Ohio, April 9, 2026 – New research from the American Immigration Council underscores the crucial role that immigrants play in Ohio’s economy, filling jobs in critical industries, strengthening the workforce, and contributing billions in taxes each year. The new report was prepared in partnership with Ohio Business for Immigration Solutions — a statewide business coalition powered by the American Immigration Council with over 100 members.  

“Immigrants are essential to Ohio’s future, powering the state’s workforce, strengthening critical industries, and paying billions in taxes that communities depend on every day,” said Rich André, Director of State and Local Initiatives at the American Immigration Council.  

“Ohio’s workforce shortages are placing real strain on businesses across the state, and as this new report highlights, immigrants play a vital role in driving economic growth and sustaining Ohio’s future,” said Jaclyn Ringstmeier, Executive Director of the Greater Medina Chamber of Commerce. 

Key findings: 

• Immigrants are helping fill Ohio’s workplace shortages and will help meet future needs. From 2019 to 2024, the number of overall online job postings increased by 8.2 percent. In 2023, 75.5 percent of immigrants were active in the labor force. That same year, immigrants were 29.4 percent more likely to be of working age than their U.S.-born counterparts – demonstrating that immigrants are already meeting a growing demand for workers and are poised to continue to be active contributors to the workforce. 

• Immigrants in Ohio contributed billions in taxes and consumer spending. In 2023, immigrants earned $27.3 billion in income and paid $7.3 billion in taxes, leaving $20 billion in spending power that supports local businesses and communities. That spending by immigrant households helps fuel growth and keeps local economic corridors vibrant. 

• Immigrants are uniquely positioned to meet critical multilingual needs in the workforce. From 2019 to 2024, the number of online job postings that required or prioritized bilingual skills in Ohio increased by 39.2 percent. Immigrants often have multilingual skills, enabling them to fill those positions. 

• Ohio is underutilizing its immigrant talent. Many immigrants with specialized training and skills gained abroad are unable to work in their fields, due to barriers like relicensing and language proficiency. As a result, in 2023, 43.7 percent of immigrants with a college education were working in jobs that did not require a college degree. 

Read the full factsheet to learn more about how immigrants are supporting Ohio’s workforce, tax base, and economic growth. 

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About the American Immigration Council 

The American Immigration Council works to create a more welcoming and fair immigration system. Through litigation, research, and programs that expand access to legal assistance, the Council helps ensure immigrants are embraced, communities are enriched, and justice prevails for all. Follow us on BlueSky @immcouncil.org and Instagram @immcouncil.    

About Ohio Business for Immigration Solutions 

Ohio Business for Immigration Solutions (OBIS) is a coalition of more than 100 Ohio businesses, trade associations, chambers of commerce, and economic development groups that believe modernizing our immigration system is critically important for the growth of the state’s economy. With its launch on December 10, 2020, the coalition released the Ohio Compact on Immigration, a set of principles developed to elevate the Ohio business community’s desire to promote immigration reforms that will strengthen the economy, attract and retain global talent, and bring new businesses to the Buckeye state. OBIS supports sensible public policy solutions that rise above partisanship and rhetoric and meet the challenges of the current immigration system while recognizing the valuable contributions immigrants make to the state.   

The post New Report: Immigrants Power Ohio’s Workforce and Pay Billions in Taxes appeared first on American Immigration Council.

March 24, 2026, Washington, D.C. – Immigration advocates argued today before the Supreme Court that the Trump administration’s turnback policy violated federal immigration law. Under the now-defunct policy, immigration officers at official border crossings physically and indefinitely blocked people seeking safety from setting foot on U.S. soil, flouting their legal responsibility to inspect and process those requesting asylum. 

“For more than 45 years, Congress has guaranteed people arriving at our borders the right to seek asylum, consistent with our international treaty obligations,” said Kelsi Corkran, Supreme Court Director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, who argued the case. “Yet this Administration believes that Congress gave it discretion to completely ignore those requirements, and turn back those who are seeking refuge from persecution at its whim. Nothing in the law supports that result.”  

The turnback policy, euphemistically dubbed “metering” by government officials, broke with longstanding practice and violated the law. It denied thousands the right to seek asylum, forcing them to languish in hazardous conditions in Mexico or return to the peril they had fled.

In 2017, Al Otro Lado, a binational organization that provides free legal and humanitarian aid to immigrants, and a group of asylum seekers brought a class action suit challenging the policy, which the courts ruled unlawful in both 2022 and 2024. Although the turnback policy has not been in effect since 2021, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to overturn the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision declaring the policy unlawful.

