January 05, 2024

Children’s Immigration Law Academy’s 2023 Written Resources

ABA Children’s Immigration Law Academy, Jan. 2024 - "The ABA Children’s Immigration Law Academy (CILA) wishes you a Happy New Year and looks forward to continuing to support all the work that you do to help immigrant youth and children in 2024. We wanted to provide a summary of key resources we updated and developed in 2023! As a reminder, the following written resources are available for free on our...

January 04, 2024

Green Card Holder Denied Citizenship for Working in Legal Cannabis

Kaylee Tornay, Politico, Dec. 23, 2023 "As an immigrant, Maria Reimers tried to do everything by the book. She entered the U.S. legally, married an American citizen and secured a green card to work. Together, she and her husband managed to open a small storefront in Ephrata, a dot of a town in Washington state. But when Reimers tried to become a U.S. citizen in 2017, she was denied for lack of “good moral...

January 04, 2024

Fed Sue Texas Regarding Unconstitutional SB 4 Immigration Law

DOJ, Jan. 3, 2024 "The Justice Department today filed suit against the State of Texas to challenge Senate Bill 4 (SB 4) under the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause and Foreign Commerce Clause. The Constitution assigns the federal government the authority to regulate immigration and manage our international borders. Pursuant to this authority, Congress has established a comprehensive framework governing...

January 04, 2024

Expert: Texas Immigration Bill Unconstitutional

Maria Recio, Austin American-Statesman, Jan. 3, 2023 "The U.S. Constitution's supremacy clause states that federal laws, rules and regulations trump conflicting state laws, as was upheld in a 2010 Supreme Court case on illegal immigration in Arizona. Will the Democratic Biden administration strike back? “They did it in Arizona,” said Cornell Law School immigration professor Stephen Yale-Loehr ,...

January 03, 2024

"They Treat Us Like Garbage"

Daniella Silva, NBC News, Dec. 22, 2023 "Dozens of migrants have recently been transferred to a federal detention center in Louisiana that has been the subject of years of complaints about filthy conditions and inadequate medical care, advocates for immigrants and asylum-seekers said. Authorities with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement transferred around 100 detainees this month from the Pine Prairie processing...

January 02, 2024

Stuart Anderson's 2024 Outlook

Stuart Anderson, the executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy , is always a must-read when he posts on Forbes. Here is his latest , including prognostications about H-1B visas, USCIS fee increases, domestic visa renewal, Schedule A, other regulatory actions, DACA, Chevron, legal challenges, border/Ukraine funding and more.

December 29, 2023

Immigration Clinic Law Students Win Prestigious Award

YU News, Dec. 29, 2023 "Frances Grail-Bingham ’24 and Cara Hernandez ’24, students in the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic, received the CLEA Outstanding Clinic Team Award for successfully representing an elderly, long-term U.S. resident in his merits (trial-type) hearing before the New York Immigration Court. (l-r) Cara Hernandez and Frances Grail-Bingham For the client and his...

December 29, 2023

2023 in Perspective

Cyrus D. Mehta & Jessica Paszko, Dec. 29, 2023 "Though we finally said goodbye to the COVID-19 public health emergency in the spring, Title 42, which was instituted due to the pandemic, still hung around for part of the year and effectively prevented migrants from applying for asylum at the border. With Title 42 still in place during the first four months of the year, we argued that President Biden’s...

December 29, 2023

DOJ to TX Gov. Abbott: Stand Down or We Will Sue

Dec. 28, 2023 letter from DOJ to Texas Governor Greg Abbott "Texas recently enacted Senate Bill 4 (SB 4), which will become effective on March 5, 2024. The law purports to create new state crimes tied to federal prohibitions on unlawful entry and reentry by noncitizens into the United States, and it would authorize state judges to order the removal of certain noncitizens from the country. SB 4 is preempted and...

December 27, 2023

602 Days Later...

Mona Iman, Robyn Barnard, Shala Gafary, Human Rights First, Dec. 22, 2023 "Mohammad is an Afghan citizen of the Hazara ethnic minority and Shi’a religion, who fled Afghanistan after repeated threats to his life following the Taliban’s consolidation of power in 2021. He escaped by traveling through the treacherous and only available route to the United States to seek asylum. In Afghanistan, Mohammad...

December 26, 2023

The Migration of Border Deaths

Caroline Tracey, High Country News, Dec. 21, 2023 "According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, 8,050 migrants perished in the Borderlands between 1998 and 2020, though researchers believe the real figure to be much higher, since many remains are never recovered or reported to authorities. Few of those deaths took place in New Mexico: in 2015, for instance, the state’s Office of the Medical Investigator...

December 23, 2023

Experts: Outdated Green Card Laws Hurt Workers From India

Prof. Sital Kalantry and Prof. Stephen Yale-Loehr, Dec. 22, 2023 "The U.S. immigration system disproportionately impacts people from India who are contributing to the U.S. economy. Each year, the United States issues 140,000 green cards based on employment. However, these green cards, which allow someone to live and work permanently in the U.S., are not allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. As a result...

