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Immigration & ICE blog
The 1996 Laws That Built Today's Deportation System Two 1996 laws widened the crimes that trigger deportation, mandated detention and stripped judges of discretion. How they work and why they outlasted reform. DHS v. Regents and the Paperwork Argument That Saved DACA in 2020 How the Supreme Court kept DACA alive in 2020 without ruling on whether it was legal, and why an argument about agency paperwork still shapes the fight over Dreamers. Executive Order 9066 and the Immigrants Barred From Citizenship Why the Japanese immigrants imprisoned in 1942 could not have been citizens even if they wanted to be, how the law stripped them of farms first, and how the country finally apologized. Expedited Removal and How Fast the Government Can Deport Someone Expedited removal lets an immigration officer order a deportation with no judge involved. Here is who it covers after the 2025 expansion, what safeguards exist, and why it matters to citizens too. Hart-Celler at the Statue of Liberty and the Country It Remade Why Lyndon Johnson told a crowd on Liberty Island that the 1965 immigration law was not revolutionary, and how its family-first design changed the country anyway. How Asylum Works, From the 1980 Refugee Act to a Border Interview What asylum law actually requires, from the 1980 Refugee Act's definition of a refugee to the credible fear interview at the border and the years-long wait in immigration court. How DACA Works and Why It Has Lived on Court Orders Since 2012 What Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals gives and never gave, how it survived a rescission and a Supreme Court case, and why its future still rests with judges and Congress. Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s and the Citizens Sent Away During the Depression, raids and relief offices pushed hundreds of thousands of Mexicans and Mexican Americans, many of them citizens, out of the US. Reagan's 1986 Amnesty and What the Immigration Reform Act Did The 1986 law gave legal status to about 2.7 million people and promised to cut off illegal hiring. One half worked and one half failed, and both still shape every reform fight. Temporary Protected Status and the Countries It Covers A plain guide to Temporary Protected Status: the 1990 law behind it, how countries are designated and dropped, what holders get, and why the courts now rarely step in. The 1924 Immigration Act and the Quotas That Lasted Four Decades How the Johnson-Reed Act used old census numbers and eugenic theory to rank the world's peoples, what it did to refugees in the 1930s, and why it took until 1965 to undo. The 1954 Deportation Drive and the Myth of an Orderly Mass Removal In 1954 the government claimed over a million removals in one border campaign. The record shows inflated numbers, deaths in transit and citizens swept up. The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and Its Revival in 2025 How a 1798 wartime law was used in March 2025 to fly Venezuelan men to a Salvadoran prison, what the statute actually says, and what the Supreme Court required before anyone else could be removed. The Chinese Exclusion Act and the First Law to Bar a People by Name How the 1882 law that barred Chinese workers built the paperwork, inspectors and court doctrines that still shape American immigration enforcement today. Why Immigration Courts Answer to the Attorney General Immigration judges work for the Justice Department, and the Attorney General can rewrite their law with a single decision. Here is how that structure works and why reformers want to change it.