“The right to seek asylum is not a policy preference or a loophole— it is a promise to human beings in their most desperate hour, a promise forged after the world witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust and said ‘never again’. Seeking asylum is not like taking a number at a deli counter and waiting for your turn,” said Nicole Elizabeth Ramos, Border Rights Project Director at Al Otro Lado, plaintiff in the case. “The people turned away at our border are fleeing rape, torture, kidnapping, and death threats. You cannot tell families running for their lives to go back and wait in danger because their suffering is inconvenient. We brought this case because the United States made a legal and moral commitment to protect people fleeing persecution. The question before the Court is whether that promise still means something — or whether it can be discarded when it becomes politically uncomfortable.”

For over a century, under our immigration laws, government officials have been required to inspect people seeking asylum who present themselves at designated ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border – as they must inspect all noncitizens seeking admission to the United States. This requirement ensures that the U.S. government does not send vulnerable people back to danger without giving them an opportunity to seek protection.

“The government’s turnback policy ran roughshod over our laws and treaty obligations. It fueled chaos and dysfunction at the southern border. And it was a complete humanitarian catastrophe, returning thousands of vulnerable refugees to grave harm,” said Melissa Crow, Director of Litigation at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS). “For far too many, the turnback policy was a death sentence.We are here at the Supreme Court today for them, and for all people who continue to look to the United States as a beacon of hope, as a place where the persecuted may find safe haven. We will never stop fighting for the rights of people seeking safety at our nation’s doorstep.”

“We hope the Court rejects the administration’s cynical attempt to manipulate the meaning of the border to evade the most fundamental protections of international law and to continue to exile vulnerable asylum seekers,” said Baher Azmy, Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “Our humanitarian treaty obligations, forged out of the horrors of WWII, are too important to suffer from the whims of CBP.”

“President Trump’s effort to abandon asylum seekers fleeing dangerous circumstances in fear for their lives is an unlawful overreach that imperils thousands of people – including children – in dire circumstances,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “Democracy Forward is proud to work with these brave plaintiffs and our partners to protect the rights of people seeking asylum.”

“The Trump administration’s illegal turnback policy has flouted both U.S. and international law, all while creating massive dysfunction at our southern border,” said Rebecca Cassler, Senior Litigation Attorney at the American Immigration Council. “But most importantly, we cannot forget the people at the heart of this case — the hundreds of thousands of vulnerable asylum seekers who were sent back to danger, and in some cases, death. They deserve justice most of all.” 

For a recording of the press conference on the steps of the Supreme Court following arguments, see here.

For a recording of the interfaith vigil held outside the Court earlier this morning, see here.

For more about the case, see the campaign website, No Turning Back.

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Al Otro Lado provides holistic legal and humanitarian support to refugees, deportees, and other migrants in the U.S. and Tijuana through a multidisciplinary, client-centered, harm reduction-based practice.  They engage in individual representation, human rights monitoring, medical-legal partnerships, and impact litigation to protect the rights of immigrants and people seeking asylum.

The American Immigration Council works to strengthen America by shaping how America thinks about and acts towards immigrants and immigration and by working toward a more fair and just immigration system that opens its doors to those in need of protection and unleashes the energy and skills that immigrants bring. The Council brings together problem solvers and employs four coordinated approaches to advance change—litigation, research, legislative and administrative advocacy, and communications.

The Center for Gender & Refugee Studies defends the human rights of courageous refugees seeking asylum in the United States. With strategic focus and unparalleled legal expertise, CGRS champions the most challenging cases, fights for due process, and promotes policies that deliver safety and justice for refugees.

The Center for Constitutional Rights works with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Since 1966, the Center for Constitutional Rights has taken on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach. 

The Democracy Forward Foundation is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. 

The Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection is a non-partisan, public interest organization within Georgetown Law. ICAP engages in litigation, policy, and public education to defend constitutional rights and protect our democratic processes.

The post Supreme Court Today: Immigration Advocates Tell Justices Trump’s Turnback Policy Violated Law appeared first on American Immigration Council.

Washington, D.C. — The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an order late last night in Amica Center for Immigrant Rights et al. v. Executive Office for Immigration Review et al., blocking significant pieces of the Trump-Vance administration’s new policy that sought to eliminate meaningful appellate review before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). 

Plaintiffs in the case include Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Brooklyn Defender Services, Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, HIAS, and National Immigrant Justice Center. Democracy Forward, the American Immigration Council, and National Immigrant Justice Center represent the plaintiffs.

