August 10, 2021

Study Reveals Shortcomings and Opportunities in U.S. Immigration Coverage

Daniela Gerson, Chi Zhang, and Elizabeth Aguilera, with research assistance from Miriam Frutos-Rodriguez and Gillian Moran-Perez, Aug. 2, 2021 " Internews supported a content analysis of more than 4,500 of the most impactful immigration stories from 2017-2020 Migratory Notes , an informed weekly guide for journalists, policymakers, lawyers, academics, advocates, and immigrants themselves, was started...

August 10, 2021

The Law That Broke Immigration

Madeline Marshall, Melissa Hirsch, Vox, Aug 9, 2021 "Immigration looked very different before 1996, when President Bill Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). The law was supposed to stop undocumented immigration by increasing enforcement and punishing people for being in the US undocumented. Instead, it did the opposite . Before 1996, Mexican immigrants who came...

August 09, 2021

What You Should Know About the US Undocumented and Eligible-to-Naturalize Populations

Center for Migration Studies of New York, Aug. 4, 2021 "The Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) has released its most recent estimates on the undocumented and eligible-to-naturalize immigrant populations in the United States. CMS estimates that 10.35 million undocumented immigrants and 8.1 million immigrants who are eligible to naturalize reside in the United States. The eligible-to-naturalize population...

August 09, 2021

Making Citizenship an Organizing Principle of the US Immigration System

Donald Kerwin, Robert Warren, Charles Wheeler, June 2, 2021 "This paper proposes that the United States treat naturalization not as the culmination of a long and uncertain individual process, but as an organizing principle of the US immigration system and its expectation for new Americans. It comes at a historic inflection point, following the chaotic departure of one of the most nativist administrations in US...

August 06, 2021

Expert on DED for Hong Kong: Will Congress Need to Step In?

Stephen Dinan, Washington Times, Aug. 5, 2021 "President Biden declared a deportation amnesty for residents of Hong Kong who are in the U.S., saying Thursday that arrests and persecution by the Chinese government are putting people in danger and they deserve a “safe haven.”  The move, known officially as deferred enforced departure, means those in the U.S. illegally or on legal visas who would have to return home...

August 05, 2021

Another Lawsuit Against TX Gov. Greg Abbott

Annunciation House, et al., v. Abbott, COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF, Case 3:21-cv-00178, W.D. TX, El Paso Div., Aug. 4, 2021 "Governor Abbott’s Executive Order No. GA-37, if permitted to go into effect, will subject Texans and those traveling through our State to a unilateral state immigration enforcement regime in direct conflict with federal law. The executive order directs state law enforcement...

August 05, 2021

Expert: Will Texas Follow in Arizona's (Losing) Footsteps?

Jorge Cancino, Univision, Aug. 3, 2021 "An El Paso, Texas, district judge temporarily blocked an order issued by Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday that gave Texas border state police extraordinary powers to stop vehicles if officers had reasonable suspicion that they were inside. transport undocumented immigrants. … "The federal government will surely challenge Governor Abbott's immigration plans as...

August 05, 2021

Judge Hauls Officials Into Court After ICE Refuses to Comply With Court Order

TRAC, Aug. 5, 2021 " In an unusual move, U.S. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., rebuked Immigration and Customs Enforcement for “thumbing its nose” at the court in a highly consequential Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit brought by the co-directors of TRAC. At a hearing on July 29, 2021, the judge ordered senior officials to personally appear...

August 03, 2021

The Future of DACA: Webinar

UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy Tuesday, August 3rd at 12 pm PDT Join the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy’s faculty co-directors Ahilan Arulanantham and Hiroshi Motomura tomorrow at noon for a timely conversation about the future of DACA. Click here to register

August 03, 2021

Pushing Back Protection: How Offshoring And Externalization Imperil The Right To Asylum

NIJC, FWD.us, Aug. 3, 2021 "International asylum law first emerged following the Holocaust and other atrocities during World War II. The world bore witness to the genocide of millions at the hands of brutal dictatorships, while powerful nations showed callous disregard for people seeking asylum, turning them straight back to harm’s way. The United States participated in this practice, refusing safety to tens of...

August 03, 2021

The Sinking Immigration Court: Change Course, Save the Ship

Dean Stacy Caplow, Aug. 1, 2021 "Immigration Court, where hundreds of judges daily preside over wrenching decisions, including matters of family separation, detention, and even life and death, is structurally and functionally unsound. Closures during the pandemic, coupled with unprecedented backlogs, low morale, and both procedural and substantive damage inflicted by the Trump Administration, have created a full...

August 03, 2021

Expert: DHS' Defense of Trump H-1B Rule May Generate Litigation (Law360)

Jennifer Doherty, Law360, Aug. 2, 2021 "DHS' recent defense of another Trump administration rule, modifying the H-1B visa program for highly skilled workers to prioritize applicants with more lucrative job offers in the U.S., also caught [Cornell Law Prof. Stephen W.] Yale-Loehr's attention.  "The Biden administration seems intent on continuing the Trump administration's effort to revise the H...

