Policy Analysis

As President Obama Visits Cuba, Hidden Surge of Cuban Migrants into United States Continues

President Obama will visit Cuba on March 21 and 22 in a historic trip, the first trip by a US president to the island since Calvin Coolidge visited there in 1928. The president is seeking to capitalize on the normalization...

Unaccompanied Minors from Central America: Keeping Them Safe in the United States

Two recent reports have revealed that unaccompanied minors fleeing violence in Central America have been released to “sponsors” who turned out to be human traffickers. How did this occur and what can be done to avoid this kind of error...

Visa Overstays and the Decline in the US Undocumented Population

On January 20, 2016, the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) released a report finding that the total undocumented population in the United States has declined gradually over the past few years. The day before, the US Department...

Obama Administration Begins Raids of Recently Arrived Central Americans

On December 23rd, the Obama Administration announced the launch of enforcement operations against Central American families – typically young mothers with small children – as a response to the recent spike in arrivals from that violent region. Since September, the...

Support Grows for Ending Immigrant Detention by Private Corporations

The three Democratic presidential candidates – Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley – articulated their immigration policy plans at this week’s National Immigrant Integration Conference (NIIC) in Brooklyn, New York. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the first...

Revisiting the US Refugee Protection System 35 Years after Passage of the Refugee Act of 1980

The Refugee Act of 1980 sought to conform US law and policy with the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. Since the Act’s implementation, the United States has resettled nearly three million refugees, provided political asylum to...

A Plan to Transform the US Immigrant Detention System

The US immigrant detention system serves two legitimate purposes, to ensure that persons in removal proceedings appear for their hearings and (if so ordered) can be deported and, in rare cases, to protect the public. Unlocking Human Dignity: A Plan...

Why the Central American Children Migrants Need Full Adjudication of Their Protection Claims

In response to the dramatic increase in Central American child migrants, Congress and the Administration are considering proposals to scale back or repeal the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA). In his latest Huffington Post blog, Donald Kerwin,...

Do the Right Thing: Upholding the United States’ Commitment to Protect Children Fleeing Persecution

Anadelcy was fifteen years old when she witnessed a gang member murder a young man in her town in El Salvador. A curious and bright young girl, Anadelcy was at school on that particular day studying for exams. As she...

Municipal IDs and State and Local Measures to Regularize the Lives of the Unauthorized

In the last decade, a growing number of US cities have implemented municipal identification cards (IDs). Both advocates and critics call municipal IDs “documenting the undocumented.”[1] IDs enable residents to access buildings and services, but are issued by municipalities rather...