• Biden Defends Immigration Policy During State of the Union, Blaming Republicans in Congress for Refusing to Act

    The U.S. passed a law in 1952 that gives any person arriving at the border or inside the U.S. the right to apply for asylum and the right to legally stay in the country, even if that person crossed the border illegally. That law has not changed. Trump was able to lawfully deport migrants at the border without processing their asylum claims during the COVID-19 pandemic under a public health law called Title 42. Biden continued that policy until a 2023 court ruling that Title 42 could no longer be used since the public health emergency had ended. Biden is now considering using section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to get more control over immigration. This sweeping law allows the president to temporarily suspend or restrict the entry of all foreigners if their arrival is detrimental to the U.S.

  • Border Patrol: 70 Percent Drop in Successful Evasions Since Title 42 Ended

    The United States has a legitimate interest in regulating the entry of serious criminals and other threats to Americans, and border security is a significant component of that effort. Ending Title 42 improved border security and reduced successful illegal entries. This should force the many members of Congress and the administration who opposed ending Title 42 to rethink their position.

  • Within Hours of Appeal, Supreme Court Stays Appellate Ruling on Texas Border Bill

    Within hours of a federal appeals court decision Monday allowing a new Texas law to stand that makes illegal entry into the state from a foreign nation a state crime, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito stayed the appellate court’s decision. Alito’s ruling prevents the law from going into effect on March 5, as originally intended, or on March 11, as the Fifth Circuit ruled unless the Supreme Court intervened.

  • The Crisis at the Border: A Primer for Confused Americans

    The volume of migrants arriving at the border without prior authorization—a historic high of 3.2 million encounters in fiscal year 2023—is indeed record-breaking. Migrants now hail from a greater diversity of countries than in the past and consist of more families and children.

  • Appeals Court Reverses Order Blocking Texas Immigration Law, Setting Up Supreme Court Showdown

    The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Saturday reversed a lower court’s ruling that halted a new state law allowing Texas police to arrest people suspected of crossing the Texas-Mexico border illegally. If the U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t intervene in the coming days, the law making illegal entry a state crime could go into effect this weekend.

  • Federal Judge Blocks Texas Law Allowing Police to Arrest Migrants Suspected of Being in Country Illegally

    Senate Bill 4 was Texas’ latest attempt to deter people from crossing the Texas-Mexico border amid a surge in migration. SB 4 was scheduled to take effect Tuesday. “SB 4 threatens the fundamental notion that the United States must regulate immigration with one voice,” Judge David Ezra wrote.

  • EU Asylum Applications at 7-Year High

    Official figures reveal that the EU received more than 1.14 million asylum applications in 2023, the highest number since 2016. Far-right parties could capitalize on the influx in June’s EU elections.

  • DHS Secretary Mayorkas Impeached by House

    The House, by a one-vote margin, on Tuesday voted to impeach DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. In a 214-to-213 vote mostly along party lines, the House impeached Mayorkas for willfully refusing to enforce border laws and breaching the public trust. Mayorkas is the first sitting cabinet secretary in U.S. history to be impeached.

  • Seeking Protection: How the U.S. Asylum Process Works

    Record numbers of migrants seeking to cross the southern U.S. border are challenging the Joe Biden administration’s attempts to restore asylum protections. Here’s how the asylum process works.

  • Illegal Border Crosser on Terror Watchlist Released by Border Patrol, Apprehended Later—What Do We Know?

    The headlines are attention-grabbing, but reality is more mundane: Most people on the terror watchlist are not terrorists. The terror watchlist contains known terrorists, but also people who engaged in conduct related to terrorism, such as fund raising. Individuals on the watchlist who crossed the border illegally have never committed an attack domestically, let alone killed or injured anyone in such an attack. We should be concerned about people on the terrorist watchlist, but we should not immediately assume that they are terrorists planning a domestic attack.

  • Operation Lone Star Border Security Funding Totals More Than Multiple State Budgets

    The Texas legislature has allocated more than $11.6 billion to border security efforts over a four-year period, the most in state history. It totals more than multiple state fiscal year budgets and more than what the Trump administration allocated to federal border security efforts in Texas.

  • As Baby Boomers Retire in Droves, Will Immigrants Save U.S. Economy?

    Each day, about 10,000 people born between 1946 and 1964 leave the U.S. workforce, a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic when older workers decided to retire early rather than risk getting sick. The problem is that for every one person leaving, there’s only one person coming into the labor force, and if the labor force is not growing, economic growth is slowed down, or worse.

  • FBI Foils 2022 Plot by Militiamen to “Start a War” at the Texas-Mexico Border

    A Tennessee man arrested Monday hoped to travel to the southern border with a militia group that allegedly plotted to go “to war with the border patrol,” believing that the country was being invaded by migrants.

  • How Does Germany Ban Foreign Far-Right Extremists?

    Germany is considering banning Austria’s far-right extremist Martin Sellner from entering the country. Such a move is not unprecedented, but the legal hurdles in the EU are high.

  • Want to Solve the Border Crisis? Legalize Immigration

    Migrants aren’t the problem and the country is not “overwhelmed.” Nativist politicians and impossible barriers to legal entry caused (and maintain) the chaos. In other words, immigration restrictionists create the problems and then demand ever more restrictions to fix them.