January 18, 2023

ABA Border Primer

ABA, Dec. 28, 2022 "The U.S. southern border has been the subject of a great deal of scrutiny by policy makers, legislators, the federal judiciary, and the media. This primer aims to provide a broad introduction to the enforcement mechanisms employed at the U.S. southern border for practitioners and others seeking to understand them. Major contributions were given by Commission members Denise Gilman, Melissa Crow...

January 16, 2023

MLK and Immigration

In 2018 Teresa Albano wrote : "... Most of the current debate around immigration revolves around “legal” or “illegal.” Some of my friends from high school like to say they are all for immigration, as long as it’s “legal.” What does that mean? ... Immigration law is unjust. What the White House* has caused is lawlessness — “no law at all.” Instead, of the “legal and illegal” binary, let’s view immigration law from...

January 13, 2023

Jan. 25th ABA Webinar: Electronic Monitoring of Migrants: Alternative to Detention or Just Another Form of Punitive Custody?

ABA "This webinar will discuss the dramatic rise in the use of electronic monitoring of migrants, including through ankle monitors and phone app technology. It will ask whether electronic monitoring presents a positive move away from immigration detention for migrants or instead expands government deprivation of liberty by increasing the number of migrants impacted and the length of time they remain in some form...

January 13, 2023

DHS to Boost Deferred Action for Victims of Unscrupulous Employers

DHS, Jan. !3, 2023 "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced that noncitizen workers who are victims of, or witnesses to, the violation of labor rights, can now access a streamlined and expedited deferred action request process. Deferred action protects noncitizen workers from threats of immigration-related retaliation from the exploitive employers. Effective immediately, this process will improve...

January 11, 2023

A Visual Study of Arizona's Container Wall

Austin Kocher, Ph.D., Jan. 11, 2023 "The agreement between Arizona and the federal government to remove the container wall was signed just days after I visited the monstrosity for myself. ..."

January 09, 2023

Webinar: Asylum Betrayed? Biden's Border Politics and Title 42

Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility - Friday, January 13, 2023, 11:00AM to 12:30PM (EST) "During his campaign for the presidency, Joe Biden promised to end the Trump Administration's use of  Title 42  (an obscure public health law) to expel asylum-seekers at the US border. In office, he initially sought to withdraw the controversial Trump policy, but was stopped in the courts. Since then, he has doubled...

January 09, 2023

Expert: Lawsuits Could Block Biden's Border Plan

John Fritze, USA Today, Jan. 9, 2023 "President Joe Biden hopes to broker a solution to the migrant crisis when he meets with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts this week, but his efforts may be limited by the fact that much of his immigration agenda remains tied up in court. ... It's not yet clear if the Biden administration can craft the new rule in a way that can withstand legal challenge but also be...

January 05, 2023

Biden, DHS Announce New Border Measures

The White House Fact Sheet is here . The DHS media release is here . Video of President Biden is here , beginning at min. 54:00. Commentary by former BIA Chairman Hon. Paul W. Schmidt is here .

January 04, 2023

Expert: Proposed USCIS Fee Hike Could Trigger Litigation

Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News, Jan. 3, 2023 "The Biden administration on Tuesday proposed increasing application fees for employment-based visas and other immigration programs, in part to fund the adjudication of soaring numbers of asylum claims along the U.S.-Mexico border. The  proposed rule  would also keep application fees for U.S. citizenship and humanitarian immigration benefits, such as asylum, close to...

January 03, 2023

Expert on Top 2023 Immigration Cases to Watch (Law360)

Alyssa Aquino, Law360, Jan. 2, 2023 "The U.S. Supreme Court's anticipated ruling on President Joe Biden's deportation guidelines will intensify the White House's standoff with Republican states on immigration policy. The Ninth Circuit is also expected to rule on the constitutionality of the illegal reentry ban. ... Cornell Law School Professor Stephen Yale-Loehr told Law360 that reviews of BIA and immigration...

January 01, 2023

Third Private Bill Awaits Biden's Signature: H.R.680

H.R.680 , for the relief of Arpita Kurdekar, Girish Kurdekar, and Vandana Kurdekar, introduced in 2021 by Rep. Ann Kuster (D-NH-2), was presented to President Biden for his signature on Dec. 28, 2022.  The Judiciary Committee's Report is here .  Ms. Kurdekar's website is here .

December 30, 2022

The Rebecca Trimble Story

Tim Rockey, Alaska's News Source, Dec. 29, 2022 "A U.S. Army officer’s wife who previously lived in Bethel has finally been granted a status adjustment to allow for her lawful permanent residency in the United States after an eight-year-long battle working toward American citizenship. Rebecca Trimble moved to the U.S. from Mexico when she was just days old to live with her adoptive parents in 1989. She believed...

December 28, 2022

Biden Signs Private Bill For the relief of Maria Isabel Bueso Barrera, Alberto Bueso Mendoza, and Karla Maria Barrera De Bueso

H.R.785 - For the relief of Maria Isabel Bueso Barrera, Alberto Bueso Mendoza, and Karla Maria Barrera De Bueso Related press release here .

