June 06, 2022

H-2A Sheepherders File Sherman Act Class Action: Alvarado v. WRA

Leah Douglas, Reuters, June 2, 2022 "Sheep herders in the U.S. West have banded together to sue their employers, accusing them of operating an illegal cartel that artificially suppresses their wages, according to court documents filed Wednesday in Nevada . The case could have implications for how antitrust laws are applied to labor markets, according to legal experts, as the Biden administration pushes for greater...

June 02, 2022

Expert: Many Factors Influence Boston USCIS Asylum Approval Rates

Angi Gonzalez, SpectrumNews1, June 1, 2022 "Dr. Basileus Zeno, who came to the U.S. after fleeing Syria, knew that applying for asylum in the U.S would not be easy. He just never expected it to take 10 years before he was ultimately denied. He eventually moved his family to Canada after receiving the denial in 2021. "There is no transparency, zero transparency, zero accountability, so they can do whatever...

June 02, 2022

The Upward Mobility of the Children of Immigrants

Ran Abramitzky, Leah Boustan, Time Magazine, June 1, 2022 "Using millions of records of immigrant families from 1880 to 1940 and then again from 1980 to today, we find that the in past and still today children of immigrants surpass their parents and move up the economic ladder. If this is the American Dream, then immigrants achieve it—big time. One pattern that is particularly striking in the data is that the children...

June 01, 2022

Rise in Maritime Migration to the United States Is a Reminder of Chapters Past

Muzaffar Chishti, Jessica Bolter, MPI, May 25, 2022 "The United States is witnessing a significant increase in unauthorized maritime migration from the Caribbean, which has been largely overshadowed by rising arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico land border. While the 14,500 maritime migration attempts in fiscal year (FY) 2021 were just 1 percent of the encounters at the southwest border that year, U.S. interdictions of...

June 01, 2022

Trump’s anti-immigration policies continue to cost U.S. economy $9 billion a year

Jeff Brumley, May 31, 2022 "Trump-era refugee and asylum policies continue to rob the U.S. economy of $9.1 billion annually and deny all levels of American government more than $2 billion per year, according to new academic research. The study by economist Michael A. Clemens at the Center for Global Development examined the economic ripple effects of the 86% reduction in refugee arrivals and 68% decrease in asylum...

May 31, 2022

Aaliyah The Brave: Empowering Children Coping With Immigration Enforcement

Rekha Sharma-Crawford "Aaliyah is every child who has ever known the heartbreak of having a parent forcibly removed from the home by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She is the voiceless, and faceless child that is often forgotten in a system more focused on separation than reunification. Silent and silenced, she struggles alone unable to describe-let alone overcome- all the things she is feeling. Aaliyah is...

May 27, 2022

What Title 42 Has Wrought

Yael Schacher, May 26, 2022 "... Refugees International has received hundreds of requests for help and information from asylum seekers in both Reynosa and Piedras Negras who wanted to understand what would happen on May 23. It has been difficult to provide them clear answers. And the confusion and expulsions have only continued since. The Louisiana Court’s ruling has kept Title 42 in place. But due to a competing...

May 26, 2022

The Pathos of Patel v. Garland

Prof. Stacey Caplow, May 25, 2022 "There are many reasons for despair over the Supreme Court’s technocratic decision in  Patel v. Garland  which strikingly depends on arguments advanced by an  amicus  rather than the Government .  The decision effectively forecloses judicial review of fact-finding by immigration courts or agencies regardless of whether the fact-finding was unreasonable and produced an incorrect...

May 26, 2022

The Biden Administration’s Dedicated Dockets: Inside Los Angeles’ Accelerated Court Hearings for Families Seeking Asylum

Immigrants’ Rights Policy Clinic, Center for Immigration Law and Policy, UCLA School of Law, May 25, 2022 "A report released today reveals gross miscarriages of justice in the expedited immigration court docket established by the Biden administration for families seeking asylum, including the deportation of several hundred children who never had their day in court. While the Administration promised that the program...

May 25, 2022

Lawsuit Challenges Naturalization Delays: Carter v. USCIS

American Immigration Council, May 25, 2022 " This lawsuit , filed on behalf of U.S. citizenship applicants whose naturalization petitions have been pending, challenges U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) unreasonable delay in processing naturalization applications that were filed in 2020 and has prevented applicants from becoming U.S. citizens.  The suit seeks to require the National Archives and...

May 25, 2022

From Border Patrol Agent to Immigrant Rights Activist: A Podcast with Jenn Budd

Melissa Del Bosque, The Border Chronicle, May 24, 2022 "Budd's new book "Against the Wall" takes an unflinching look at the systemic misogyny and racism in the Border Patrol, and overcoming a childhood of trauma and abuse."

May 24, 2022

Expert: Biden Has Three Options on Title 42

Haisten Willis, Washington Examiner, May 24, 2022 "After experiencing yet another courtroom setback, the Biden administration is appealing and weighing options for the future of Title 42, the COVID-19-related policy of turning away unauthorized migrants at the southern border. A federal judge temporarily halted President Joe Biden's plans to end the pandemic health policy Monday. The White House says it will...

May 23, 2022

EOIR Adds Five New Immigration Judges

EOIR, May 23, 2022 "Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed Romy L. Lerner, William Mabry III, Cynthia M. Nunez, Curtis F. Pierce, and Michael P. Sady to their new positions. Biographical information follows: Romy L. Lerner, Immigration Judge, Miami (Krome) Immigration Court Romy L. Lerner was appointed as an Immigration Judge to begin hearing cases in May 2022. Judge Lerner earned a Bachelor of Arts in...

