Border Rights

The ACLU is working to ensure detention conditions satisfy basic constitutional requirements, and that the agency treats all detainees with dignity and respect.

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Every year, Border Patrol detains tens of thousands of men, women, and children in its notorious “hieleras” (Spanish for “iceboxes”), where detainees are packed into freezing, dirty, and overcrowded cells, denied basic necessities, and held incommunicado for days at a time. The ACLU is working to ensure detention conditions satisfy basic constitutional requirements, and that the agency treats all detainees with dignity and respect.

The Latest

News & Commentary
The U.S.-Mexico Border wall in Yuma County, Arizona.

Notes from the Border: Yuma County

Known as the winter lettuce capitol of the world and a pitstop for politicians’ anti-immigrant stump speeches, Yuma County is much more than that – it’s a place I will always consider home. I recently returned to connect with community advocates.
News & Commentary
Hugo in Nogales

The ‘right way’ myth – when requests for legal status end in deportation

Immigrants pursuing legal status still face risk of expulsion – revealing how cost, complexities and discretionary power shape outcomes in the U.S.
News & Commentary
Hugo in Nogales

El mito de emigrar “por la vía correcta”: cuando solicitar estatus legal termina en deportación

Los inmigrantes que buscan regularizar su estatus migratorio aún enfrentan el riesgo de ser expulsados, lo que evidencia cómo los costos, la complejidad del proceso y el margen de discrecionalidad influyen en los resultados dentro del sistema migratorio de Estados Unidos.
News & Commentary
Yohana Oviedo, media coordinator of the Kino Border Initiative, and immigration attorney Marla Pacheco visit the government-run migrant shelter in Nogales, Sonora on Dec. 9.

Inside the System: Migrants Detail Harsh Realities of U.S. Custody

What immigrants endure in ICE detention is largely hidden from public view – until those who lived it speak up.