The lawsuit and motion for preliminary relief challenge the February 6, 2026, Interim Final Rule (IFR), “Appellate Procedures for the Board of Immigration Appeals,” which was set to take effect today, March 9, 2026. The IFR would have imposed sweeping changes that would have eviscerated noncitizens’ right to appeal decisions in their immigration cases that have now been blocked, including:

• Reduce the time to file most appeals from 30 days to 10 days;
• Require summary dismissal of appeals unless a majority of permanent BIA members vote within 10 days to accept the case for review; and
• Permit dismissal decisions before transcripts are created or records are transmitted.

“At a time when the due process rights of immigrants are under attack, this ruling prevents the BIA from reaching the point of near self-destruction,” said Emilie Raber, Senior Attorney at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. “We hope that this decision is the first step of many steps in ensuring that immigration courts reach decisions based on the law rather than on pre-determined outcomes.”

 “Today’s ruling preserves a vital avenue for judicial review in removal proceedings,” said Lucas Marquez, Director of Civil Rights & Law Reform at Brooklyn Defender Services, “And reminds government agencies to follow proper procedures when attempting to make sweeping changes to regulations.  

“This ruling keeps in place a basic, yet critical, protection for immigrants facing removal: the ability to appeal their case,” said Laura St. John, Legal Director at the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project. “As the administration continues to try to deport as many people as they can quickly and often without a fair day in court, it is critical for everyone to have the opportunity to file an appeal. Without this decision, countless immigrants with valid claims would have been hurriedly deported to dangerous conditions, forsaking due process for efficiency.” 

“Today, the court has again held the federal government to its foundational responsibility to afford basic fairness and due process to all whose rights it seeks to curtail,” said Stephen Brown, Director of Immigration Legal Services at HIAS. “We are grateful to our counsel in this case, and proud to stand with our co-plaintiffs to work for a fair immigration system.”

“Today’s ruling is an important win in the face of an administration that is intent on dismantling our immigration system at any cost, including betraying our country’s shared values of the importance of due process and access to counsel,” said Mary Georgevich, Senior Litigation Attorney at the National Immigrant Justice Center. “While imperfect, the Board of Immigration Appeals is the body that Congress has mandated to review deportation orders when the immigration courts get it wrong. Allowing the Trump administration’s reckless proposal to block immigrants from a fair opportunity for review of bad decisions would have resulted in people being returned to danger and families unjustly separated, all to serve a racist mass deportation agenda. We are grateful the court seemed to see this proposed rule for what it was and is ruling to uphold both due process and rule of law.” 

“Today’s decision makes it clear that the Trump-Vance administration cannot play games with the immigration appeals system to eliminate basic due process and fast-track deportations,” said Erez Reuveni, Senior Counsel at Democracy Forward, who presented the oral argument. “Once again, no matter how hard this administration tries to hide its cruel and unlawful actions behind an ‘immigration policy,’ a federal court has made clear that the government must follow the law and cannot strip people of their basic rights. This is another demonstration that litigation is powerful. We will continue representing our plaintiffs in court to defend their rights and hold this administration accountable.”

“This order protects a critical safeguard in our immigration system: the ability to appeal a court decision,” said Suchita Mathur, Senior Litigation Attorney at the American Immigration Council. “This rule would have led to the rushed deportations of untold people before their cases could even be properly reviewed. Today’s decision helps protect basic fairness in our immigration courts.”

The IFR was issued without the required notice-and-comment rulemaking period and fundamentally restructures appellate review in removal proceedings. By requiring summary dismissal unless the full Board acts within 10 days — before transcripts are created — the rule makes meaningful review functionally impossible in most cases.

The legal team at Democracy Forward includes Erez Reuveni, Allyson Scher, Catherine Carroll, and Robin Thurston. Counsel at American Immigration Council include Michelle Lapointe and Suchi Mathur.

Read the opinion here and the order here.

The post Federal Court Blocks Significant Pieces of Administration’s Sweeping Immigration Appeals Rule That Eliminates Meaningful Judicial Review appeared first on American Immigration Council.

Washington, D.C., Feb. 26, 2026 —  Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Brooklyn Defender Services, Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, HIAS, the American Immigration Council, and National Immigrant Justice Center filed a lawsuit and motion for preliminary relief today to block a new interim final rule issued by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) that would effectively eliminate meaningful appellate review before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenges the February 6, 2026, Interim Final Rule (IFR) titled Appellate Procedures for the Board of Immigration Appeals, which is set to take effect on March 9, 2026.

