Refugees

Executive Order on Immigration

What an extraordinary 72 hours it has been in immigration law and enforcement.  

ACLU led attorneys filed actions across the country to halt the Executive Order issued on January 27, 2017. Resulting in a federal judge in the Eastern District of New York issuing the first order, granting a nationwide stay of removal preventing deportation for individuals with valid visas and approved refugee applications affected by the Executive Order. The next came a decision out of a federal court in Massachusetts - it barred federal officials from detaining or removing individuals subject to the Executive Order.  In a case filed in Virginia, the court ordered federal officials to provide lawyers access to "all legal permanent residents being detained at Dulles International Airport" and barred officials from deporting covered individuals for the next seven days. In the case out of Washington State, the federal judge barred the federal government from deporting two unnamed individuals from the United States.

The Department of Homeland Security put out a statement early today stating only that the agency "will comply with judicial orders."

A copy of the Executive Order is provided in the link below.  

 

Families are Taken Into Custody as Push to Deport Immigrants Denied Refuge Begins

The detentions of at least 11 families across the country marked the first day of an effort by the government to find and deport Central American immigrants who sought refuge in the U.S. and stayed illegally, immigrant advocates said Saturday.