News & Commentary

In a case that led to a groundbreaking court decision limiting the power of immigration officials, the ACLU today announced the settlement of a lawsuit it filed in 2012 on behalf of Providence resident and United States citizen Ada Morales, who was twice unlawfully held at the ACI because Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials erroneously deemed her to be a deportable “alien.”

In response to the reported arrest by ICE agents of an undocumented immigrant outside a Providence courthouse, ACLU of RI executive director Steven Brown today issued the following statement:

Thirteen non-profit organizations today sent letters to Governor Gina Raimondo, Attorney General Peter Kilmartin and Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Suttell asking them to take specific actions within their power to help protect Rhode Island’s immigrants.  The diverse signatories included the RI Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Muslim Civic and Community Engagement, RI State Council of Churches, Refugee Dream Center, Fuerza Laboral, and Dorcas International Institute of RI.

As part of a nationwide effort, the ACLU of Rhode Island and five other New England ACLU affiliates today filed a lawsuit demanding government documents about the on-the-ground implementation of President Trump's Muslim bans.

ACLU of RI executive director Steven Brown issued the following statement on “sanctuary city” threats from the U.S. Attorney General.

Lately, we’ve gotten a surge of requests for our Know Your Rights information on anti-Muslim discrimination, police practices, and protests and demonstrations.  Given the recent deportation raids, Trump’s “border wall” and “Muslim ban” executive orders, and the nationwide protests that have sprung up in response, we’re not surprised.  Here are quick links to some Know Your Rights pamphlets – to keep you informed and help your efforts to educate others. Feel free to share these widely.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request today with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) local field office in Boston to expose how Trump administration officials are interpreting and executing the president’s immigration ban, and in particular how they appear to be acting in violation of federal courts that ordered a stay on the ban’s implementation. The FOIA request was filed jointly with the ACLU affiliates in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont as part of a coordinated ACLU effort across the country.

The ACLU of Rhode Island responded today to President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration that, among other things, propose the deportation of immigrants merely for being charged with offenses and seek to sanction so-called “sanctuary cities” with a loss of federal funds.

A federal court has ruled that federal immigration officials and the state of Rhode Island violated the Constitution in detaining a U.S. citizen without probable cause while the federal government investigated her immigration status.