September 20, 2022

Detention Empire: Reagan's War on Immigrants and the Seeds of Resistance

Prof. Kristina Shull, Sept. 14, 2022 "... My forthcoming book,  Detention Empire , zeroes in on the early 1980s as a critical turning point in the rise of mass incarceration. An event known as the Mariel Cuban boatlift, a large-scale migration of 125,000 Cubans to south Florida during the summer of 1980, alongside increasing arrivals of Haitian and Central American asylum-seekers, galvanized new modes of covert...

September 20, 2022

Asylum Seekers are Legally in the US Notwithstanding the Political Stunts of Governors Abbott and DeSantis

Cyrus Mehta, Kaitlyn Box, Sept. 19, 2022 "In a reprehensible political stunt, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas and Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida sent around  150 immigrants  to liberal states by bus and plane last week. Some of these individuals were abruptly dropped out outside Vice President Harris’ residence in Washington, D.C., while others were transported to Martha’s Vineyard. These immigrants, many of whom...

September 19, 2022

How a Medical Examiner’s Office Transformed to Address Migrant Deaths

Caroline Tracey, High Country News, Sept. 19, 2022 "The Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner began to coordinate its response to migrant death in May of 2002, when 14 people — 13 migrants and a suspected guide who remains unidentified to this day — died in the desert southeast of Yuma, Arizona, on a 115-degree day. They were found more than 50 miles from the highway, headed in the wrong direction. “It hit...

September 19, 2022

Did DeSantis and Abbott Break Law with Migrant 'Stunt'? Experts Weigh In

Tom Norton, Newsweek, Sept. 17, 2022 "Florida governor Ron DeSantis was strongly criticized this week after claiming responsibility for ordering two planeloads of migrants to travel from Texas to Martha's Vineyard. ... California Governor Gavin Newsom has said that DeSantis should be investigated for possible kidnapping and racketeering charges for the move, calling on the Department of Justice to act. ......

September 16, 2022

Gov. DeSantis, Human Trafficker?

By now, you have read the news: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis flew migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard, in Massachusetts, at taxpayer expense.  Was that legal?  And who is the mystery woman "Perla?"  Explore these questions here , here , here and here .

September 15, 2022

Where Sports and Deportation Meet: ICE Is Removing People on the Same Planes Used to Transport Teams

Todd Miller, The Border Chronicle, Sept. 15, 2022 "On June 17 a plane painted with the red, white, and blue colors of the six-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots lifted off from Harlingen, Texas. This plane, however, wasn’t going to deliver the football team to a game. It was crossing the Gulf of Mexico,  en route  to San Pedro Sula, Honduras on a deportation flight. This would be the plane’s (tail no...

September 15, 2022

GAO on Military Naturalizations

GAO, Sept. 14, 2022 "Noncitizens have a long history of serving in the military. Over 100,000 noncitizens joined the military from fiscal years 2010 through 2021. The Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes the expedited naturalization of current and former servicemembers. GAO was asked to review issues related to the military naturalization process. This report examines (1) servicemember naturalization application...

September 15, 2022

Expert: "Decimated" USCIS Will Struggle to Process Work Permit Applications for Asylum Seekers

Chris Sommerfeldt and Tim Balk, New York Daily News, Sep 14, 2022 NYC asks feds to fast-track work papers for migrants amid busing crisis - "Mayor Adams and members of the City Council have begun to aggressively pressure the federal government to process asylum seekers’ work papers more quickly, as the Texas busing program stretches New York’s social safety net to its limit. Councilwoman Gale Brewer...

September 14, 2022

Flatlining Care: Why Immigrants Are Crucial to Bolstering Our Health Care Workforce (Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing)

Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, Wednesday, September 14, 2022 Testimony of Sarah K. Peterson : "... While this hearing is before the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, I would submit to you that this hearing is not about immigration. The problem we are trying to solve is not one of immigration; it is instead an effort to solve the...

September 14, 2022

Experts: Biden Can Do More for Dreamers

After 10 years of DACA, Dreamers still live in legal limbo - "Because the Biden administration chiefly focused on its battle with the courts, the new rule fails to adopt any substantive measures to expand or strengthen the DACA program. Most conspicuously, the government declined to extend the date that a young immigrant must have arrived in the United States to apply for DACA. … Effectively set an expiration date...

September 14, 2022

Migrant Detention: Multiple Complaints Filed

Detained Leaders file simultaneous federal complaints against ICE, GEO Group & MTC "Today, a collective of leaders and individuals detained at multiple facilities in California, filed two simultaneous complaints to the Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties outlining the continued retaliation we face at the hands of ICE officials and its private prison operators for exercising...

September 13, 2022

DHS OIG Report: USCIS Should Improve Controls to Restrict Unauthorized Access to Its Systems and Information

DHS OIG, Sept. 7, 2022 "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) did not apply the information technology (IT) access controls needed to restrict unnecessary access to its systems, networks, and information. USCIS did not consistently manage or remove access for its personnel once they departed positions and did not have a process to adequately verify access after personnel transferred offices within USCIS...

September 10, 2022

Immigration Judges Say the FLRA Made Up Rules to Decertify Union

Erich Wagner, Government Executive, Sept. 9, 2022 "A technically defunct union representing federal immigration judges accused the then-Republican majority of the Federal Labor Relations Authority of having planned to decertify the union before considering the facts or arguments raised during the case. The body was also accused of disregarding legal precedent and making up new rules to reach that goal. ... In legal...