December 27, 2022

Biden Signs Private Bill for the Relief of Rebecca Trimble

H.R.681 For the relief of Rebecca Trimble Latest Action: 12/27/2022 Signed by President.

December 26, 2022

"Title 42" Comes to the Court: Steve Vladeck

Prof. Stephen I. Vladeck, Dec. 26, 2022 "...  “Title 42” is an incredibly vague shorthand for a very specific immigration policy that was begun by the Trump administration early in the COVID pandemic. The term is a reference, believe it or not, to nothing more specific than the massive and wide-ranging Title 42 of the U.S. Code, one small section ( section 265 ) of which gives the government (today, the CDC) “the...

December 24, 2022

Ariz. Gov. Ducey is Not Giving Up

Despite his recent stipulation to remove his border container wall, Gov. Ducey still claims that the federal government does not own the "Roosevelt Reservation" along the border. Here is his latest (Dec. 23, 2022) court filing.

December 22, 2022

A Sober Assessment of the Growing U.S. Asylum Backlog: TRAC

TRAC, Dec. 22, 2022 "The latest available data reveal that the number of asylum seekers waiting for asylum hearings in the U.S. has now reached at least 1,565,966 individuals. About half of this total are waiting for hearings before judges in the Immigration Courts housed in the Department of Justice. The other half of asylum seekers are waiting for hearings before United States Citizenship and Immigration Services...

December 22, 2022

Expert: "Change Happens From The Ground Up"

Victor Reklaitis, MarketWatch, Dec. 22, 2022 "Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell showed last week that he’s thinking about how recent lower immigration has factored into the ongoing U.S. labor shortage, but he said it’s not appropriate for the Fed to call for increased legal immigration to help alleviate the shortage. Could his remarks, careful as they were, somehow move the needle on immigration policy...

December 22, 2022

Ariz. Gov. Ducey to Remove Shipping Container Wall

Paul Ingram, Tucson Sentinel, Dec. 21, 2022 "Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said the state will halt placing shipping containers along the Arizona-Mexico border, and begin removing hundreds of the 8,000-lb. steel boxes set up as makeshift barriers from federal lands by Jan. 4, according to a court document filed late Wednesday. In a 4-page stipulation filed jointly by Arizona officials and U.S. Attorney of Arizona Gary...

December 21, 2022

Expert: Supreme Court Decision Risks Deprivation of Rights (Law360)

Alyssa Aquino, Law360, Dec. 20, 2022 "In a decision known as Garland v. Aleman Gonzalez, the justices ruled 6-3 that Section 1252(f)(1) of the INA bars every federal court, except the high court, from interfering on a class-wide basis with how the executive branch carries out certain immigration enforcement functions. That holding will make it harder for legal challengers to get more than individual relief, even...

December 20, 2022

Expert: Persecution, Gang Violence, Failed States and Climate Change Drive Migration

Ariane de Vogue, CNN, Dec. 19, 2022 "“This is a longstanding problem, more people are fleeing persecution, gang violence, failed states and climate change than ever before,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr of Cornell Law School , who has been critical of the policy. “Even without Title 42, we would have more people than ever before trying to enter the United States,” he added. “Title 42 is not an effective way to manage...

December 19, 2022

On Immigration, Do Feds or States Rule?

Jacob Hamburger and Stephen Yale-Loehr, Dec 19, 2022 "The Supreme Court heard oral argument recently in a case that may radically reshape immigration law. In  United States v. Texas , Texas and Louisiana sued to invalidate the Biden administration’s September 2021  immigration enforcement policies . The states argued that these policies allow the release of immigrants convicted of crimes that the government must...

December 19, 2022

Expert: Title 42 "Not The Best Way" To Manage Borders

Maria Ramirez Uribe, PolitiFact, Dec. 16, 2022 "A legal battle over Title 42’s future is playing out in the courts, but the policy could be rescinded as early as Dec. 21. ... Immigration at the border has been increasing for the past two years, even with Title 42 in place. That can be attributed to deteriorating conditions in other countries making people "so desperate, they're trying to come to the United...

December 16, 2022

Private Bill Clears Congress, Heads to Biden for Signature

A private bill, H.R. 681, For the relief of Rebecca Trimble , passed the House in June 2022 and the Senate on Dec. 15, 2022.  President Biden is expected to sign it. The backstory is here . Hats way off to Margaret Stock , who has been championing this bill from the beginning.

December 16, 2022

Better Digital Tools Could Help Immigrants Access Benefits

Cornell Chronicle, Dec. 15, 2022 "A multitude of digital resources provides information to asylum seekers and other immigrants, but content is often outdated, and potential users worry they may be vulnerable to online tracking. “If I am undocumented, I’m not going to go to a website and click on a search option that says, ‘I’m undocumented,’” a legal professional told Cornell researchers. “I’d be terrified of...