ILAP Community Update: February 14
February 14, 2025
Dear Community,
As the ILAP team works to bring you topline updates on changes in immigration law and policy over the first 100 days of the Trump administration, we are also highlighting ways we can all raise our voices and take action for immigrant communities in Maine and beyond. These actions will only take a few minutes of your time and make a difference – check out our recommendations for the week below. You can increase your impact even more by personalizing your communications with your elected officials. For example, you can share your opinions and perspectives about why mass enforcement harms all of us and stories and information about the impacts in your community. You can also amplify your impact by getting others in your network to sign up for ILAP’s updates and take these actions, too.
Remember, we are strongest when we work as a united community, shoulder-to-shoulder. Let’s be on the right side of history, together.
TWO ACTIONS TO TAKE THIS WEEK
1. Stop Congress From Funding Mass Deportation
Congress is currently fast tracking a dangerous budget resolution that threatens to add billions in funding to the Trump administration’s mass enforcement agenda while cutting crucial programs that allow low-income people to meet basic human needs. Learn more about what’s at stake here and click below to tell your Congressional representatives now that tax dollars should not be spent to expand the Trump administration’s deportation machine.
2. Activate State and Local Government to Protect Refugee Rights
On its first days in office, the Trump administration indefinitely suspended the U.S. refugee resettlement program claiming that this long-standing program, founded in the aftermath of World War II, burdened local communities. Reach out to your Maine state representatives, the mayor of your town, and other local government officials and call on them to defend refuge and demand the restoration of the refugee resettlement program!
Immigration Law & Policy Updates:
Below is a summary of some key immigration law and policy developments during the weeks of February 3 and February 10, 2025.
PLEASE NOTE: All updates are subject to rapid change.
Immigration Announcement:
Sanctuary Jurisdiction memo
What It Means:
The Department of Justice issued a memo targeting so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions.” The memo directs the Department of Justice to end funding to states, cities, and non-profits that the Trump administration labels as providing “sanctuary,” as well as look into threatening these entities with lawsuits.
The term “sanctuary” is not a legal term, it’s a political term (and a highly-politicized one at that). A so-called “sanctuary” city is a jurisdiction that is complying with the law but not electing to voluntarily hand over state and local public safety resources and taxpayer dollars to the federal government to carry out immigration enforcement. Not only are these jurisdictions complying with the law, the 10th Amendment of the Constitution actually protects the rights of states and prohibits the federal government from “commandeering” their resources for such purposes. But in order to carry out mass enforcement, pushing a false narrative that these jurisdictions are not complying with the law and intimidating them into handing over their limited public safety resources is central to the Trump administration’s strategy.
Maine Public Radio ran a story this week helping to shed light on what being a “sanctuary jurisdiction” actually means. Overall public safety is greatly harmed when limited state and local resources are voluntarily spent on mass immigration enforcement instead of legitimate public safety issues.
Department of Justice sues Illinois, Cook County, and Chicago over “sanctuary” laws
As part of its actions against “sanctuary” jurisdictions, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit claiming that a number of laws and ordinances are "making it more difficult for, and deliberately impeding, federal immigration officers' ability to carry out their responsibilities."
The Illinois Governor replied in a statement that one of the laws, the “bipartisan Illinois TRUST Act, signed into law by a Republican governor, has always been compliant with federal law and still is today.” This will be a key lawsuit to watch to see how courts respond to the Trump administration’s targeting of state and local jurisdictions.
Department of Justice eliminates prior guidance around language access in the Immigration Court system
In the Immigration Court system, no one is guaranteed an attorney, despite the incredibly high stakes that people face. One of the major barriers many people face in navigating their cases is trying to understand a complex legal system and process in a language they don’t speak.
Previously, the Department of Justice had a policy with detailed instructions for immigration judges on how to ensure there are interpretation services in an immigrant’s best language while they are in court. The Trump administration has revoked those detailed instructions.
PLEASE NOTE: This does not mean that interpretation services are not available in immigration court proceedings, they still are. However, the previous guidance that helped ensure judges were taking effective steps to provide language access is no longer in place. How this change will play out exactly remains to be seen but ILAP is deeply concerned at this announcement and the erosion of due process it represents.
Investigative journalists disprove Trump administration’s claim that migrants with serious criminal records would be held at Guantanamo Bay
Several media outlets have debunked the Trump administration’s claim that it is using Guantanamo Bay to hold migrants with serious criminal records. In fact, the Trump administration is holding people without serious criminal records and in some cases, with no criminal records at all.
One young man sent to Guantanamo had only entered the U.S. for an appointment that Customs and Border Protection had granted him to apply for asylum. The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for its actions in Guantanamo, including holding people with zero access to communications including “without access to attorneys, family, or the outside world."
For previous updates from ILAP, check out the links below:
January 21, 2025
January 24, 2025
January 29, 2025
February 7, 2025
Know Your Rights
An important step you can take now to protect yourself is to learn your rights! See ILAP’s resources here.
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