June 30, 2022

ICE Enacts New Policy Protecting Media From Legal Demands

Gabe Rottman, Lawfare, June 29, 2022 "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently released a new policy addressing the use of “compulsory investigative tools” like subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants to obtain information from or about journalists. Congress directed ICE to do so after an abandoned effort by the agency in 2020 to force BuzzFeed News to disclose information that could identify...

June 30, 2022

CRS on U.S. Employment-Based Immigration Policy

CRS, June 22, 2022 "This report begins by explaining the permanent employment-based immigration system, its numerical limits, and its processes. It next describes key employment-based immigration trends, including a brief review of relevant economic and demographic trends. The report then discusses several categories of nonimmigrant (temporary) workers that are intertwined with the permanent immigration system...

June 29, 2022

Podcast: Black Seminoles in the Borderlands

Melissa del Bosque, The Border Chronicle, June 28, 2022 "... I think about people like Windy Goodloe, who you’ll hear from in this podcast, and the Black Seminoles who have been enslaved, discriminated against, and deceived by both the Mexican and American governments over many hundreds of years. And yet they persist today on  both sides  of the border. They honor and celebrate their  history  and culture. And...

June 29, 2022

Letter to Biden: Fix Military Naturalization Now!

ACLU, June 28, 2022 "We write to express our concerns about Department of Defense practices that continue to frustrate the expedited naturalization of immigrants currently serving in the U.S. military. We ask for your assistance to ensure the Defense Department undertakes swift action to make naturalization accessible to all those serving our nation. ... We ask for your intervention to address this critically important...

June 28, 2022

At Least 50 Dead in Texas Migrant Smuggling Tragedy

Jaden Edison, Patrick Svitek, Lomi Kriel, Texas Tribune, June 28, 2022 "A tractor-trailer found near Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio contained the bodies of 50 dead people, along with 16 others who have been taken to hospitals, according to local officials in San Antonio and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ."

June 28, 2022

The Supreme Court After Dobbs: Is Plyler Next?

Cyrus D. Mehta, Kaitlyn Box, and Jessica Paszko, June 28, 2022 "On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in  Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization , overturning the landmark decision  Roe v. Wade , and holding that there is no constitutional right to an abortion. Justice Alito, writing for the majority, first held that abortion is not implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including...

June 28, 2022

Expert: Court Ruling Will Sow Fear

Philip Marcelo, Amy Taxin, Associated Press, June 28, 2022 "The Biden administration, reacting to a federal court ruling in Texas, has suspended an order that had focused resources for the arrest and deportation of immigrants on those who are considered a threat to public safety and national security. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Saturday it will abide by the decision issued this month...

June 27, 2022

Court Order Threatens Deportation for Millions

Miriam Jordan, New York Times, June 25, 2022 "A Biden administration policy that prioritized the arrest of undocumented immigrants who are considered a threat to public safety and national security has been suspended as of Saturday, rendering millions of people vulnerable to deportation. A federal judge in Texas had ruled the prioritization policy illegal on June 10, a ruling that took effect late Friday after...

June 22, 2022

An Important Week for Immigration Law: SCOTUSTalk Podcast

SCOTUSTalk Podcast, June 21, 2022 "During the week of June 13, the Supreme Court decided two immigration cases (involving bond hearings for noncitizens in immigration detention) and declined to decide a third (involving the Trump-era “public charge” policy for green card applicants).  Shalini Bhargava Ray , who teaches immigration law and administrative law at the University of Alabama, joins Amy to break down...

June 22, 2022

DOJ OIG on Video Immigration Hearings

Limited-Scope Inspection and Review of Video Teleconference Use for Immigration Hearings "Results in Brief: We found that, while EOIR has generally improved and expanded its virtual hearing technology and capabilities, there continue to be important areas that it needs to address to ensure that proceedings can be conducted effectively and fairly. Although the scope of this report primarily focused on the IHF setting...

June 20, 2022

Study: Counties that Provided 'Sanctuary' to Undocumented Immigrants Saw Falling Crime Rates

Sangita Menon, KUT, June 15, 2022 "Counties that adopted certain sanctuary policies related to undocumented immigrants around 2014 saw a drop in both property and violent crime, according to a new study from a researcher at UT Austin. In 2013, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement implemented a “ Secure Communities ” tool to notify ICE's Law Enforcement Support Center when anyone fingerprinted by local law...

June 20, 2022

USCIS Denies Over 90% of Afghan Humanitarian Parole Requests

Camilo Montoya, CBS News, June 20, 2022 "Since July 2021, USCIS has received over 46,000 applications from Afghans hoping to come to the U.S. through the parole process. But most parole applications from Afghans remain unresolved — and over 90% of fewer than 5,000 fully adjudicated requests have been denied, USCIS statistics shared with CBS News show. ... As of June 2, only 297 parole requests from Afghans had...

