March 04, 2024

CBP Sending Chinese Graduate Students Home

Jeffrey Mervis, Science, Mar. 1, 2024 "More than a dozen Chinese graduate students holding valid U.S. visas are the latest pawns amid the rising political tensions between the two countries. In the past 3 months, students in Ph.D. science programs at Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, and other major U.S. research universities have been denied re-entry after visiting family in China—and immediately...

March 02, 2024

Expert: Biden's Immigration Powers Are Limited

Eric Cortellessa, Time Magazine, Feb. 29, 2024 "Legal experts say that Biden can’t unilaterally override immigration law without legislation. The current federal statute requires the U.S. government to grant asylum to persons who have been forcibly displaced or who reasonably fear persecution in their home country. “Presidents do have a lot of authority when it comes to immigration, because immigration...

March 01, 2024

Think Immigration: Magic Mushrooms and Psychedelics are Still a Bad Trip for U.S. Immigration Purposes

W. Scott Railton, Think Immigration, Feb. 29, 2024 "Magic mushrooms are having a moment, maybe more, but it bears saying, they are very bad news for U.S. immigration purposes. ... Magic mushrooms and psychedelics are moving to the mainstream in some places, but the immigration laws are unlikely to catch up any time soon. ... So, fair warning: noncitizens would do well to avoid magic mushrooms and other psychedelics...

February 28, 2024

Standoff at Eagle Pass: A High-Stakes U.S. Border Enforcement Showdown Comes to a Small Texas Park

Muzaffar Chishti, Julia Gelatt, MPI, Feb. 28, 2024 "This article reviews the recent escalation in federal-state tensions over immigration enforcement and the dispute around Shelby Park."

February 28, 2024

Think Immigration: Add that to the Tab – Rising Costs to Tour the United States

Anthony Pawelski, Think Immigration, Feb. 27, 2024 "Touring as a musical artist in the United States and making a profit (or breaking even) is that much harder post-pandemic. Artists’ profits are drastically shrinking due to larger financial cuts from record labels, the venue, promoter, etc. For example, some venues now request a cut of merchandise sales or do not share alcohol sales. Depending on ticketing...

February 26, 2024

Nicaraguan Journalist Avoids Deportation from the USA

Elmer Rivas, Confidencial, Feb. 25, 2024 "Journalist Joselin Montes, originally from Chinandega, was released on Friday, February 23 in the United States after an immigration judge rejected the authorities’ request to deport her and send her back to Nicaragua. It was demonstrated the “reasonable fear” that, upon her return to the country, she would be subjected to unjust imprisonment, isolation...

February 24, 2024

Experts: NY Must Address Urgent Need For Immigration Legal Aid

Marielena Hincapié, Stephen W. Yale-Loehr, Feb. 23, 2024 "The number of newly arriving immigrants who have come to New York to establish new homes in our communities and flee life-threatening danger in their countries of birth has captured the nation's attention. While New York has historically been a destination for millions of immigrants, the current situation has exposed an urgent problem in our...

February 23, 2024

ABA Report Criticizes Widespread Electronic Monitoring of Migrants

ABA, Feb. 23, 2024 "A new report from the American Bar Association Commission on Immigration criticizes the federal government’s widespread electronic monitoring of migrants and recommends that the program be curtailed. The report, “ Electronic Monitoring of Migrants: Punitive not Prudent ,” was released today and is available online here . The report was written for the commission by three students...

February 22, 2024

Expert: Biden's Immigration Powers Broad, But Not Unlimited

Priscilla Alvarez, MJ Lee, CNN, Feb. 21, 2024 "The White House is considering executive action to restrict migrants’ ability to seek asylum at the US-Mexico border if they crossed illegally – a maneuver reminiscent of controversial action from the Donald Trump era and is sure to invite fierce backlash from immigration advocates and progressives. ... “President Biden has broad powers under the...

February 22, 2024

Humane Solutions That Work: 10 Ways The Biden Administration Should Reshape Immigration Policy

Heidi Altman, NIJC, Feb. 21, 2024 "For too long, extremist lawmakers and commentators have shaped the immigration debate through misinformation and rhetoric that demonizes people seeking safety and a better life. The result is a punitive, enforcement-oriented approach to immigration policy that has caused great harm and worsened humanitarian and operational challenges in the midst of a global increase in forced...

February 21, 2024

A New Way Forward for Employment-Based Immigration: The Bridge Visa

Julia Gelatt and Muzaffar Chishti, MPI, Feb. 2024 "Immigration is expected to be the only driver of U.S. population increases 20 years from now, and already, immigrants and their U.S.-born children are sustaining labor force growth. Yet, U.S. employment-based visa policies—which were last revised in 1990, before most Americans had access to the internet and when manufacturing was the top industry of employment...

February 21, 2024

Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton Sues El Paso Charity Over...What?

William Melhado, Texas Tribune, Feb. 20, 2024 "A Catholic nonprofit that operates several shelters in El Paso sued the Office of the Attorney General earlier this month to delay the release of records after the state agency demanded the immediate release of extensive documentation about the immigrant clients that it serves along the border. The Consumer Protection Division of the attorney general’s office...

