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December 09, 2021

The State of Asylum: Biden's First Year

Emily Van Fossen, Meghan Holquist, Niskanen Center, Dec. 8, 2021 "Sweeping and troubling changes in immigration and asylum policy distinguished the Trump administration. Thus, the initial efforts of the Biden administration primarily focused on reversing the damage. In the first month of his term, President Biden signed twelve executive actions that outlined his immigration agenda. But ongoing issues like the humanitarian...

December 09, 2021

A Report on Detainers: Escalating Jailhouse Immigration Enforcement

Priya Sreenivasan, Jason A. Cade, and Azadeh Shahshahani, Dec. 2021 "In January 2017, former President Trump announced Executive Order 13768, in which he pledged to expand 287(g) agreements across the country, a program that deputizes state and local authorities to perform functions of immigration enforcement, and required the Department of Homeland Security to publish a list of counties that refused to honor U...

December 08, 2021

Border Land, Seized by Trump for Wall, Returned to Family

Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, Dec. 7, 2021 "The Biden administration will return the land of a Texas family after seizing the property earlier this year for border wall construction, according to a Tuesday court filing.  Since 2018, the Cavazos family had been fighting to keep their 6.5 acres of property located along the US-Mexico border from being taken for wall construction. But in April, a federal judge  ruled  the...

December 08, 2021

Utilities End Sale of Data to ICE

Drew Harwell, Washington Post, Dec. 8, 2021 "A nationwide group of utility companies that provided sensitive data from millions of Americans’ cable, phone and power bills to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other government agencies has agreed to end the practice in response to concerns the information was being misused.  After The Post revealed ICE’s use of the data in February, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore...

December 08, 2021

Senate Confirms Chris Magnus to Lead CBP

Eileen Sullivan, New York Times, Dec. 7, 2021 "The Senate on Tuesday approved President Biden’s choice to run Customs and Border Protection, filling a key post that has oversight of one of the president’s earliest and biggest challenges: handling the historic spike in illegal crossings at the nation’s southern border.  With the 50-47 vote, Chris Magnus, the police chief in Tucson, Ariz., is set to become the first...

December 07, 2021

A Slap on the I-9 Wrist for Microsoft?

I-9s are not rocket science, yet software giant Microsoft did some Very Dumb Things, according to the DOJ 12-7-21 media release and settlement agreement .

December 07, 2021

A Deep Migration Survey With Surprising Results: The Border Chronicle

Melissa del Bosque, The Border Chronicle, Dec. 7, 2021 " Much has been written recently about the number of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, but there’s been very little in depth information about people’s complex motivations for leaving home. With a global pandemic still devastating communities and economies, growing poverty and hunger are spurring more citizens from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala...

December 07, 2021

The Impact of Nationality, Language, Gender and Age on Asylum Success: TRAC

TRAC, Dec. 7, 2021 "Under the new Biden administration asylum seekers are seeing greater success in securing asylum in Immigration Court. While asylum grant rates declined during the Trump years to a low of just 29 percent in FY 2020, they climbed to 37 percent during FY 2021 after President Biden assumed office. This finding discussed in the  first report  of a two-part series, is examined in greater detail in...

December 06, 2021

Round Table of Former Immigration Judges on the Restarting of MPP

Hon. Jeffrey S. Chase, Dec. 6, 2021 "The Round Table of Former Immigration Judges is a group of 51 former Immigration Judges and Members of the Board of Immigration Appeals who are committed to the principles of due process, fairness, and transparency in our Immigration Court system. There has been no greater affront to due process, fairness, and transparency than the MPP, or “Remain in Mexico” policy.  Instituted...

December 06, 2021

AILA Welcomes Merger of American Immigration Council and New American Economy

AILA, Dec. 6, 2021 "The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) welcomes the newly announced merger of the  American Immigration Council  and the  New American Economy  into a unified American Immigration Council. AILA founded the American Immigration Council in 1987 to strengthen America by working toward a more fair and just immigration system and New American Economy (NAE), was founded by Michael Bloomberg...

December 02, 2021

Immigration Court's Data on Minors Facing Deportation is Too Faulty to Be Trusted: TRAC

TRAC, Dec. 2, 2021 "After careful analysis and consideration, TRAC is forced to suspend its publication of data on juveniles facing deportation in Immigration Court due to serious, unresolved deficiencies in the EOIR's data. TRAC's analyses indicate that the data used by the Immigration Court for tracking and reporting on juveniles who are facing deportation appear to be seriously flawed to the point that...

December 02, 2021

Broken Promises: Limits of Biden's Executive Order on Private Prisons

Detention Watch Network, Nov. 2021 "The Biden administration has failed to deliver on the promise to end the use of private prisons in federal incarceration and immigration detention, according to Broken Promises: Limits of Biden's Executive Order on Private Prisons  a new report released by Detention Watch Network and Project South. The report provides an overview of progress towards that unfulfilled promise...

December 01, 2021

Expert on Immigration "Plan C"

Jorge Cancino, Univision, Nov. 29, 2021 "A Senate Democratic committee - headed by the office of leader Charles Schumer - is preparing to meet this week with the top aide to the Upper House, attorney Elizabeth MacDonough, and formally deliver the so-called 'Plan C’ on immigration as part of a 'budget reconciliation’ bill that will be evaluated by the senators…. ... The Social Spending...

