Published by Refugees International on November 12, 2020.
How Mexico can improve its asylum system and other provisions for a fast-rising number of protection-seeking migrants.
A New Way Forward: Strengthening the Protection Landscape in Mexico
Links to long-form information produced by non-governmental organizations (other than WOLA)
Lack of Medical Care, Unsafe Work Practices, and Absence of Adequate Protection Against COVID-19 for Detained Immigrants and Employees Alike at the Irwin County Detention Center
Published by Project South on September 14, 2020.
A whistleblower complaint about health risks—possibly including non-consensual surgeries on women—and unsafe work practices at the Irwin County ICE detention facility in Georgia.
Border Enforcement Developments Since 1993 and How to Change CBP
Published by the Center for Migration Studies on August 24, 2020.
A summary of recent experience with border security and migration, with a long list of recommendations.
Dismantling and Reconstructing the U.S. Immigration System: A Catalog of Changes under the Trump Presidency
Published by the Migration Policy Institute on July 31, 2020.
Catalogues more than 400 administrative changes to the U.S. border security and immigration regime during the Trump administration, and what it might take to undo them.
New Asylum Ban, Recycled Pretext: Proposed Rule Would Illegally, Unjustly Bar Many Asylum Seekers on Public Health Grounds
Laying out the strong case against the Trump administration’s proposed July 9, 2020 rule that would make permanent restrictions on asylum first implemented as a COVID-19 response.
Serve Your People: A Roadmap for Transforming Relations between the United States & the Northern Countries of Central America
“Highlights ways the United States can restore and advance protections for migrants and refugees and use principled diplomacy to stand with civil society forces for change.”
Asylum Denied, Families Divided: Trump Administration’s Illegal Third-Country Transit Ban
Published by Human Rights First on July 15, 2020.
Details the human rights impact of the third-country transit ban that the Trump administration imposed in July 2019 and a federal court struck down on June 30, 2020.
The Hidden Curve: Estimating the Spread of COVID-19 among People in ICE Detention
Published by the Vera Institute of Justice on June 30, 2020.
An epidemiological model of COVID-19 in ICE detention centers finds that “by day 60 of the simulation—corresponding to May 15, 2020—the estimated number of cumulative COVID-19 cases would be 15 times higher than the number of cases ICE reported.”
Dead Ends: No Path To Protection for Asylum Seekers Under the Guatemala Asylum Cooperative Agreement
Published by the Georgetown Law Human Rights Initiative on June 10, 2020.
Documents how the Guatemala “safe-third country” agreement is effectively denying Salvadorans and Hondurans a chance to seek asylum.
“Insecurity”: How the Trump Administration is Placing Border Wall Speed before the Law
Published by the Project on Government Oversight on June 5, 2020.
A look at the laws the Trump administration is waiving or violating in order to build as much border fence as possible before the president’s term ends.
ICE Air: 1,677 Flights While Covid-19 Rages (Jan-April 2020)
Published by Witness at the Border on May 29, 2020.
“This report will quantify, in stark terms, the likely transmission of COVID through ICE Air flights shuffling detainees between detention centers.”
Migrant Deaths in South Texas
Published by the University of Texas Strauss Center on May 26, 2020.
Researchers find that more than 3,253 people in 22 years—far more than Border Patrol estimates—have lost their lives attempting to migrate through south Texas.
Family Separation 2.0: “You aren’t going to separate me from my only child.”
Published by Amnesty International on May 21, 2020.
A report on ICE’s new practice, during the COVID-19 pandemic, of giving migrants in family detention the choice of either separating from their children or staying together in indefinite detention.
The State of Asylum: Changes Made to the Asylum System During the Trump Administration
Published by the Niskanen Center on May 21, 2020.
An overview of the Trump administration’s systematic dismantling of the right to seek asylum, and recommendations for how to restore it.
Explainer on U.S. Deportations and Expulsions During the COVID-19 Pandemic
An overview of the dangers and illegality of the Trump administration’s quick expulsions of asylum seekers during the COVID-19 border closure.
Deportation With a Layover: Failure of Protection Under the U.S.-Guatemala Asylum Cooperative Agreement
Published by Refugees International and Human Rights Watch on May 19, 2020.
Based on fieldwork in Guatemala, researchers piece together what happened to 939 Salvadoran and Honduran asylum-seekers whom U.S. authorities sent to Guatemala between November 2019 and March 2020 under a “safe third country agreement.”
Stranded: The Impact of US Policies on Asylum Seekers
Published by Jesuit Refugee Service USA on May 19, 2020.
This report “shares the testimonies of people who are facing the real and often heart breaking consequences of U.S. asylum policies,” especially “Remain in Mexico.”
Public Health Measures to Safely Manage Asylum Seekers and Children at the Border
Published by several organizations on May 15, 2020.
A memo explaining how, even in a public health emergency, U.S. border authorities c0uld be attending to asylum seekers and unaccompanied children instead of expelling them.
Pandemic as Pretext: Trump Administration Exploits COVID-19, Expels Asylum Seekers and Children to Escalating Danger
Published by Human Rights First on May 13, 2020.
A current overview of how the Trump administration’s COVID-19 response, including blanket expulsions of asylum-seeking Mexicans and Central Americans, including unaccompanied children, is worsening the humanitarian situation along the border.
Reforming the Department of Homeland Security Through Enhanced Oversight & Accountability
Published by the Center for a New American Security on May 12, 2020.
Noting that “the functions of border security and immigration enforcement…have grown disproportionately large in size and broad in scope, without the necessary oversight and accountability structures,” the security think-tank proposes a series of reforms.