March 08, 2021

Lecture: Crossing Borders

Episode 3 of Speak Now, a Series on Political Polarization   Friday, March 19, 2021, 4:30pm EDT   REGISTER NOW   "Months after the 2020 election, this country feels more divided than ever. Today’s youth have only ever experienced a fractured America, rife with ideological polarization that corrodes our ability to listen to and understand voices different from our own. Such division not only threatens...

March 08, 2021

Lecture: "Essential But Illegal: COVID-19 and Reliance on Undocumented Labor"

RSVP here for this online live-stream, Thursday, Mar. 25, 2021, 2:30 - 4:00 PM Pacific "Dr. Natalia Molina is a Professor in the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. She is the author of two award-winning books, How Race Is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts and Fit to Be Citizens?: Public Health and Race in Los...

March 05, 2021

Pursuing Citizenship in the Enforcement Era

Pursuing Citizenship in the Enforcement Era: A Discussion With Author Dr. Ming Hsu Chen "The law says that everyone who is not a citizen is an alien. The social reality, however, is far more complicated. In the fourth installment of our Reimagining Citizenship series, author Ming Hsu Chen will present her book “ Pursuing Citizenship in the Enforcement Era .” In it, she provides readers with the everyday perspectives...

March 05, 2021

Expert: Supreme Court Decision Tightens Burden of Proof in Immigration Court

Nina Totenberg, NPR, Mar. 4, 2021 "The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday [ Pereida v. Wilkinson ] made it more difficult for undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for a long time to fight deportation. ... By putting the burden on Pereida, the court not only made it more difficult for undocumented immigrants to get special dispensations from the attorney general, the court also made it more difficult to...

March 04, 2021

Migratory Notes 202 (Mar. 4, 2021)

Migratory Notes 202, Mar. 4, 2021 - Kids at border test Biden; More Asian kids homeschooling; Immigrant cooks in Baltimore...and so much more!

March 04, 2021

Immigration is Not a Security Threat: Expert

Elizabeth Neumann, Mar. 4, 2021 The author is a senior advisor to the National Immigration Forum on national security matters and a former DHS Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention during the Trump administration.  " National security professionals agree that border security is important for our national security. And there is bipartisan agreement that the current laws  that make up our...

March 04, 2021

Angelo A. Paparelli on DOS' COVID Chaos

Angelo A. Paparelli, Mar. 3, 2021 Why? Oh My! ~ State Department Makes It Harder for Travelers from the Schengen Area, UK, and Ireland to Receive National Interest Exceptions (NIEs) under Pandemic-Based Visa and Entry Bans "“America is back, the trans-Atlantic alliance is back.” – So  declared President Biden  on February 23, 2021.  Apparently, however, Antony J. Blinken, the newly installed U.S. Secretary of...

March 04, 2021

Immigration Bill Would Benefit International Students

Karin Fischer, Chronicle of Higher Education, Mar. 3, 2021 "The new immigration bill, the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, would provide legal protections to Dreamers and make it easier for international STEM Ph.D.s to stay in the United States after graduation. Tucked into the 353-page bill are two other provisions that would have a big effect on international students. The bill would permit what’s known as “dual...

March 03, 2021

NILC Summary, Key Provisions, U.S. Citizenship Act

NILC, Feb. 2021 "On February 18, 2021, Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and U.S. Representative Linda Sanchez (D-CA) introduced the U.S. Citizenship Act in the Senate and House of Representatives, respectively.1 The bill, which President Joe Biden sent to Congress on his first day in office, would provide a pathway to U.S. citizenship to an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States...

March 02, 2021

GAO on ICE, 287(g) Agreements

GAO, Feb. 26, 2021 "Within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) met its goal to expand the 287(g) program. However, ICE has not established performance goals that cover all program activities, such as ICE's oversight of its law enforcement agency (LEA) partners, or measures to assess the program's performance, such as the percentage of LEA partners in...

March 01, 2021

Overcoming a COVID Travel Ban Through the National Interest Exception

Cyrus D. Mehta, Kaitlyn Box, Feb. 28, 2021 "Although the Trump era has ended, some of its draconian immigration policies continue to linger, including the COVID travel bans. On January 25, 2021, President Biden issued Presidential  Proclamation 10143 , entitled “Proclamation on the Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Non-Immigrants of Certain Additional Persons Who Pose a Risk of Transmitting Coronavirus Disease...

February 26, 2021

Expert: Regional Visa Proposal Echoes Past Efforts

Genevieve Douglas, Bloomberg Law, Feb.  26, 2021 "U.S. lawmakers are exploring potential visa programs that would pair skilled workers with communities in need of economic development in response to a growing gap between local markets and sustainable worker populations. ... The U.S. Citizenship Act’s regional economic development visa proposal echoes a similar initiative that was enacted as part of immigration...

February 26, 2021

Legal Snags and Possible Increases in Border Arrivals Complicate Biden’s Immigration Agenda

Muzaffar Chishti and Jessica Bolter, Feb. 25, 2021 "Though eager to move on from the policies of its predecessor, President Joe Biden’s administration is facing challenges enacting its immigration enforcement agenda, both in the interior and at the U.S.-Mexico border. Court injunctions, administrative resistance, and novel bureaucratic hurdles put in place by the Trump administration shortly before its end, as...

February 26, 2021

Migratory Notes 201, Feb. 25, 2021

Migratory Notes 201, Feb. 25, 2021 - Climate migration myths; Kids in Cages again? Immigration reform support on the rise...and much, much more!

February 24, 2021

Expert: Evidence Supporting Tipton Order "Impressively Flimsy"

Prof. César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, Feb. 24, 2021 "In a 105-page order, a federal judge in Texas  granted a preliminary injunction  yesterday blocking the Biden administration from implementing a 100-day deportation pause. The same court previously blocked the pause by  issuing a temporary restraining order . The injunction is effective immediately and applies nationwide. As a result, I expect to see the administration...

February 24, 2021

Expert: Tipton Order Does Not Compel Deportations

Colin Kalmbacher, Law & Crime, Feb. 24, 2021 "A federal judge put another hold on President Joe Biden‘s limited efforts to halt final deportation orders during the first 100 days of the nascent president’s term in office. The  105-page ruling  out of the Southern District of Texas doesn’t force the administration to engage in deportations, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has previously signaled...

February 23, 2021

Hey, Immigration Lawyer: Get Me a Coronavirus Passport

Angelo A. Paparelli, Dawn Lurie, Feb. 23, 2021 "Globe-hoppers of the world, too long cabined and constrained by the pandemic, are exhilarated at the prospect of imminent foreign travel.  Many have received the vaccine and are poised to fly far away for business or pleasure.  The vaccinated among us, however, should not buy that airline ticket just yet – unless you  know before you go  how you will be treated at...

February 22, 2021

A Very Deep Dive on H-2B Visas: David J. Bier

David J. