Azadeh Shahshahani

Over the past decade, there has been an alarming increase in the use of immigration detention in the United States. From 2001 to 2010, the number of immigrants held in immigration detention each year nearly doubled from 209,000 per year to over 363,000.

The increasing use...

One year has passed since the signing into law of Georgia's racial profiling law, House Bill 87. Although parts of HB 87 were temporarily enjoined as a result of the lawsuit brought by the ACLU and other organizations, the law's harmful effects are already...

Just when it seemed that Georgia was coming to grips with the damage caused by HB 87, the state's Arizona-inspired anti-immigrant law, some lawmakers are again attempting to rush through new measures that would further marginalize and exclude immigrants from our community.

SB 458...

Co-authored with Corinna Mullin.

Despite the recent flurry of news coverage of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) report's release, the story of the Bahraini pro-democracy uprising has been one of the least reported amongst those of the 'Arab spring.' This goes for the...

True or false: No child in this country can be denied a public education. The answer is true, thanks to the Supreme Court's 1982 Plyler v. Doe decision, which held that schools could not exclude children based on their immigration status. This is settled law, but not for...

One of the freedoms that was most appealing to me when I came from Iran to the United States at age 16 was the right, free from governmental interference, to practice one's religion, or no religion at all. In my trips back to visit family and friends, I often boasted...

Last week, the ACLU of Georgia submitted comments to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to ask that the agency not renew its contract with Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) for operation of the McRae Correctional Facility.

McRae is located in Telfair County, Georgia. The prison is owned by...

Co-authored with Corinna Mullin

Though the dramatic events of the last few months have provided much cause for hope in Tunisia, many obstacles remain along the path to constructing a new polity capable of addressing not only Tunisians' political and individual grievances, but their socio-economic and collective grievances as...

Co-authored with Omar Jadwat, ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project

This week the ACLU and ACLU of Georgia along with a coalition of other civil rights groups filed a class action lawsuit challenging Georgia's discriminatory anti-immigrant law inspired by Arizona's notorious S.B. 1070. The Georgia law authorizes police to...

Co-authored by Georgeanne Usova, ACLU Washington Legislative Office

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" It's one of the most common questions we ask our children. And no matter what answer they give -- veterinarian, astronaut, president -- we tell them the same thing: work hard in...

Last week, seven undocumented students were arrested in Atlanta for engaging in a sit-in in front of Georgia State University. The students had gathered to call for the repeal of Georgia's discriminatory policy that denies undocumented students access to higher education at five of the most selective institutions in the...

April is Sexual Assault Awareness month. In observation, Georgia lawmakers should reject legislation that attacks immigrant women, including H.B. 87 , a bill currently pending in the Georgia legislature that is a copycat of Arizona's S.B. 1070 racial profiling law. H.B. 87 would endanger victims of domestic violence and...

On Monday, the ACLU of Georgia submitted testimony to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on conditions at Stewart and Irwin County Detention Centers as well as racial profiling in Cobb and Gwinnett counties. IACHR has a mandate to promote respect for human rights in the region and...

When I testified this month before the Special Joint Committee on Immigration Reform, a committee of 14 Republicans convened to draft legislative proposals for the upcoming legislative session, I reminded them about the continued obligation of Georgia under international human rights law to protect and preserve the human dignity of...

Yesterday, I joined Lisa Valentine in front of the Douglasville Municipal Courthouse to announce a lawsuit brought by the ACLU and the ACLU of Georgia on her behalf.

This was the same courthouse that Mrs. Valentine attempted to enter in December 2008 to accompany her nephew to his...

I first met Adnan Tikvesa back in December when I spoke at a symposium on human rights and Islam at the Al-Farooq mosque in Atlanta.

The focus of my talk was the fundamental rights and liberties enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, including every person's right to due process of law.

This past February, I was at a hearing in the Georgia House Defense & Veterans Affairs Committee to testify against a measure that would have had the effect of keeping the prison at Guantanamo Bay open by urging Congress to prohibit the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the United States....

Jessica Colotl, the 21-year-old exemplary Kennesaw State college student who fell victim to the Cobb sheriff's abuse of the 287(g) power, which delegates some federal immigration enforcement authority to certain state and local agencies, is out on bond and hopes to restart her education soon.

The Cobb County Sheriff's Office's...

This past Wednesday, Jessica Colotl was released from the Etowah Detention Center in Alabama and allowed to reunite with her family back in Cobb County, Georgia. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has granted Jessica deferred action on her deportation case.

Jessica is a 21-year-old smart hard working student at...

By Azadeh Shahshahani and John Zientowski

Today marks the 35th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. For millions of Vietnamese and hundreds of thousands of American veterans, the war lives on through the scars that Agent Orange has left on their bodies and bodies of their children.

Agent...