August 03, 2021

Biden Taps Prof. Lucas Guttentag to Refocus Immigration Policies

Anita Kumar, Politico, Aug. 2, 2021 "Lucas Guttentag will serve as senior counselor on immigration policy and report to the Department of Justice’s Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. ... Prior to entering the administration, Guttentag served as law professor at Stanford Law School and lecturer at Yale Law School. He launched the  Immigration Policy Tracking Project  in 2017 to develop and maintain a complete...

August 02, 2021

Title 42 Litigation Update (Huisha-Huisha, Aug. 2, 2021)

Ted Hesson, Reuters, Aug. 2, 2021 "Pro-migrant groups will restart litigation that aims to block the United States from expelling migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border during the coronavirus pandemic, saying the policy illegally cuts off access to asylum.  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the leading group representing migrant families barred under the expulsion order, said in a joint court filing...

August 02, 2021

H-2B Visa Shortage Has Seasonal Businesses Scrambling

Patricia Cohen, Sydney Ember, New York Times, Aug. 2, 2021 "Tyler Holt summed up the problem his Utah landscaping business faces every year. “People who want to be in the job force want stability — if they want to work, they work full time,” he said. “Locally there’s just no workers who want to do anything seasonal.” The complaint has been echoed not only by landscapers in Utah, but also by amusement parks in...

July 30, 2021

DOJ Sues Texas Over Migrant Transport Order

USA v. Texas, July 30, 2021

July 30, 2021

Neither Safety nor Health: How Title 42 Expulsions Harm Health and Violate Rights

Kathryn Hampton, Michele Heisler, Cynthia Pompa, Alana Slavin, July 28, 2021 "Toward the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the Trump administration overrode the objections of public health experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and compelled the CDC to issue an order under Title 42 U.S.C. section 265 of the 1944 Public Health and Service Act that closed the border to...

July 28, 2021

Immigration Court Cases Jump in June 2021; Delays Double This Year

TRAC, July 28, 2021 "The number of new deportation cases filed by the Biden administration is on the rise. Deportation orders sought by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) jumped by nearly 50 percent in June, compared with the number filed in May. The number of new cases continues to severely outpace the rate at which judges can keep up, resulting in a growing backlog that is approaching 1.4 million. These...

July 27, 2021

Texas and the Dangers of State Immigration Enforcement

Prof. Geoffrey A. Hoffman, July 27, 2021 "In a series of bold actions, Texas has attempted to continue where the Trump administration left off in terms of immigration enforcement.  These attempts  recently have included threats to build a border wall, the devotion of space in state jails to immigration violators, and the use of the arrest power against immigrants under the theory of trespass. The relationship between...

July 27, 2021

MPI on Rescuing Afghan Allies (July 27, 2021)

Muzaffar Chishti, Julia Gelatt, MPI, July 27, 2021 "Confronting the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan by the end of August, the U.S. government at the eleventh hour is taking steps to address the fate of Afghans whose assistance during two decades of war has put their lives and those of their families at risk. President Joe Biden in July announced a plan dubbed Operation Allies Refuge to evacuate from the...

July 27, 2021

Despite Prosecutorial Discretion "Reform," the Deportation Machine Rolls On

Dara Lind, ProPublica, July 27, 2021 "Under a new Biden policy, more than 100,000 immigrants could have their cases dropped. But that discretion is left to individual prosecutors, and many are letting the deportation machine roll on. ... "

July 27, 2021

Remembering Judge Robert Katzmann, a Pioneer in Providing Legal Counsel for Immigrants

Camille Mackler, Documented, July 27, 2021 "Judge Robert Katzmann was struck the same way we all are by the fundamental lack of fairness in immigration proceedings. It started in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the late 2000s. Judge Katzmann was increasingly shocked at the volume of appeals filed by immigrants who had judgments against them in the immigration courts. Katzmann was struck by the poor quality...

July 27, 2021

Biden Administration Claims It Will "Improve" Expedited Removal, Asylum System

White House, July 27, 2021 "... The Administration is working to improve the expedited removal process at the border to fairly and efficiently determine which individuals have legitimate claims for asylum and other forms of protection. Asylum and other legal migration pathways should remain available to those seeking protection. Those not seeking protection or who don’t qualify will be promptly removed to their...

July 26, 2021

Sophia Genovese on Johnson v. Guzman Chavez

Sophia Genovese, July 26, 2021 "In  Johnson v. Guzman Chavez , 594 U.S. __ (2021), the Supreme Court held that noncitizens in withholding-only proceedings are not entitled to a custody redetermination, or bond, hearing before the Immigration Court. This holding effectively leaves thousands of asylum seekers at risk of prolonged and indefinite detention. By way of background, individuals who return to the United...

July 26, 2021

Wanted: Global Herd Immunity

Vaccine xenophobia against immigrants and refugees must end FATEN TAKI, GUNISHA KAUR AND STEPHEN YALE-LOEHR, July 24, 2021 "None of us can be completely safe if any group or nation is left behind.  To achieve herd immunity, vaccine access should be a basic right.  We all eagerly want our lives back.  That can only happen with herd immunity.  Creativity in developing and enforcing immigration policies should be...