As detailed in the complaint, the IFR imposes sweeping changes that would eviscerate noncitizens’ right to appeal decisions in their immigration cases, including:

• Reduce the time to file most appeals from 30 days to 10 days;
• Require summary dismissal of appeals unless a majority of permanent BIA members vote within 10 days to accept the case for review;
• Permit dismissal decisions before transcripts are created or records are transmitted;
• Impose simultaneous 20-day briefing schedules with extensions allowed only in narrow “exceptional circumstances”;
• Eliminate reply briefs unless specifically invited; and
• Impose rigid case completion deadlines and concentrate decision-making authority in agency leadership.

“”The BIA Interim Final Rule makes a mockery of due process. In addition to taking away virtually any benefit the BIA could provide immigrants, it will wreak havoc on people with cases in immigration court or federal appellate courts,” said Emilie Raber, Senior Attorney at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. “Litigants who are children, are detained, do not have a lawyer, have disabilities, or speak rare languages will be disproportionately harmed by this Interim Final Rule.”

“The Interim Final Rule creates a barrier to appellate review in removal proceedings and strikes at the heart of due process,” said Lucas Marquez, Director of Civil Rights & Law Reform at Brooklyn Defender Services. “The Rule will result in the deportation of people who are eligible for immigration relief — people who have valid legal claims that an immigration judge got it wrong — simply because the Board of Immigration Appeals will no longer be an avenue to fairly review their cases.”

“This interim final rule completely decimates the process to appeal a case in front of the BIA,” said Laura St. John, Legal Director at the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project. “It will render the vast majority of immigrants unable to appeal their cases and will be particularly harmful to those who most need the recourse of an appeal process, including pro se litigants, vulnerable children, Indigenous language speakers, and people in immigration detention. It will be nearly impossible for most detained pro se individuals to submit a notice of appeal in just 10 days, and without the ability to appeal, many people will be unjustly deported back to dangerous or even life-threatening conditions.” 

“Our clients deserve a fair chance in the immigration court system,” said Stephen Brown, Director of Immigration Legal Services at HIAS.  “Without access to a meaningful appeal process, people who have fled persecution and violence could face dangerous consequences, including the risk of being sent back to a place that is not safe for them.  We are proud to join this legal challenge, and to take a stand against a policy change that will have a seismic impact on the ability of legal service providers such as HIAS to support immigrants in navigating a complex and ever-changing legal system.”

“It is hard to overstate the potential human toll of the changes proposed in this rule,” said Lisa Koop, director of legal services at the National Immigrant Justice Center, which is co-counsel and an organizational plaintiff in the lawsuit. “Curtailing due process in this manner guarantees that legal services providers like ours will be less able to help our clients defend against unjust deportation, and many people who would otherwise be eligible for asylum or other legal status in the United States will never have the opportunity to pursue protection under our laws.”

“The Trump-Vance administration is gaming the immigration appeals system in an unlawful effort to eliminate meaningful review and fast-track deportations,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “What is this administration afraid of? Why are they working so hard to deny people their rights, whether it’s due process or rights to an appeal? The cases that come before the board are often matters of life or death. By cutting appeal deadlines, dismissing cases before transcripts even exist, and forcing rushed decisions under an artificial timeline, the administration is trying to deny justice. We are in court again to defend the rule of law and hold this administration accountable.”

“Immigration courts make life-and-death decisions. Stripping away the possibility to meaningfully appeal a court decision, while charging over $1,000 for the privilege, transforms the appeals process into a sham. It puts people at risk of wrongful and even lethal deportation,” said Michelle Lapointe, legal director at the American Immigration Council. 

According to the filings, the IFR was issued without the required notice-and-comment rulemaking period and fundamentally restructures appellate review in removal proceedings. Plaintiffs argue that by requiring summary dismissal unless the full Board acts within 10 days — before transcripts are created — the rule makes meaningful review functionally impossible in most cases.

Plaintiffs argue the rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the Fifth Amendment, which protects people from deprivation of liberty without due process of law. They are asking the court to block the rule’s effective date and prevent implementation while the case proceeds.

The organizations are seeking a preliminary relief to prevent the rule from taking effect on March 9, 2026, and to keep it blocked while the litigation proceeds.

The case is Amica Center for Immigrant Rights v. EOIR.

View the complaint here.

View the stay motion here.

