Think Immigration: From Funding Fights to Accountability - AILA’s Work to Confront ICE and Border Patrol Abuses
Since the start of last year, ICE and Border Patrol, encouraged by the Administration’s mass deportation agenda, have committed countless unlawful abuses against immigrants and U.S. citizens, with no end in sight. Earlier this month, ICE agents fatally shot Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Colombian national Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine. Salgado Araujo had lived in the U.S. for 35 years and was in the process of obtaining legal status while Guerrero was not even the target of the ICE operation that took his life and the reason he was stopped is still unclear. ICE agents in both these shootings were not wearing body cameras. Congress has further greenlighted these repeated abuses that have caused serious injuries and preventable deaths by providing nearly $250 billion in extra funding that mostly goes to ICE and Border Patrol since last year.
Across the country, AILA members have been in the trenches responding to the crisis-level needs of their clients, forcefully defending them in immigration courts, filing emergency habeas petitions in federal court to demand their clients’ release, and more. In these trying times, these efforts constitute a last line of defense to uphold the rule of law and ensure that no one’s rights are trampled.
Since the onslaught of unlawful government abuse began, AILA members have also fought back in the halls of Congress. More than 1,600 AILA members have urged their elected officials to block more funding for ICE and Border Patrol by sending over 5,300 messages this year. While we lost that fight in June with Congress giving DHS another $70 billion in reconciliation funding, we are starting to win the war in public opinion which has shifted dramatically against the administration’s agenda.
During this year’s appropriations and reconciliation fights, AILA has focused its legislative asks on specific, actionable demands to make American communities safer and ensure the rule of law is followed. These demands include enforceable consequences for unlawful ICE actions as well as prohibiting racial and other forms of profiling. AILA has also called for requiring probable cause and warrants before any arrests or entry onto private property, banning immigration enforcement at sensitive locations, and reallocating funds away from immigration detention and toward helping the American people deal with the ongoing affordability crisis.
AILA’s advocacy, along with pressure from partner organizations, helped secure a modest legislative victory in March when the FY2026 DHS appropriations bill passed without additional funding for ICE or Border Patrol enforcement operations.
Throughout this process, AILA issued statements and vote recommendations warning about the harmful and violent impact this funding would have on American communities. Regrettably, ICE and Border Patrol continued to perpetrate abuses against immigrants and U.S. citizens alike, including multiple serious incidents over just the past two months.
In addition to the two fatal shootings mentioned above, ICE arrested and briefly detained a Nigerian nun, who is also a registered nurse, as she was walking to Mass in Texas and arrested a student on a community college campus in Washington. According to the college president, the ICE agents failed to provide their names, badges, or a warrant when asked. U.S. citizens have not been immune from unlawful ICE actions, like when a Spanish-speaking U.S. citizen was stopped, handcuffed, and interrogated for hours in Louisiana even after showing a valid state ID and valid Social Security card. She was only able to be released after a lawyer intervened. These incidents, and many others, are in large part the result of the failure to implement reforms, like the ones in AILA’s legislative asks, that pave the way for accountability, oversight, and reform in ICE and Border Patrol enforcement operations.
To address the urgent need for reform, last month AILA released its Principles for America’s Future, a comprehensive, forward-looking vision for immigration reform, including immigration enforcement. To stop continued ICE and Border Patrol abuses, AILA urges Congress to create a robust, independent oversight body with the power to stop continued ICE and Border Patrol abuses. Immigration agents should also be required to undergo extensive law enforcement training, use body-worn cameras, and identify themselves during enforcement operations, with enforceable consequences for violations of these requirements. In addition, immigration enforcement should prioritize violent criminals instead of relying on indiscriminate detentions, and immigration enforcement activities should be prohibited at sensitive locations.
These reforms would be a welcome first step toward a humane, fair, and just immigration enforcement system that respects the rule of law, protects rights and liberties, keeps communities safe, and allows immigrants to keep contributing to the country. Take action via AILA’s Advocacy Center and make sure your congressional delegation knows why these issues are so important. Many families and communities live in fear and face enormous hardships due to the mass deportation agenda, but AILA and its members remain dedicated and determined to defending them now and into the future. Together, our voices and advocacy are vital in this fight.
