Immigrants' Rights

In recent years, government-sanctioned attacks on immigrants’ civil rights and liberties have increased in number and intensity. Immigrants face violence, discrimination, detention, and deportation, often without due process. When immigrants are denied equal protection under the law, the constitutional values upon which this country was founded are degraded.

Signs promoting immigrant rights

In recent years, government-sanctioned attacks on immigrants’ civil rights and liberties have increased in number and intensity. Immigrants face violence, discrimination, detention, and deportation, often without due process. When immigrants are denied equal protection under the law, the constitutional values upon which this country was founded are degraded.

What are we doing about it?

The ACLU of Kansas is dedicated to expanding and protecting the rights of immigrants in this state, regardless of their citizenship status. We use litigation, advocacy, public outreach, and education to work to lessen the hostility immigrants face on a daily basis on the state and local levels.

Our legal department has successfully petitioned jails in Kansas to stop illegally detaining people for unreasonable amounts of time at the request of federal immigration authorities. Most recently we helped to foil a bill that would have made it impossible for immigrant students raised in Kansas to receive in-state tuition to public universities in Kansas. Through the Know Your Rights project, we’re also working to educate immigrants in Kansas about their rights and supporting the community.

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The Latest

Publication
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Municipal ID Cards

Municipal ID cards are a form of photo identification issued by a city or county government, rather than by the state (as with a driver’s license) or the federal government (as with a passport).
News & Commentary
immigrant

Some Kansas immigrants will lose access to health care because of Trump policy changes

Monica Bennett, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, told the Kansas News Service that immigrants are being used as scapegoats for rising government spending on health services.
News & Commentary
Luis Diaz Inestroza

Can ICE agents pull you over? Jailing of KC area immigrant raises question

“They held that if a police officer witnesses a traffic violation, they can go ahead and conduct a traffic stop, pull someone over, even if that stop is ‘pretexual’” — meaning the real motivation was to investigate other potential crimes.” said Kunyu Ching, senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas.
News & Commentary
CoreCivic

ICE detention center in Leavenworth, Kansas, is hiring despite months of legal limbo

The American Civil Liberties Union said in May that those detainees are held in “crowded, unsanitary conditions” and that some have attempted suicide.