December 22, 2023

Expert: Federal courts are becoming the arbiters of immigration policy

Ellen M. Gilmer, Bloomberg, Dec. 22, 2023 "US border and immigration policies face make-or-break decisions in federal courts in 2024, with the fate of key executive powers, status for “Dreamers,” and state authority on the docket. Judges have increasingly steered immigration policy in recent years, as Congress dithers on overhauling outdated statutes, and the executive branch — under Presidents...

December 21, 2023

GEO Group Ordered to Pay $23M

David Gutman, Seattle Times, Dec. 21, 2023 "A private immigration prison in Tacoma must pay more than $23 million in back pay and penalties for violating Washington’s minimum wage law by paying people it detains just $1 a day, a unanimous Washington state Supreme Court confirmed Thursday. The Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma can hold up to 1,575 people as they await review of their immigration status...

December 21, 2023

History Revisited: Local Enforcement and Federal Preemption

Ali cia Triche, Ph.D., Dec. 20, 2023 "Back in 2006, I wrote an article for Bender’s Immigration Bulletin , in which I argued that, applying the constitutional doctrine of conflict pre-emption, the INA effectively prevented states from unilaterally enforcing civil immigration law. The article asserts: “DHS must act as the sole supervisor of alien apprehension and detention. State officers are authorized...

December 20, 2023

Expert: Border Solution Should Include More Legal Pathways

Kevin Frey, Spectrum News, Dec. 19, 2023 "Negotiations to tighten the southern border continue in Washington, as senators search for a potentially elusive deal. However, some immigration experts question if an agreement would have any tangible impact — at least in the short-term — on New York, where the state is grappling with a surge of asylum seekers. ... Among the policy changes reportedly under...

December 19, 2023

Lawsuit Filed Challenging TX SB4

ACLU Texas, Dec. 19, 2023 "The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the ACLU, and the Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP) filed a lawsuit today challenging Texas Senate Bill 4 , which would permit local and state law enforcement to arrest and detain people they suspect to have entered Texas from another country without federal authorization. It also will authorize Texas judges — who are not trained in immigration...

December 19, 2023

Who Gets To Be An American? - Citizenship in the USA, 1781 - Present

GCIR, Dec. 2023 " What does it mean to be an American? How has the United States defined citizenship over time? To explore these critical questions, GCIR has developed a timeline, “ Who Gets to Be an American ,” which provides in-depth information on the evolution of American citizenship and how the United States has determined who belongs in this country and who does not . Understanding this history...

December 19, 2023

Three Ways to Reform Immigration Now (22 min. podcast)

Cornell Keynotes, Dec. 19, 2023 "EPISODE SUMMARY: Is targeted reform the key to fixing the U.S. immigration system? Cornell Law School Professor of Immigration Law Practice Stephen Yale-Loehr and Distinguished Immigration Scholars Randel Johnson and Theresa Cardinal Brown join host Chris Wofford to discuss border management and asylum policy, worker programs and DREAMer protections. EPISODE NOTES: In the white...

December 18, 2023

Immigration Court Backlog Tops 3 Million; Each Judge Assigned 4,500 Cases

TRAC, Dec. 28, 2023 "A new record was reached in November. The Immigration Court backlog passed 3 million pending cases. Just 12 months ago, during November 2022, the backlog was 2 million. That means the case backlog has grown by a million cases in just the past 12 months. Immigration Judges are swamped. Immigration Judges now average 4,500 pending cases each. If every person with a pending immigration case were...

December 18, 2023

Expert: New Texas Border Law "Unprecedented"

Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News, Dec. 18, 2023 "Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas on Monday signed one of the harshest state immigration laws in modern U.S. history, authorizing state officials to arrest and seek the deportation of migrants suspected of crossing the border with Mexico illegally. The law, known as SB4 , gives Texas law enforcement authorities the power to stop, arrest and jail migrants on new...

December 16, 2023

New report: 1,000s of children have been ordered deported under Biden

Alisa Reznick, Fronteras, Dec. 13, 2023 "A new report shows thousands of children have been ordered deported in immigration proceedings under the Biden administration — including some under 5 years old, and others here alone — despite the administration’s promises to step away from Trump-era hardline immigration policies. The report comes Talia Inlender is the deputy director of UCLA’s Center...

December 15, 2023

DACAmented Minnesotan Earns Law Degree

Laura Yuen, Star Tribune, Dec. 12, 2023 "Going back to his college days, Juventino Meza was known as the kid who got things done. Student body president. Community organizer. Advocate for immigration reform. There wasn't a politician, civic booster, faith leader or college president with whom Meza wouldn't share his story. Speaking at rallies and public hearings, he became a prominent face in the national...

December 14, 2023

Migrant Children Risk Lives as Roofers

Hannah Dreier, Brent McDonald, Nicole Salazar, Annie Correal and Carson Kessler, New York Times, Dec. 14, 2023 "... Children working on construction sites are six times as likely to be killed as minors doing other work, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Roofing is particularly risky; it is the most dangerous job for minors other than agricultural work, studies show. Labor organizers...

December 13, 2023

Guaranteed Income to Migrants Boosts Employment, Helps Families Thrive

New Mexico Voices for Children, Dec. 2023 "During the COVID-19 pandemic, some communities were better protected from illness, death, and economic hardship than others. By and large, communities where people earn low incomes and communities of color experienced worse outcomes. Because undocumented immigrants are likely to earn low incomes and be people of color, they tended to fare poorly. In addition, most immigrants...