The post Legal Services Organizations Sue to Block Sweeping Immigration Appeals Rule That Eliminates Meaningful Judicial Review appeared first on American Immigration Council.

Washington DC, Jan. 14 Wednesday — A new report released today by the American Immigration Council shows that the Trump administration is locking up hundreds of thousands of people— most with no criminal record—into a harsh immigration detention system that makes it near impossible to fight their cases or secure release.  

READ THE REPORT HERE.

The report, Immigration Detention Expansion in Trump’s Second Term, reveals how historic funding increases and aggressive enforcement tactics have pushed immigration detention to the highest level in U.S. history. Rather than addressing serious public safety threats, the government is spending billions on mass detention to pressure people who pose no threat to give up their cases and accept deportation. 

As the Trump administration expands its mass deportation agenda, the consequences extend far beyond detention centers. DHS’s aggressive tactics during large-scale enforcement actions in American neighborhoods around the country have already led to tragic, preventable deaths, revealing the human cost of an immigration enforcement system that operates with little oversight or accountability. 

“This has absolutely nothing to do with law and order. Under mass deportation, we’re seeing the construction of a mass immigration detention system on a scale the United States has never seen, in which people with no criminal record are routinely locked up with no clear path to release,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. “Over the next three years, billions of more dollars will be poured into a detention system that is on track to rival the entire federal criminal prison system. The goal is not public safety, but to pressure people into giving up their rights and accepting deportation.” 

READ THE REPORT HERE.

According to the report, the number of people held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention rose nearly 75 percent in 2025, climbing from roughly 40,000 at the start of the year to 66,000 by the start of December, the highest level ever recorded. And with Congress authorizing $45 billion dollars in new detention funding, the report warns that the system could more than triple in size over the next four years. 

Major findings of the report include: 

• There is a dramatic shift in who is being detained. Arrests of people with no criminal record surged by 2,450 percent in Trump’s first year, driven by increases in tactics like “at-large” arrests, roving patrols, worksite raids, and re-arrests of people attending immigration court hearings or ICE check-ins. The percent of people arrested by ICE and held in detention with no criminal record rose from 6 percent in January to 41 percent by December. 

• The detention system has expanded so rapidly that already deleterious conditions have worsened. Through the start of December, ICE was using over 100 more facilities to detain immigrants than at the start of the year. For the first time ever, thousands of immigrants arrested in the interior are being detained in hastily-constructed tent camps, where conditions are brutal. More people died in ICE detention in 2025 than in the last four years combined. 

• People are stripped of their chance to ask a judge for release. New policies have made prolonged, indefinite detention the norm. The Trump administration is pursuing policies that strip millions of people, if they are detained, of the right to have a bond hearing where they can make a case to be released into their community while their immigration case is under review, including for those with decades of life in the United States.  

• The administration is using detention to drive up deportations. By November 2025, for every person released from ICE detention, more than fourteen were deported directly from custody. This is compared to an approximate one-to-two ratio from a year earlier.   

• As the administration expands detention, it is simultaneously gutting oversight. The rapid growth of detention has been paired with deep cuts to internal watchdogs and new restrictions on congressional inspections. This erosion of oversight has consequences that extend beyond detention facilities themselves: as ICE is operating with fewer checks on its authority, aggressive interior enforcement in cities has led to preventable harm and deaths, underscoring how a lack of accountability is putting lives at risk.  

“The Trump administration continues to falsely claim it’s going after the ‘worst of the worst,’ but public safety is just a pretext for locking up immigrants and pushing them to abdicate their cases,” said Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council. “Horrific conditions inside detention facilities break people into accepting deportation which fuels the administration’s inhumane deportation quotas and goals.” 

The report profiles three people whose experiences illustrate the real-world impact of this historic expansion of detention: 

• A green card holder and father of two, detained by ICE at an airport because of a past conviction he was told would not jeopardize his legal status. ICE then neglected his medical issues for months while he was detained. 

• An asylum seeker who was granted humanitarian protection by an immigration judge, yet remains detained months later, without explanation, as ICE seeks to deport her to a third country, and who says she was treated better in federal prison when serving time for an immigration offense.  

• A DACA recipient, detained following a criminal arrest, who was transferred repeatedly across the country as ICE searched for available bed space and witnessed consistently poor conditions across multiple different detention centers. 

With billions of additional dollars already approved, the report warns that immigration detention is poised to grow even larger, deepening the human, legal, and financial costs for families, communities, and the country as a whole. 

