticized President Biden’s administration on Tuesday for opening a migrant facility for children.“This is not okay, never has been okay, never will be okay …

A group of House Democrats, led by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) wrote to President Biden on Friday calling for him to formally raise the refugee cap to 62,500 after he has delayed the increase for wee…

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Tuesday reintroduced legislation seeking to repeal an 18th-century law that was used as justification for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and, …