April 20, 2021

CBP Memo: Updated Terminology for CBP Communications and Materials

CBP, Apr. 19, 2021 "This memorandum establishes updated language and aligns our communication practices with the Biden Administration’s guidance regarding immigration terminology. The Administration has provided guidance on the preferred use of immigration terminology within the federal government."

April 19, 2021

Biden's Border Problem, and How to Fix It

Prof. Peter Margulies, Apr. 19, 2021 "President Biden has a border problem. The U.S. is seeing a deeply troubling increase both in total unaccompanied children (UACs) and in very young UACs—children as young as six or seven years old. The current problems at the border have both short- and long-term causes. In the short term, the Biden administration contributed to the problem with two related steps. First, it...

April 19, 2021

Cyrus Mehta on Coping with Delays Facing H-4 and L-2 Spouses When They Have a Pending Adjustment Application – Part 2

Cyrus Mehta and Isabel Rajabzadeh*, Apr. 19, 2021 "Although H-4 and L-2 extensions continue to be delayed since our  last blog  “ Coping with Delays Facing H-4 and L-2 Spouses ”,  we highlight another issue,  which adds further hardship for H-4 and L-2 spouses faced with unjust processing delays. In October 2020, the EB-3 Dates for Filing in the Visa Bulletin advanced significantly, which allowed many born in India...

April 15, 2021

Migratory Notes 208, Apr. 15, 2021

Migratory Notes 208, Apr. 15, 2021 - Record low for refugees; $60 million/week for beds; TPS at risk...and so much more!

April 15, 2021

Washington State Governor OKs Bill Banning For-Profit Jails

Rachel La Corte, Associated Press, Apr. 14, 2021 "One of the country’s largest for-profit, privately run immigration jails would be shut down by 2025 under a bill signed Wednesday by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.  The measure approved by the Washington Legislature bans for-profit detention centers in the state. The only facility that meets that definition is the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, a 1,575-bed immigration...

April 14, 2021

Employers of Visa Workers Remain in Limbo After Trump Ban’s End

Genevieve Douglas, Bloomberg Law, Apr. 13, 2021 "Employers of temporary visa holders are unlikely to see a quick return to normal even after last month’s expiration of a Trump order barring entry to the U.S. for certain foreign workers in response to pandemic-related job loss.  Nationals from China, Brazil, South Africa, and most of Europe are still restricted. Meanwhile, embassies and consulates abroad are facing...

April 13, 2021

Cyrus Mehta on Delays, Quotas

April 11, 2021 - Coping with Delays Facing H-4 and L-2 Spouses April 2, 2021 - End the Arbitrary H-1B Lottery and Visa Quotas – and other practical considerations for the winners!

April 12, 2021

Biden Names Picks for USCIS, CBP (Jaddou; Magnus)

White House, Apr. 12, 2021 " Ur Jaddou, Nominee for Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services Ur Mendoza Jaddou has two decades of experience in immigration law, policy, and administration.  Most recently, she was the Director of DHS Watch, a project of America’s Voice, where she shined a light on immigration policies and administration that failed to adhere to basic principles of good governance, transparency...

April 09, 2021

Migratory Notes 207, Apr. 8, 2021

Migratory Notes 207, Apr. 8, 2021 - Record number of migrant kids in shelters; TikTok scams; El Salvador snubs...and so much more!

April 08, 2021

The BIA's Mansplaining of Gender-Based Asylum

Jeffrey S. Chase, Apr. 6, 2021 "“Every woman knows what I’m talking about. It’s the presumption that makes it hard, at times, for any woman in any field; that keeps women from speaking up and from being heard when they dare; that crushes young women into silence by indicating, the way harassment on the street does, that this is not their world. It trains us in self-doubt and self-limitation just as it exercises...

April 08, 2021

Sam Bernsen, 1919-2020

The Hon. Paul W. Schmidt, former BIA Chairman, has this tribute to Sam Bernsen, who died at the age of 101 in July 2020. Here is a link to the Washington Post profile. And here is a link to a 1976 INS General Counsel Legal Opinion regarding Prosecutorial Discretion, bearing Sam's name but written by Paul Schmidt.

April 07, 2021

Dædalus on Immigration, Nativism & Race in the United States

The venerable journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Dædalus , has devoted the Spring 2021 issue to the topic of Immigration, Nativism & Race in the United States.

April 07, 2021

Dædalus on Immigration, Nativism & Race in the United States

The venerable journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Dædalus , has devoted the Spring 2021 issue to the topic of Immigration, Nativism & Race in the United States.