June 16, 2022

No Place for a Child

Anna Flagg, Julia Preston, June 16, 2022 "In cells built for adults, one-third are child migrants. Border authorities have resisted improving conditions for minors in crowded, freezing facilities."

June 15, 2022

Expert: DACA is in Danger

Gisela Salomon, Claudia Torrens, Associated Press, June 15, 2022 " Stephen Yale-Loehr , an immigration law professor at Cornell University, said things look bad for young immigrants: Both the appeals court and the Supreme Court, where the case could end up, are likely to rule against the program because its members are conservative, which could leave Dreamers with nothing in perhaps a year.  “I think that every...

June 15, 2022

Border Wall Lawsuit Settlement Allows DHS to Build More, Anywhere

Melissa del Bosque, The Border Chronicle, June 14, 2022 In May, the Government Settled a Lawsuit over a “Private” Border Wall in Texas. Now DHS Can Build a Wall Wherever it Wants, Says Marianna Treviño Wright "...I phoned Treviño Wright to discuss the  settlement , which allows the wall to remain standing. ... The Department of Homeland Security has been looking for some justification or some mechanism for waiving...

June 15, 2022

Few Granted Asylum Under MPP 2.0

TRAC, June 14, 2022 "Case-by-case Immigration Court records current as of the end of May 2022 show that during the last six months, over 5,000 asylum seekers have been required to remain in Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) while awaiting their Immigration Court hearings. Cases in MPP are generally being completed within the 180-day time frame set by the administration, but the problem with low...

June 15, 2022

Abuses in the Air: Sports Travel and the Deportation Industry

University of Washington Center for Human Rights, June 2022 "Every week, thousands of migrants are shackled at the hands and feet and forced onto deportation flights to destinations across the globe. [1]  While the flights are contracted by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), most are run by a shadowy network of private charter companies that operate with no effective oversight. In some cases, migrants...

June 14, 2022

Still Disadvantaged Even When Your Priority Date Becomes Current

Cyrus Mehta, Kaitlyn Box, June 14, 2022 "Individuals who are caught in the employment-based immigrant visa backlogs must navigate myriad issues that are associated with waiting for their priority dates to become current and applying for adjustment of status. Generally, it is cause for celebration when these individuals’ priority dates  become current, as then are eligible to apply for adjustment of status. When...

June 10, 2022

At Its 10th Anniversary, DACA Faces a Tenuous Future Despite Societal Benefits

Muzaffar Chishti, Julia Gelatt, MPI, June 9, 2022 "On June 15, 2012, President Barack Obama stood in the White House Rose Garden and announced a new program that would transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children. Titled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, it was, at the time, seen as a stopgap measure to provide relief to...

June 09, 2022

Class Action Lawsuit Challenges Asylum Work Permit Policies: Garcia Perez v. USCIS

NILA, NWIRP, June 9, 2022 "Today, five asylum applicants filed a national class action lawsuit against U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) challenging policies and practices that unlawfully prevent them and hundreds of other asylum applicants from obtaining authorization to work while their asylum claims are pending. Congress directed the adjudication...

June 09, 2022

ICE, Immigration Enforcement and Data Brokers

Readers interested in this hot topic will want to read this , this and this .

June 09, 2022

No Fighting Chance: ICE's Denial of Access to Counsel in U.S. Immigration Detention Centers

ACLU Report "This ACLU research report, No Fighting Chance: ICE's Denial of Access to Counsel in U.S. Immigration Detention Centers , provides the first comprehensive study of the barriers to access to counsel in U.S. immigration detention centers nationwide. Based on attorney surveys and calls to all immigration detention facilities nationwide, this report documents how ICE has systematically restricted the...

June 09, 2022

Immigration Judges' Free Speech Lawsuit Reactivated (Law360)

Alyssa Aquino, Law360, June 8, 2022 "The Fourth Circuit has revived a challenge by federal immigration judges to a Trump-era policy barring them from speaking up about the immigration courts, after a labor official formally dissolved their union. A three-judge circuit panel had previously disposed of the free speech case — brought by the National Association of Immigration Judges — on jurisdictional grounds. But...

June 06, 2022

Expert: NY Court Notification Bill Will Improve Due Process

Brian Lee, New York Law Journal, June 3, 2022 "Under a measure passed by the New York Legislature, judges would reinforce defense counsels' duty to provide individualized advice to their clients and an additional opportunity for individuals to become aware of possible immigration consequences resulting from a plea. The bill awaits the signature of Gov. Kathy Hochul. With Gov. Hochul’s signature, New York courts...

June 06, 2022

BIB Salutes Editorial Board Member Sandra A. Grossman

Sandra A. Grossman, a member of the Editorial Board of Bender's Immigration Bulletin , and founding partner of the boutique immigration law firm Grossman Young & Hammond , has been awarded the 2022 Edith Lowenstein Memorial Award by the American Immigration Lawyers Association .  Her firm's groundbreaking work regarding Interpol Red Notices was memorialized in the June 15, 2021 issue of BIB: " Matter...