“This is a system built to produce deportations, not justice,” said Reichlin-Melnick. “When detention becomes the default response to immigration cases, the costs are borne by everyone. Families are torn apart, due process is set aside, and billions of taxpayer dollars are wasted on these unnecessary and cruel policies that do nothing to increase public safety.”

The post Report: Immigration Detention Is Bigger, Harsher, and Less Accountable Than Ever  appeared first on American Immigration Council.

WASHINGTON DC & DECATUR, GA, December 15, 2025 — The American Immigration Council (the Council) and Welcoming America, two national nonprofits, are pleased to announce that over 10 local communities have been selected to receive Gateways for Growth Challenge (G4G) awards as part of Round VI of the initiative. Awardees will receive a mix of customized research, technical assistance, and planning support to develop strategies that ensure all residents — including immigrants — can succeed and fully contribute to their communities.

The 2026 awardees span both urban and rural communities across ten states and represent the broad range of welcoming work happening across the country led by local governments, nonprofits, chambers of commerce, and community coalitions. Some of these communities include:

• Arlington County, Virginia
• Charlotte, North Carolina
• Durham, North Carolina
• El Paso County, Texas
• Fort Bend County, Texas
• Johnson County, Kansas
• Lancaster, Pennsylvania
• Las Cruces, New Mexico
• Mahoning County, Ohio
• St. Louis, Missouri
• Wabash County, Indiana

“For nearly a decade, the Gateways for Growth Challenge has helped local communities quantify the impact of their immigrant populations and invest in welcoming policies and programs. We are excited to work with the new cohort in creating opportunity for all residents,” said Rich André, Director of State and Local Initiatives at the American Immigration Council.

“This cohort represents local leaders who are doing the day-to-day work of making their communities places where everyone can participate and succeed,” said Molly Hilligoss, senior network director of Welcoming America. “We’re proud to support them as they turn their welcoming values into action.”

Since 2016, G4G has supported more than 75 localities across 37 states. Participating communities have developed welcoming plans that address language access, workforce development, civic participation, and social cohesion. Many have gone on to pass welcoming resolutions, launch new programs, join the broader Welcoming Network, and achieve Certified Welcoming status—a national recognition for communities that meet benchmarks for inclusion and welcoming. For more information about Gateways for Growth, visit gatewaysforgrowth.org.

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About the Gateways for Growth Challenge 

The Gateways for Growth Challenge (G4G) is a competitive opportunity for localities to receive research support and technical assistance from the American Immigration Council and Welcoming America to improve immigrant inclusion in their communities. Learn more at gatewaysforgrowth.org.   

About Welcoming America

Welcoming America is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that leads a movement of inclusive communities becoming more prosperous by ensuring everyone belongs. Through the Welcoming Network, we work to change systems and culture by providing communities with the roadmap they need to create welcoming policies and share new approaches to inclusion to create an environment where everyone can truly thrive. Learn more at www.welcomingamerica.org. 

About the American Immigration Council

The American Immigration Council works to strengthen America by shaping how America thinks about and acts towards immigrants and immigration and by working toward a more fair and just immigration system that opens its doors to those in need of protection and unleashes the energy and skills that immigrants bring. The Council brings together problem solvers and employs four coordinated approaches to advance change—litigation, research, legislative and administrative advocacy, and communications. Follow us on Bluesky @immcouncil.org and on Instagram @immcouncil.

The post New Cohort Selected for the Gateways for Growth Challenge  appeared first on American Immigration Council.

Read the court order here and the opinion here.

The order specifically covers children who originally entered the United States as unaccompanied minors and who “age out” of the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) (the federal program that looks after unaccompanied children by placing them in shelters and then later with family and/or guardians).  

This federal court decision enforces a 2021 permanent injunction in Garcia Ramirez v. ICE, which requires ICE to comply with their statutory obligations by considering the least restrictive setting available for every unaccompanied child who turns18 and to make all age-outs eligible for alternatives to detention. 

“This ruling makes clear that ICE cannot secretly flout the law or blatantly ignore court orders,” said Suchita Mathur, senior litigation attorney with the American Immigration Council. “ICE tried to detain newly-18-year-olds as a matter of course. These are kids that ICE officers have found, in almost all cases, do not pose a danger or flight risk, with sponsors, families, and community support waiting for them. This decision puts a stop to that.” 