May 20, 2022

Plyler's Promise

Nicholas Espíritu, May 20, 2022 "... At the heart of the debates over  Plyler  is a radically divided view of what America is and what it can be. ..."

May 19, 2022

Yet Another H-1B Hurdle

Cyrus D. Mehta and Jessica Paszko, May 17, 2022 "The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) § 214(g)(4) limits the amount of time that H-1B nonimmigrant workers may extend their H-1B status to six years. Under certain situations, however, H-1B status may be extended beyond the statutory six-year maximum, namely by way of a “Lengthy Adjudication Delay Exemption” or a “Per-Country Limitation Exemption”. On January...

May 19, 2022

'Cheese Wall' Artist Settles Lawsuit with Border Contractors

Blake Brittain, Reuters, May 18, 2022 "An artist who built a six-foot-tall wall of cheese near the U.S.-Mexico border has settled his lawsuit against two government contractors he accused of destroying his work, according to a filing in San Diego federal court. Italian-Canadian artist Cosimo Cavallaro  sued  construction companies SLSCO Ltd and Ultimate Concrete LLC in 2020 for allegedly bulldozing his  "Cheese...

May 18, 2022

25 Years Ago Today, U.S. Marines Shot and Killed This U.S. Citizen on American Soil

Every year around this time I remind readers: "In 1997, U.S. Marines patrolling the Texas-Mexican border as part of the war on drugs shot and killed Esequiel Hernández, Jr.  Mistaken for a drug runner, the 18 year old was, in fact, a U.S. citizen tending his family's goats with a .22 rifle.  He became the first American killed by U.S. military forces on native soil since the 1970 Kent State shootings.   The Ballad...

May 17, 2022

Expert: Latest Supreme Court Ruling Means More Lawyers Needed in Immigration Court (Law360)

Mike LaSusa, Law360, May 16, 2022 "The U.S. Supreme Court's Monday ruling barring judicial review of immigration courts' factual findings raises the stakes for noncitizens in immigration court proceedings, underscoring their need for adequate access to counsel. ... Noncitizens without legal representation are more likely to be affected because they don't have the help of legal professionals trained...

May 12, 2022

Expert: Conservative Activists Get Facts Wrong About Immigrants, Crime

Josh Kelety, Associated Press, May 12, 2022 "A video from 2018 featuring two prominent conservative activists making claims about immigrants coming into the U.S. has resurfaced and is circulating widely on social media. In the clip, Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative group Turning Point USA, and Candace Owens, a conservative commentator, are speaking to a live audience about immigration and calling for...

May 10, 2022

American Dragnet

AMERICAN DRAGNET: DATA-DRIVEN DEPORTATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY Georgetown Center of Privacy and Technology, May 10, 2022 "When you think about government surveillance in the United States, you likely think of the National Security Agency or the FBI. You might even think of a powerful police agency, such as the New York Police Department. But unless you or someone you love has been targeted for deportation, you...

May 09, 2022

Texas Used Federal Pandemic Aid Money to Fund "Operation Lone Star"

Tony Romm, Washington Post, May 6, 2022 "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and top state lawmakers shifted around roughly $1 billion in federal  coronavirus  aid to help pay for their campaign to arrest migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, exposing gaps in a law meant to bolster the country’s response to the ongoing pandemic. Relying on the availability of generous federal relief funds, Texas repeatedly in recent months rerouted...

May 09, 2022

Ethical Considerations when ICE Moves to Dismiss Removal Proceedings under the Doyle Prosecutorial Discretion Memo

Cyrus Mehta and Kaitlyn Box, May 9, 2022 "On April 3, 2022 the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) Kerry E. Doyle issued a  memorandum  (“the Doyle memo”) which empowers ICE attorneys to exercise prosecutorial discretion in handling the cases of noncitizens who are not considered enforcement priorities under the criteria laid out in the earlier  Mayorkas memo...

May 05, 2022

Expert: "Broken Immigration System" Triggers Litigation Avalanche

Jasmine Aguilera, TIME Magazine, May 4, 2022 "In recent years, liberal and conservative attorneys general, nonprofit organizations, and individual plaintiffs have filed an avalanche of immigration-related suits in federal courts, resulting in a profusion of complex and often-contradictory court rulings, experts tell TIME. With Congress on the sidelines, federal judges are now on the frontlines of interpreting and...

May 03, 2022

Border Patrol Strips Migrants of Needed Documentation

Melissa del Bosque, Border Chronicle, May 3, 2022 "In Arizona and Texas, border residents are noticing more and more personal belongings discarded along the U.S. side of the border wall. They include passports, birth certificates, police reports, and other confidential documents that could be crucial in proving asylum cases. ... [I]n South Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, abandoned belongings continue to pile up...

May 03, 2022

Helping Afghans and Ukrainians Progress from Parole to Temporary Protected Status to Permanent Residence

Cyrus Mehta and Kaitlyn Box, May 3, 2022 "In light of the recent crises in Afghanistan and Ukraine, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) has been at the forefront of discussions around how the United States can assist individuals who are fleeing these two countries. On March 3, 2022, Ukraine was designated for TPS for an 18 month period. On March 16, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security also announced the designation...