February 20, 2024

The Migrant "Crisis" Is About Work Permits And Planning

Jerusalem Demsas, The Atlantic, Feb. 19, 2024 [free gift link!] "Sometimes the best way to understand why something is going wrong is to look at what’s going right. The asylum seekers from the border aren’t the only outsiders in town. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine brought a separate influx of displaced people into U.S. cities that quietly assimilated most of them. “We have at least 30...

February 20, 2024

What Would You Do If The Border Patrol Threw Your Life-Saving Medications In The Trash?

It's Not Trash, It's Peoples' Belongings: A Q&A with Noah Schramm from the ACLU FROM HOPE TO HEARTBREAK: The Disturbing Reality of Border Patrol's Confiscation of Migrants' Belongings "U.S. Border Patrol has confiscated and trashed: Medications and medical devices that migrants need to treat acute and chronic health conditions such as seizure disorders, high blood pressure, asthma...

February 20, 2024

Webinar Today! - The Refugee System: A Sociological Approach (Feb. 20, 2024)

Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility " Join us online for a conversation with David FitzGerald, the co-author of The Refugee System: A Sociological Approach David FitzGerald will discuss why some people facing violence and persecution flee. Others stay. How do households in danger decide whom should go, where to relocate, and whether to keep moving? What interests and conditions in countries...

February 18, 2024

What Will It Take to Eliminate the Immigration Court Backlog?

Donald Kerwin, Brendan Kerwin, JMHS, CMS, January 29, 2024 "This paper examines the staffing needs of the US Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), as it seeks to eliminate an immigration court backlog, which approached 2.5 million pending cases at the end of fiscal year (FY) 2023. A previous study by the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) attributed the...

February 15, 2024

How Big Data and the Surveillance State Collude to Undermine Immigrant Rights

Prof. César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, Feb. 1, 2024 " A decade ago, when New Mexico legislators changed the state’s laws so that unauthorized migrants could get driver’s licenses , they had people like Maximo Olivas-Perea in mind. A longtime resident of Santa Fe, Olivas-Perea did not have the federal government’s permission to live in the United States. But here he...

February 14, 2024

White House Announces DED for Certain Palestinians

White House, Feb. 14, 2024 "Following the horrific October 7, 2023, terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel, and Israel’s ensuing military response, humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian territories, and primarily Gaza, have significantly deteriorated. While I remain focused on improving the humanitarian situation, many civilians remain in danger; therefore, I am directing the deferral of removal of...

February 13, 2024

Outmatched: The U.S. Asylum System Faces Record Demands

Kathleen Bush-Joseph, MPI, Feb. 2024 "Known for its long tradition of providing refuge, the U.S. humanitarian protection system is under significant strain at a time of mass displacements globally, a backlog of 2 million asylum applications, and record arrivals of migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Biden administration has turned to alternate pathways to provide temporary protection to some...

February 12, 2024

Courting Disaster: Rights at Risk in Omaha Immigration Court

ACLU Nebraska, Feb. 9, 2024 "A new report from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Nebraska paints a stark picture of people’s experiences in the Omaha immigration court, a court that is already known as one of the nation’s toughest for asylum seekers . The civil rights organization says in-person observations from more than 500 hearings demonstrate that Omaha immigration court judges are routinely...

February 12, 2024

Congress Must Include Protections for Dreamers in Immigration Compromises: Letter

Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, Feb. 12, 2024 "In this letter , the Presidents’ Alliance Steering Committee addresses the President, Vice President, and Congressional leaders, urgently calling for the incorporation of relief measures for Dreamers within any bipartisan compromise. Against the backdrop of legal uncertainties surrounding Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals...

February 12, 2024

A Tempest-Tost Book Review

Welcome the Wretched, by Prof. César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández What do 21 Savage (Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph) and Justin Bieber have in common? At least two things: they are successful pop singers and they are not U.S. citizens. Bieber is white, Canadian, and (as best we can determine without seeing his passport) able to live, work and travel in and out of the USA by virtue of his...

February 12, 2024

New Immigration Court Data Show Sharp Drop in New Cases, Increase in Case Closures: TRAC

TRAC, Feb. 9, 2024 "According to the latest court records the number of incoming cases declined substantially in January 2024, when the Immigration Courts received 154,057 new cases, a drop of over 110,000 in monthly new arrivals at the Court compared to December. At the same time, Court completions last month jumped to a new record high with 76,679 closures, which is 45 percent greater than they were at this time...

February 08, 2024

Staffing Co. Pays Feds $20K to Settle Citizenship Discrimination Claim

DOJ, Feb. 7, 2024 "The Justice Department announced today that it has secured a settlement agreement with Latitude Inc. (Latitude), a staffing company in Hanover, Maryland. The agreement resolves the department’s determination that Latitude violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by discriminating against certain non-U.S. citizens with permission to work in the United States and excluding them...

February 08, 2024

DOJ Pays $1.2M to Settle Sexual Harassment Suit Regarding Immigration Judge Scott D. Laurent

Here is the complaint. Here is the settlement. "Wendy Musell, who represents Escoto, told Law360 that she believes the judgment acknowledges the harassment and abuse her client faced. Tonette J. Jaramilla, who also represents Escoto, called the award "historic." "The $1.2 million judgment is historic, in that the DOJ is taking public accountability for a federal judge's harassing and retaliatory...