Under a new policy published October 1, ICE told shelters and attorneys that all unaccompanied children turning 18 would be transferred to adult detention, even when they had safe homes and sponsors waiting to receive them. Adult detention threatens the teenagers’ short- and long-term development. Currently, ICE is holding a record number of people in detention, fueling overcrowding and dehumanizing conditions like lack of adequate medical care, abusive treatment, and restricted access to legal and psychological help. The court found that automatically sending teens into adult detention, without considering safer, age-appropriate alternatives, is a violation of the law.  

“Today’s ruling sends a powerful message: ICE can’t put teenagers in dangerous, overcrowded facilities just because they turned 18,” said Mark Fleming, associate director of federal litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Center. “There are safer, lawful options that keep young people connected to school, family, and community. That’s what the law requires, and that’s what this order restores.” 

The court’s ruling requires ICE to immediately stop following its October 1 guidance and to remove anyone placed under detention as a result.

Read the court order here and the opinion here.

The post Federal Court Blocks ICE’s Unlawful Detention of Immigrant Teens Turning 18  appeared first on American Immigration Council.

READ THE REPORT HERE.

The report, Immigrant Workers and the Childcare Crisis: What’s at Stake for Families and the Economy, finds that immigrant workers make up 1 in 5 childcare workers nationwide, with even higher concentrations in major metro areas like Miami and San Jose. More than half are non-citizens and nearly a third are people who are undocumented, vulnerable to deportation or loss of work authorization.  

The report also features in-depth profiles of 10 childcare providers and parents whose livelihoods and family stability are already being shaken by enforcement crackdowns and visa uncertainty. 

“Working parents already feel the strain of a childcare system that’s barely holding together. Parents can’t clock in if they don’t have safe, stable childcare, and immigrants play a key role in providing that. Mass deportation pulls that foundation out from under families and jeopardizes parents’ ability to stay in the labor force,” said Jeremy Robbins, executive director of the American Immigration Council.  

EXPLORE THE DATA HERE.

The report documents how stepped-up enforcement has already disrupted childcare availability in several communities. In south Philadelphia, a daycare center serving predominantly low-income immigrant families saw enrollment plummet from 158 children to 97 after enforcement actions, forcing layoffs and classroom closures. At one Washington, D.C. preschool, teachers had to quit because of new barriers to maintain work authorization. 

Other key findings include: 

• 20.1 percent of childcare workers are immigrants: over 282,000 people, overwhelmingly women. 

• In cities like San Jose and Miami, immigrants make up over two-thirds of childcare workers. In Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, they make up nearly half. 

• Staffing shortages are already severe. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 160,200 childcare jobs will open each year over the next decade due to turnover. 

• Immigrant childcare workers overall are more likely to be self-employed and to work full-time, filling childcare jobs where hiring U.S.-born workers has proven difficult. 

• Aggressive immigration enforcement has already caused closures, empty classrooms, and absenteeism in daycare centers in some communities.  

• The report includes testimonies profiling 10 individuals, including childcare providers and parents, about how they would pay the price should the childcare system tighten further because of mass raids and more visa restrictions. “I want to be productive. I want to be part of the workforce,” said alias ‘Jen,’ one mother in New York City. “As things ratchet up, there’s always a little voice in my head, ‘Please, please don’t revoke visas.’ [But] if [my au pair] goes then I would have to quit my job.” 

READ THE REPORT HERE.

Disruptions to the U.S. childcare system stemming from Trump’s immigration policies will affect not only households, but the broader labor market as well. According to U.S. census data analyzed in the report: 

• In 2025, 12.8 million households with children under the age of 14, or 41.9 percent of those households, had at least one adult whose job was affected after losing access to childcare.  

• This includes 2.5 million households that used unpaid leave, 2 million households that cut work hours, 1.3 million households with adults who did not look for a job, and more than 600,000 households with adults who quit a job.  

“From hospitals to retail to tech, U.S. employers depend on parents being able to work,” said Nan Wu, director of research at the American Immigration Council. “Removing the workers who make childcare possible would choke off workforce participation and weaken our economy at a time when it’s already struggling.” 

The post New Report: Trump’s Mass Deportation Agenda Will Deepen the Childcare Crisis  appeared first on American Immigration Council.

But her husband’s job for 17 years had been with the United States, specifically, USAID. When the Taliban retook control of the Afghan government in 2021, he was placed on a death list, putting his entire family in danger.

Safia’s family eventually found safety in Houston. They are among the 50,500 Afghan refugees who have received the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV), a program created by Congress to help Afghans who worked for the U.S. government abroad.²

While the family is now safe, they are no longer economically secure. Attaining the licensure to work in their professions in the United States will take years. While he works at a lower-level job at an electronics company, the only childcare job she was able to find was as a low-paid helper at a center far from home. Without transportation, it took her too long to get to work.

