NEW YORK — Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arrested Daniel Ramirez Medina, an individual living in Seattle, Washington, who was granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The DACA program allows immigrants who came to the United States as children, often called Dreamers, to apply for a work permit and temporary protection against removal.
Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, had this reaction:
“If not quickly reversed, ICE’s arrest of a young immigrant who was granted deferred action could make a travesty of the federal government’s promises to DACA grantees across the country, who came to the U.S. as children and are an integral part of our communities. Secretary Kelly and President Trump should immediately issue guidance confirming that the government stands by its promises to Dreamers and ensuring that ICE does not arrest, detain, or deport DACA grantees.”
This statement is at: /news/aclu-trump-administration-dont-target-dreamers
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Human Rights Groups Urge Ice To End Immigration Detention At Fort Bliss Military Base, Halt Abusive Third-country Deportations . Explore Press Release.Human Rights Groups Urge ICE to End Immigration Detention at Fort Bliss Military Base, Halt Abusive Third-Country Deportations
WASHINGTON — Human rights groups today sent a letter urging U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to end immigration detention at Camp East Montana, a massive tent camp at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas. Advocates summarized in their letter accounts of horrific conditions, including beatings and sexual abuse by officers against detained immigrants, beatings and coercive threats to compel deportation to third countries, medical neglect, hunger and insufficient food, and denial of meaningful access to counsel, among other rights violations. The letter comes just weeks after Rep. Veronica Escobar warned that people detained at Ft. Bliss were given foul-tasting drinking water, rotten food, and inadequate healthcare. The letter follows months of interviews with more than 45 detained people at Ft. Bliss and is accompanied by 16 sworn declarations by immigrants detained at the facility. Numerous detained people told lawyers that officers have engaged in a widespread and unreasonable pattern and practice of excessive force, including the use of abusive sexual contact by officers when utilizing force. One detained teenager using the pseudonym “Samuel” told lawyers he was beaten by officers so severely he sustained injuries across his body, lost consciousness, and had to be taken to a hospital in an ambulance. The letter relays Samuel’s account that his right front tooth broke from the force of being slammed to the ground, and as Samuel attests, one officer “grabbed my testicles and firmly crushed them,” while another “forced his fingers deep into my ears.” Samuel went on to say that while he was feeling “dizzy” and was “fighting to remain conscious,” an officer laughed at Samuel for having a chipped tooth after being slammed to the ground and told Samuel he was “like a little girl.” Samuel said that weeks after the beating, damage to his left ear is so severe that he now has trouble hearing. In their letter, the groups also reiterate their calls to immediately halt deportations of people to third countries to which they have no genuine ties. Interviewees said that at Ft. Bliss, the prospect of such removals has taken on a particularly abusive character. People detained attested that officers at Ft. Bliss have beaten detained people and used the threat of violence, criminal charges, and imprisonment in attempts to coerce non-Mexican immigrants held at Ft. Bliss to cross the border into the Mexican desert. Isaac, a Cuban immigrant held at Ft. Bliss, attested in a sworn declaration that officers told him that he was going to be deported to Mexico. Isaac told lawyers that, “the guards hit my head” and “slammed it against the wall approximately ten times.” He also said that officers grabbed and crushed his testicles between their fingers, and that soon after, officers handcuffed Isaac and approximately 20 other people, placed them on a bus, and drove them to the border, where they were informed they could get off the bus and cross into Mexico. Isaac added that officers told them “If we don’t want to go to Mexico, then we would either be sent to a jail cell in El Salvador or Africa.” Isaac is also using a pseudonym to protect his identity. The letter – which was signed by the Ůҹ, ACLU of New Mexico, ACLU of Texas, Estrella del Paso, Human Rights Watch, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, and Texas Civil Rights Project – also follows widespread media coverage detailing abusive conditions. In September 2025, a Washington Post report noted that a leaked internal ICE inspection found the Ft. Bliss facility violated over 60 federal detention standards in the first 50 days of its opening. The Trump administration hastily opened the sprawling tent camp in August 2025, despite warnings from members of Congress and advocates that the facility would be a humanitarian disaster. The facility is located on the military base formerly used to intern people of Japanese descent during World War II and currently holds over 2,700 people, making it the country’s largest immigration detention center. The full letter to ICE is available here: /documents/ice-letter-re-fort-bliss The declarations are available here: /documents/fort-bliss-declarations-december-2025Affiliates: Texas, New Mexico -
Press ReleaseDec 2025
Immigrants' Rights
Supreme Court To Hear High-stakes Birthright Citizenship Challenge . Explore Press Release.Supreme Court to Hear High-Stakes Birthright Citizenship Challenge
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court today agreed to hear an appeal in a case challenging President Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order that seeks to deny U.S. citizenship to many babies born in the United States. The Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Trump v. Barbara. Courts have repeatedly blocked the administration from implementing the executive order, finding it violates the Constitution, over a century of Supreme Court precedent, and a longstanding federal statute. The Barbara case is a nationwide class action, brought by the Ůҹ, ACLU of New Hampshire, ACLU of Maine, ACLU of Massachusetts, Legal Defense Fund, Asian Law Caucus, and Democracy Defenders Fund on behalf of babies who would be subject to the executive order. This summer, the federal court in the Barbara case granted a preliminary injunction that protects birthright citizenship for all children born on U.S. soil. 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The federal courts have unanimously held that President Trump’s executive order is contrary to the Constitution, a Supreme Court decision from 1898, and a law enacted by Congress. We look forward to putting this issue to rest once and for all in the Supreme Court this term.” “The Trump administration’s attempts to unilaterally rewrite the 14th Amendment — an essential Reconstruction-era measure that granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S., including formerly enslaved people — will not stand,” said Morenike Fajana, senior counsel at the Legal Defense Fund. “We look forward to going before the Supreme Court to uphold the constitutional promise of citizenship for all babies born in America.” “It’s deeply troubling that we must waste precious judicial resources relitigating what has been settled constitutional law for over a century,” said Aarti Kohli, executive director of Asian Law Caucus. “Every federal judge who has considered this executive order has found it unconstitutional. 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Immigrants' Rights
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