September 08, 2022

Scientology’s Secret Immigrant Workforce Exposes Decades of Exploitation

Kevin T. Dugan, Documented, New York Magazine, Sept. 8, 2022 "... For the past year, I’ve been corresponding with more than three dozen former Scientologists hailing from 12 countries on five continents. Some joined the church when founder L. Ron Hubbard was still running the show; some left as recently as last summer. Whenever I asked them to talk about their time inside the organization, they didn’t dwell much...

September 08, 2022

Deported Vets Who Return Stateside Face Uncertain Futures

Suzanne Monyak, Roll Call, Sept. 8, 2022 "Juan Quiroz, a father of four and U.S. Army veteran, got to celebrate his birthday in the U.S. with his children in July for the first time since he was deported nearly a decade ago. The former Army mechanic is one of more than two dozen people to have the chance to come back to the U.S. as part of a recent Biden administration initiative to help deported veterans and their...

September 08, 2022

Challenging Smuggling Myths on the U.S. Mexico Border: A Podcast with Anthropologist Gabriella Sanchez

Todd Miller, The Border Chronicle, Sept. 8, 2022 "Sometimes you run into people whose work and words profoundly challenge worldviews and established narratives. One such person is sociocultural anthropologist and author Gabriella Sanchez, who for more than a decade has been researching smuggling, migrants, and states’ countersmuggling responses. She has researched and investigated these issues on the U.S.-Mexico...

September 07, 2022

DHS Announces Re-Registration Process for Current Venezuela Temporary Protected Status Beneficiaries

USCIS, Sept. 7, 2022 "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted for public inspection a Federal Register notice describing how beneficiaries under Venezuela’s existing TPS designation can re-register to retain TPS and renew their Employment Authorization Documents (EADs). Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas previously announced the 18-month extension of the designation of Venezuela...

September 06, 2022

Tribe: Arizona Built Border Barrier Against Its Wishes

Elliot Spagat, Associated Press, Sept. 3, 2022 "The Cocopah Indian Tribe said Friday that the state of Arizona acted against its wishes by stacking shipping containers on its land to prevent illegal border crossings. The tribe determined that the state put 42 double-stacked containers on its land near Yuma, said Michael Fila from its office of emergency management. The tribe wrote state officials Tuesday to inform...

September 06, 2022

How Central Americans Boosted the U.S. Labor Movement

Prof. Elizabeth Oglesby, The Conversation, Aug. 30, 2022 "... I’ve been researching human rights and immigration from Central America since the 1980s. In today’s polarized debates over immigration, the substantial contributions that Central American immigrants have made to U.S. society over the past 30 years rarely come up. One contribution in particular is how Guatemalan and Salvadoran immigrants helped expand...

September 02, 2022

CHRCL Wins Nationwide Preliminary Injunction in Class Action for Unaccompanied Minors in ORR Custody

CHRCL, Sept. 1, 2022 "The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law is pleased to announce that a Preliminary Injunction has been issued in a class action lawsuit expanding the rights of unaccompanied minors detained by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (“ORR”). In June 2018, the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, the National Center for Youth Law, the University of California Davis Law School...

September 01, 2022

After Years of Tribal Resistance, DHS Finishes its “Virtual Wall” on the Tohono O’odham Nation

Todd Miller, The Border Chronicle, Sept. 1, 2022 "When I come across surveillance towers in the borderlands, I first look to see if there are any communities, towns, or houses in its view. I did this on Monday, on the Tohono O’odham Nation in the southern Arizona borderlands, when I found an “integrated fixed tower,” built by the Israeli company  Elbit Systems . It took me, two other journalists, and O’odham member...

September 01, 2022

USCIS Resumes Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program Operations

USCIS, Sept. 1, 2022 "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is resuming operations under the Cuban Family Reunification Parole (CFRP) program, beginning with pending CFRP program applications. USCIS has begun to mail interview notices to CFRP program petitioners with instructions for the beneficiary interview. On Aug. 18, USCIS began conducting interviews at the U.S. Embassy Havana. USCIS has limited...

August 31, 2022

Experts: New DACA Rule Does Not Go Far Enough

Jacob Hamburger, Stephen W. Yale-Loehr, Aug. 30, 2022 "On Tuesday, the Biden administration published a  new rule  codifying the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for the first time into the formal regulatory code. Since President Obama announced DACA in 2012,  it has provided  hundreds of thousands of people who came to the United States as children—often referred to as “Dreamers”—temporary...

August 31, 2022

Judicial Illiberalism: How Captured Courts Are Entrenching Trump-Era Immigration Policies

Prof. Anil Kalhan, July 1, 2022 "When President Joe Biden took the oath of office, expectations ran high for major changes in immigration policy. While Biden’s predecessor had implemented the most far-reaching anti-immigration program in nearly a century, the Trump presidency never garnered strong public or congressional support for its immigration restrictionist initiatives. Even as xenophobia rapidly took hold...

August 31, 2022

The Legal Basis for DACA as Expressed in the Final Rule

Cyrus D. Mehta and Kaitlyn Box, Aug. 31, 2022 "On August 24, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a final rule aimed at “preserving and fortifying” the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The DACA program was initiated by a 2012 memo from then-DHS secretary Janet Napolitano (“Napolitano Memo”) and has been subjected to numerous legal challenges since...