United States immigration courts face a growing backlog of over 3.5 million cases. More than half of these are asylum applications. This backlog puts pressure on the U.S. asylum offices to adjudicate claims quickly. Nevertheless, asylum seekers often wait for years to receive a hearing.

From JD Vance to film tax credits, antisemitism to ICE detention, panelists tackled some of the biggest issues of the moment at The Nevada Independent’s sixth annual IndyFest conference. For those who missed the ideas festival held Nov. 14-15 at the Durango Casino and Resort in Las Vegas, The Indy is sharing full videos of the discussions.

This year, the immigrant community in Las Vegas has been rocked by the intensification of ICE detentions (just look at the abrupt closure of Broadacres this summer, for example). But Professor Michael Kagan, who runs the UNLV Immigration Clinic, explains to co-host Dayvid Figler why things are likely to get much, much worse next year — and what we can do in the face of it all.

Attorney Adam Crayk expects immigration enforcement in Utah to get much more aggressive. The recent public arrest at the airport that went viral is just one early indicator.

A federal judge in Nevada could soon decide whether two men — Victor Jacobo-Ramirez and Edgar Guevara-Alcantar, both denied bail under new immigration detention rules — could be the first of hundreds of detainees in the state to win access to long-denied bond hearings. Their emergency legal petition, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, has launched a class action supported by the ACLU of Nevada and the UNLV Immigration Clinic.

Two men being held by immigration authorities were misclassified by the Department of Homeland Security in a way that doesn’t allow them a chance to bail out as their cases proceed, a break in a decades-long established practice, a federal lawsuit filed in Las Vegas alleges. The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project and UNLV’s Immigration Clinic, which are representing the plaintiffs, filed the complaint Thursday.

Zohran Mamdani's historic win as New York's first Muslim mayor has ignited a fierce backlash from MAGA supporters online, who are accusing him of a "left-wing takeover." Despite facing xenophobic and anti-Muslim attacks, Mamdani, a democratic socialist, is set to take office in January, promising to improve the city for ordinary people.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada and the UNLV Immigration Clinic have filed a federal class action lawsuit challenging the new mandatory detention policy implemented under the Trump administration.