Our Position
We strive for an immigration system that values the basic dignity and human rights of all people with policies that uphold the right to seek asylum, remove barriers to citizenship, and promote and support welcoming communities across the U.S.
Issues
NETWORK Advocates for Federal Policies That:
Racism in immigration policy persists. Black and Brown asylum seekers in the U.S. are expelled and deported without due process. When allowed to remain, Black and Brown immigrants face racially-motivated obstacles to care, transportation, and other basic needs.
How You Can Help
Nothing at this time. Make sure you are signed up for our emails to received the latest policy updates.
Immigration Executive Orders and Actions
| Executive Order or Action | |
|---|---|
| Increasing random, illegitimate arrests and detentions of naturalized U.S. citizens, green card holders, and foreign tourists by ICE, including at least one illegal deportation and detention at the notorious El Salvador prison where hundreds of migrants were sent without due process. | These arrests and detentions have created widespread fear among immigrants living in the U.S. and visitors attempting to enter or leave the U.S. |
| Discontinuing the CBP One app: The Biden administration created the app to allow asylum seekers to schedule appointments to request asylum. | |
| Prohibits people seeking asylum from staying in the U.S. while they pursue their claim. | This prohibition puts people who are fleeing war and persecution in harm’s way. |
| Mobilizing troops to the border: Declares a national emergency at the southern border. 10,000 troops are currently stationed at the border and a naval warship is deployed to the region. | Militarizes the southern U.S. border to prevent people seeking safety from entering the U.S. |
| Limiting access to legal representation for immigrants: Cuts off funding that was appropriated by Congress in 2024 to allow certain detained immigrants to have access to legal representation. | Hinders the right of people in immigration detention to access legal representation. |
| Closing the southern border: Suspends the entry of migrants and allows President Trump to impose any “appropriate” restrictions on new entries. | Effectively closes the southern border to people and families seeking safety, and temporarily and gives President Trump sweeping discretion to impose further restrictions on immigration. |
| Designating cartels as terrorist organizations: Names foreign drug cartels as terrorist organizations and expands law enforcement measures and penalties for those organizations and those who participate in their activity. | Raises the risk that NGOs, including Catholic organizations, that aid undocumented immigrants with services like food or housing may be labeled as supporting “terrorists.” |
| Targeting immigrants and communities who help them: Greatly expands immigrant detention facilities. Orders the hiring of more border patrol agents; cuts off federal funds to sanctuary states and cities; and denies public benefits to undocumented immigrants. | Potential massive increases to migrant detention capacity and ICE workforce. Threatens to dismantle sanctuary protections by cutting off federal funding to sanctuary states and cities. |
| “Vetting” immigrants: Requires all agencies to conduct “enhanced alien vetting” to ensure that a person has no “hostile” attitudes toward the U.S. or “terrorist” history. This applies to immigrants seeking entry and those already in the U.S. Requires information from the individual’s country of origin and allows for full exclusion of all migrants from non-cooperating countries. | Threatens serious obstacles to the ability to both enter and remain in the U.S., even for those with otherwise legal status. Allows the government to entirely block immigration from selected countries. |
| Criminalizing migration: Seeks to complete the border wall and detain migrants suspected of violating immigration law. Seeks to criminally charge people who already live in the U.S. without documentation, as well as people who “facilitate their unlawful presence in the U.S.” | Threatens criminal prosecution of migrants here without citizenship, as well as NGOs that provide aid to immigrants. |
| Ending birthright citizenship: Seeks to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants. | This is a blatant violation of the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution. |
| Targeting immigrants in protests: Requires all agencies to develop plans to address anti-Semitism, singling out campus demonstrations against military actions by Israel and participation by non-U.S. citizen students in those demonstrations. ICE has arrested and detained numerous green card, TPS, and more than 300 legitimate visa holders for potential deportation, including Mahmoud Khalil and others, chiefly for participation in pro-Palestine protests or for being Venezuelan nationals. | Bars refugees even if they had plane tickets, including 1,600 Afghan refugees. Deprives recently arrived refugees from statutorily mandated support and defunds refugee assistance organizations. |
| Targeting immigrants in protests: Requires all agencies to develop plans to address anti-Semitism, singling out campus demonstrations against military actions by Israel and participation by non-U.S. citizen students in those demonstrations. ICE arrested green card holder Mahmoud Khalil and is detaining him in Louisiana for his participation in pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University, where Khalil is a student. The U.S. government is trying to revoke his green card and deport him. | Effectively threatens participants in such demonstrations with criminal and civil penalties, notably deportation for non-citizen students who participate. Khalil’s arrest is a dangerous precedent intended to chill free speech and political activism. |
| Fast-track deportations memo: A DHS directive that authorizes fast-track deportations for people who cannot prove they have been in the U.S. for two years. Authorizes ICE raids on “sensitive locations” including schools, churches, and hospitals. Establishes quotas for daily ICE arrests. In a directive that was not published, the Trump administration encouraged the re-detention and removal of individuals who had previously won protection from immigration court. The directive allows the Administration to deport people who do not have legal status to “third countries” rather than their home country. | |
| Invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798: Allows for summary deportation of people from countries at war with the U.S. Hundreds of Venezuelans accused of being gang members have been sent to prisons in El Salvador. | Prisons in El Salvador are notorious for their inhumane treatment of inmates. This EO may be used more broadly and will deprive immigrants of due process rights and subject them to abuse and torture. |
| Rescinding TPS: Rescinds the recent renewal of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelan and Haitian immigrants. | Strips 600,000 Venezuelan migrants and 500,000 Haitian migrants in the U.S. of their legal immigration status and subjects them to deportation to a country in crisis. |
| Opening camps at Guantanamo: Directs the opening of immigrant detention camps at Guantanamo. | |
| Sharing confidential tax records: The IRS is disclosing information to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for immigration enforcement purposes. | This action exposes millions of taxpayers to aggressive immigration enforcement. Undocumented workers pay almost $100 billion in taxes, including to Social Security and Medicare, although they are not eligible for this benefit. |
| Eliminating the DHS offices that safeguard immigration processes: Eliminates the three DHS offices responsible for handling complaints regarding the immigration process and providing oversight and reporting to Congress. | This action wipes out any internal scrutiny over errors and abuses by DHS offices and personnel, along with annual accountability regarding DHS conduct to Congress. |
| Revocation of humanitarian parole for tens of thousands of immigrants: DHS is revoking humanitarian parole for nationals of Cuba, Haiti, NIcaragua, and Venezuela, leaving them without legal status in the U.S. within 30 days of the revocation announcement. | This action will leave tens of thousands of immigrants, now legally in the U.S., who will effectively become undocumented migrants in 30 days and face ICE arrest, deportation, and a return to violence and persecution in their countries of birth. |