The ACLU has been one of the nation's leading advocates for the rights of immigrants, refugees and non-citizens, challenging unconstitutional laws and practices, countering the myths upon which many of these laws are based. The ACLU supports rights for all people within the United States and is committed to expanding and enforcing the civil liberties and civil rights of non-citizens and to combating public and private discrimination against immigrants.
In a letter sent today to the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office, the ACLU of Michigan and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC) called on the agency to require the Calhoun County Jail to allow in-person visits for immigration detainees.
At issue are the civil rights of immigration detainees being held in anticipation of deportation, and who may never see their families again. The detainees are currently being held at Calhoun County Jail in Battle Creek, under a contract with DHS.
Michigan-based Arab American community organizations, families separated by President Trump’s Muslim ban and the ACLU of Michigan renewed their challenge to the ban today in Arab American Civil Rights League v Trump.
The American Civil Liberties Union asked the U.S. District Court in Detroit to release over 100 Iraqi nationals who have been illegally detained by U.S. immigration authorities, most for more than a year. The ACLU is also requesting sanctions against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for misleading the court; and to unseal secret documents that show ICE’s prior statements to the court were false.
Attorneys Can Visit Clients; ICE Will Tell Detainees They Can’t Be Deported for Refusing to Go to Iraq
DETROIT – U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith today issued an emergency order granting immediate relief to Iraqi detainees. The order prohibits harassment by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intended to pressure long-time U.S. residents into agreeing to be deported.
DETROIT – The ACLU of Michigan has filed an emergency motion to protect Iraqis detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from illegal coercion and intimidation. On behalf of detainees and their families, the ACLU is asking the court to stop threats and misinformation by ICE agents, intended to pressure long-time U.S. residents into agreeing to be deported. Many detainees are from persecuted ethnic or religious minority groups.
Greyhound buses, once a symbol of travel on America’s vast highways, have become rolling traps where U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents routinely board to unlawfully interrogate, detain and arrest passengers.
The agents, with the agreement of Greyhound, stage surprise boardings without warrants to question riders about their citizenship and travel plans. In many cases, all too reminiscent of police states, the agents demand to see a passenger’s “documents.”
By Britanny Hamama
Tonight, my mom, Nahrain Hamama, is attending the State of the Union in Washington, DC, as a guest of U.S. Congressman Sander Levin.
When my mom told me, I couldn’t believe it. I asked, "The actual State of the Union?”
I feel so thankful and overwhelmed that my family has not been forgotten, that the heartache and fear we have felt the past seven months matters.
A federal court today ruled that nearly 300 Iraqi nationals who have been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will have an opportunity to be released. U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith ruled that when Iraqis in the case have been detained for more than six months—as already nearly all of them have—they are entitled to go before an immigration judge and present evidence showing they should be released from detention.
By: Monica Andrade, Skadden Fellow, and Bonsitu Kitaba-Gaviglio, Staff Attorney, ACLU of Michigan
“What did we do to deserve this?”
“If they’re being deported, why are they still in detention? And how long will they be there?”
These are just some of the questions haunting hundreds of Iraqi families, whose loved ones have been held in immigration detention for months. Starting in June, Immigration and Customs Enforcement began conducting raids on Iraqi nationals with final orders of removal.
The American Civil Liberties Union and partner organizations have filed a brief asking a federal court to order the release of Iraqi nationals who have been detained for months by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