December 01, 2021

The Ineffectiveness of the Latest Omicron Travel Ban From the Perspective of Immigration Lawyers

Cyrus D. Mehta & Kaitlyn Box, Nov. 30, 2021 "On November 26, 2021, President Biden issued a  Presidential Proclamation  entitled “A Proclamation on Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Nonimmigrants of Certain Additional Persons Who Pose a Risk of Transmitting Coronavirus Disease 2019” in response to a report made by the South African government to the World Health Organization (WHO) that a new B.1.1.529 ...

November 30, 2021

12/9 Webinar: Ready to Stay

CMS - READY TO STAY: A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF THE US FOREIGN-BORN POPULATIONS ELIGIBLE FOR SPECIAL LEGAL STATUS PROGRAMS AND FOR LEGALIZATION UNDER PENDING BILLS " Event Date and Time:  December 9, 2021 1:00 pm Event Ends:  December 9, 2021 2:15 pm   Time Zone:  Eastern Time (ET)   Register At:  https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xB2JuGE4QcGsTtfCviM5Pw Please join the Center for Migration...

November 30, 2021

Electronic I-9 Software Costs the Gap Over $73K in Penalties, Back Wages

DOJ, Nov. 29, 2021 "The settlement with Gap resolves claims that the company discriminated against certain non-U.S. citizens (including lawful permanent residents, refugees and asylees) and naturalized U.S. citizens because of their current or prior immigration status. The department found that Gap discriminated against workers by reverifying their permission to work, even though there was no legal reason to do...

November 29, 2021

DHS Begins Implementation of Immigration Enforcement Priorities

DHS Office of Public Affairs, Nov. 29, 2021, email to stakeholders: "The Department of Homeland Security today announced it will begin implementation of the Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Law signed by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas on September 30.  “Today is an important step forward in ensuring that our workforce is empowered to exercise its prosecutorial discretion...

November 26, 2021

SPECIAL REPORT: IMMIGRATION AND THE DUTY TO HELP

Bill Boyarsky, UCLA Blueprint, Fall 2021 "ACADEMICS, UNIVERSITY STUDENTS and activists are creating an informal network reaching throughout California and beyond to seek justice for the more than 25,000 immigrants held in federal detention centers across the nation. It is eye-opening work and often distressing. Members of the network struggle to penetrate the secrecy in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement...

November 24, 2021

America's Border Dilemma

Muzaffar Chishti, Doris M. Meissner, Foreign Affairs, November 23, 2021 "President Joe Biden campaigned on an unabashedly pro-immigration platform, in stark contrast to the approach of his predecessor. Delivering on his promises, however, has proved elusive. Illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexican border have reached a level not seen since 2000, with migrants coming from a broader range of countries than in the past...

November 23, 2021

Expert: Spending Bill Could Begin to Fix Broken Immigration System

Jorge Cancino, Univision, Nov. 21, 2021 "According to Stephen Yale-Loehr, professor at Cornell University School of Law , “The 2,135-page budget bill includes a number of important immigration provisions, including up to 10 years of work authorization and protection against deportation for undocumented people living in the United States”. “The bill would also give the Department of Homeland Security...

November 23, 2021

Prof. Stephen Yale-Loehr: Immigration Provisions in the Build Back Better Act

Global Detroit, Nov. 2021 " Overview On November 19, 2021, the House of Representatives passed a $1.75 trillion social spending bill last week called the Build Back Better Act. The House bill’s immigration provisions, while more limited than originally proposed, would still be the most significant immigration legislation in decades.  The House bill   includes several significant immigration provisions, including...

November 22, 2021

Black American Citizen Sues ICE Over Illegal Imprisonment: Bukle v. USA

Bukle v. USA "Mr. Bukle, a Black man, has lived in the United States since he was two years old. Despite decades of U.S. citizenship and residence, Mr. Bukle was falsely arrested, detained, and placed in removal proceedings by ICE. He protested his arrest and detention repeatedly, but was ignored, belittled, and humiliated by Defendants. Officers of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (...

November 22, 2021

The Legal Basis Underpinning the New Automatic Extension of Work Authorization for H-4, L-2 and E-2 Spouses, and Why It Must Still Be Challenged: Cyrus Mehta

Cyrus Mehta, Nov. 22, 2021 "The USCIS has been processing employment authorization requests for H-4 and L-2  spouses so slowly that they have been rendered virtually useless. By the time the applicant receives the employment authorization document (EAD) after 10 months, the job offer no longer exists. The experience is even more harrowing when the spouse begins working under the first EAD and has to apply for a...

November 22, 2021

Climate Change, Asylum and Refugee Status: Jeffrey S. Chase

Jeffrey S. Chase, Nov. 22, 2021 -  White House Issues Report on Climate Change and Migration "On October 21, the White House issued a Report on the Impact of Climate Change on Migration which contains a few noteworthy passages relating to the law of asylum. On page 17, the White House report acknowledges that existing legal instruments for addressing displacement caused by climate change are limited.  Encouragingly...

November 19, 2021

Notre Dame Law Students Help Mother and Daughter Win Asylum

Amanda Gray, Notre Dame Law, Nov. 19, 2021 "A mother and daughter have been granted asylum in the U.S. after fleeing gender violence in Latin America, thanks in part to Notre Dame Law School students Jacquelyn Aguirre and Elizabeth Wentross. Aguirre and Wentross, both second-year law students, are participants in this semester’s  National Immigrant Justice Center externship . Through the externship, students...