Featured Issue: Demanding an End to ICE and Border Patrol Killings, Violence, and Unlawful Actions

ICE, Border Patrol, and other federal agencies continue to conduct unlawful and often violent arrests and detentions, resulting in serious abuses of immigrants and U.S. citizens' rights, injuries, and multiple deaths. Despite growing public opposition, Congress still has not taken meaningful steps to stop these ongoing unlawful practices. Instead, in the last year, Congress has given DHS nearly $250 billion for immigration enforcement—an outrageous sum that could have helped struggling Americans meet basic needs amid the current affordability crisis. AILA opposed this excessive funding bill.

Americans want safety and order—not unchecked violence and lawlessness.

AILA demands accountability and reforms to ensure the nation’s immigration agencies operate in a fair, lawful, and humane manner and bring order and safety to American communities. Read AILA’s recommended reforms: A Better Way on Immigration.

Poll after poll shows Americans want to restore public safety to their communities by reining in these out-of-control agencies. Contrary to the Administration’s claims, the vast majority of people in ICE detention have never been convicted of a crime. Under the current Administration, ICE and Border Patrol agents have shot more than 21 people, killing 11. More than 50 people have died in ICE custody. ICE has also wrongfully detained more than 170 U.S. citizens and held people illegally in over 4,400 cases.

Congress should focus on affordability—not mass deportations.

The nation’s leadership should be spending taxpayer dollars to address the rising costs for food, housing, health care, and other basic needs. $250 billion for the mass deportation agenda is a waste of government resources and is also making life harder for Americans, including causing U.S.-born workers to lose jobs.

Enforcement dominates the Administration’s immigration agenda.

In its pursuit of mass deportations, the Administration has compromised the ability of USCIS and EOIR to ensure fair immigration decisions. Increasingly, judges and officers are dispensing with due process to detain people and accelerate removal proceedings. Rather than encouraging individuals to seek lawful immigration status, the Administration’s enforcement campaign instills fear in those who seek to follow our laws.

America needs a Better Way on Immigration.

Congress must restore public trust by creating an independent oversight body and enacting enforceable guardrails on DHS. AILA’s proposes codifying safe and humane enforcement standards, including requiring warrants for ICE arrests; prohibiting enforcement at schools, hospitals, and places of worship; and imposing real consequences when officers violate the law. For a full set of solutions, read AILA’s proposal: A Better Way on Immigration.

Key Resources