April 05, 2021

Angelo Paparelli on Biden's Immigration Bill

Beware the Employer Risks Nesting in President Biden’s Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill Angelo A. Paparelli and Tieranny L. Cutler, Mar. 31, 2021 "At the urging of President Biden, two members of Congress – Senator Robert Menendez and Representative Linda Sanchez – introduced companion 353-page bills last month in the  Senate  and the  House  entitled the “U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021.” Presented as a...

April 05, 2021

Biden, Mayorkas Disappear Trafficking Victims Under Trump's Title 42 Order

Tina Vásquez, April 1st, 2021 "A man calls the Phoenix Police Department on January 29—his uncle has been kidnapped. Smugglers are holding his uncle at a drop house. They had helped his uncle, a newly arrived undocumented immigrant, cross the border. Now, they want more money. After the police arrive, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement show up. They apprehend the uncle and dozens of migrants from Mexico...

April 05, 2021

Senators Ask Garland for EOIR Reform

Seven senators wrote a letter dated Mar. 23, 2021 to Attorney General Garland asking for significant reforms to the Immigration Courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals.

April 05, 2021

What Should Immigration Law Become?

Prof. Geoffrey Hoffman, 2021 Skelton Lecture (begin at 9:48) Prof. Geoffrey Hoffman, Clinical Professor and Director, Immigration Clinic

April 02, 2021

DOL's Response to Requests to Raise the H-2B Visa Cap

DOL, Apr. 1, 2021 "The Department of Labor recognizes that obtaining a reliable workforce is crucial to meeting the labor needs of American businesses. We also recognize how important it is to put Americans back to work. On Dec. 27, 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, was signed into law. This act authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security, after consultation with the Secretary of Labor, to increase...

April 02, 2021

Experts to Explain Influx of Children at the Border

ABA, Apr. 1, 2021 "Five legal experts will explain the latest influx of unaccompanied migrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border in a webinar April 9 hosted by the  American Bar Association Commission on Immigration . The free program, which starts at noon ET, will feature experts from Texas and Washington, D.C. They will discuss who is crossing the border, why they are coming now and how the United States government...

April 01, 2021

Border Déjà Vu: Biden Confronts Similar Challenges as His Predecessors

Muzaffar Chishti and Sarah Pierce, MPI Policy Beat, Apr. 1, 2021 "President Joe Biden’s administration is facing a burgeoning crisis as projected record-breaking numbers of foreign-born children arrive at the U.S. southern border seeking refuge. The challenge, which Biden says was to be expected, has been met with a lack of adequate resources, preparedness, and public relations. The backlash has been swift and...

April 01, 2021

Pulling Back the Curtain-Analysis of New Government Data on Temporary Protected Status

CLINIC, Alianza Americas, NDLON, NIP/NLG, Mar. 30, 2021 "The Temporary Protected Status Advocacy Working Group led by Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. or CLINIC, in partnership with Alianza Americas; the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (as a core member of the National TPS Alliance) and National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild released a report , “Pulling Back the Curtain...

March 31, 2021

Asylum is Not an Open Question

Felipe De La Hoz, Mar. 30, 2021 "This has been a bizarre conversation on a number of levels, not least because many interlocutors proceed from the assumption that permitting humanitarian migration is even a choice that the president gets to make. It is not: U.S. law  lays out  that any “alien . . . who arrives in the United States . . .  irrespective of such alien’s status, may apply for asylum.” "

March 30, 2021

Overcoming Polarization: How to Talk with Immigration Opponents

Ayumi Berstein, Stephen W. Yale-Loehr, Mar. 30, 2021 "Immigration has never been more polarized. But it wasn’t always that way. In  2005 , Republicans and Democrats were only about five percentage points apart in their views on immigration. By 2019, that gap had widened to 47%. Currently,  78% of Democrats  regard immigration as positive, while only 31% of Republicans do.  A  study  by Nichole Argo and Kate Jassin...

March 30, 2021

Cruelty and Corruption: Contracting to Lock Up Immigrant Women for Profit at the Hutto Detention Center

UT Law Immigration Clinic, Grassroots Leadership, Mar. 30, 2021 "The story of the T. Don Hutto (“Hutto”) immigration detention center is a story of women deprived of their liberty and dignity in the pursuit of profits for the private prison company that runs the facility. It is also the story of accountability failures and a contracting process that was designed to ensure continued detention at the facility at...

March 30, 2021

Expert: Term "Border Crisis" Overblown, Simplistic

Jorge Cancino, Univision, Mar. 29, 2021 ""The term 'border crisis' is overblown and overly simplistic," says Stephen Yale-Loehr, professor of immigration practice at Cornell University School of Law , New York. "In general, undocumented immigration to the United States is lower now than it was 20 years ago," he adds."