“I worked one year in pre-K in Afghanistan,” Safia said. “I love working with children.” She found a free childcare training and licensing class at ECDC – Houston Multicultural Center, a nonprofit that supports refugees and immigrants. But under current funding requirements, the course was only open to Afghan refugees who arrived in the United States between 2021 and 2023. Safia arrived in 2024.

Earlene Leverett, a childcare entrepreneur, managed the ECDC childcare training program for 10 years, when it was operated by its affiliate The Alliance for Multicultural Community Services. She has seen the profound difference it can make, not only for refugees but for the broader community, as well.

“Childcare is in crisis,” she said. “Employers are finally realizing the impact that childcare has on the economy. Businesses have jobs, they need employees to fill those jobs, those employees need childcare.”

Leverett estimates that 350 to 400 immigrants graduated from the one-year program during her tenure. Some opened their own childcare businesses, creating options for parents who might not otherwise be able to find care. Most graduates used their licenses to secure employment at existing daycare centers, which often struggle to expand due to staffing shortages.

It’s a win for everyone, Leverett said. Parents who are already home with young children—most often mothers—can “add substantially to the household income.” So, too, can other mothers who need to take jobs outside the home and, in the case of immigrants, may prefer providers with a familiar cultural background. Employers—particularly in industries more heavily reliant on immigrant labor, like hospitality and healthcare—can access the workers they need.

The U.S. government provides some financial assistance to refugees when they first arrive in the country, but that assistance comes to a halt rather quickly. Nonprofits and others step in with language classes and job training with a single purpose: refugees must be able to support themselves within six months.

“In order to speed up this self-sufficiency goal, it takes everyone in the household working,” said Leverett. “When there is no childcare available to the employees then it becomes a huge economic issue.”

Leverett ran her own day care centers in Texas for 16 years. Immigrants, she said, have always filled “a big part of the industry as employees.”

Providing training for refugees like Safia to secure childcare licenses works, she said. “We saw that happen, the difference that it made in the community. Because that was one thing people needed was employment.”

Currently, Safia is working to improve her English and find another affordable program that will help her get a license to open a childcare facility. “I like children, I’m patient with children,” she said. “I really want to improve in this field and work with children.”

The post Caring for Children from Kabul to Houston  appeared first on American Immigration Council.

Nestled in a low-income, primarily immigrant neighborhood in south Philadelphia, the center provides job tips, educational sessions, donations, and more, in addition to childcare. It is one of three Children’s Playhouses in the city, all owned by Damaris, a businesswoman from New York City.

The center’s children are all U.S. citizens between the age of 0 and 5. Nearly all are from Hispanic or Asian immigrant families. Before the Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns, the center enrolled 158 children—the maximum number permitted. Now, it has 97. Damaris has had to close one classroom and lay off five teachers, all of whom are U.S. citizens and two of whom were born in this country. She worries about the absent children.

Even parents who still have valid immigration status “went into hiding,” she said. “There were so many policies at once that they didn’t know how they would be affected. They were afraid of dropping their children off at school and having ICE waiting for them.”

If the situation continues, Damaris wonders if she’ll have to shut this location down, a move that would cost 23 more teachers their jobs. “We haven’t been able to fill our classrooms—people are afraid,” she said. “Now I’m really second-guessing running the childcare center. If we can’t enroll, we can’t continue in business.”

But mostly, Damaris is worried about the families she no longer sees—anywhere. She does not see children out and about, or families at events. The adults don’t seem to be going to work; vans that used to bring residents to factory and construction jobs are nowhere to be seen. Some families have self-deported, she said: “Nobody wants to live in fear.”

“All of this stuff dismantles so much of the work that we’ve put into building up our community,” Damaris said. “These are hardworking people. They contribute to society. We [the daycare centers] help build that economic growth.”

And the children who are no longer at their preschool? Where are they? “I don’t know,” Damaris said. “I would love to know. I hope they’re OK.”

The daycare center provided those children with more than socialization and learning. Damaris regularly raises funds so she can give meals, diapers, infant formula, and clothing to families in need. “We like to fill in those gaps.”

“We know that most of the children are food-deprived,” Damaris said. “I pray that they’re OK, that they’re good and safe.”

The post Fear and Empty Classrooms: The Human Cost of Immigration Crackdowns appeared first on American Immigration Council.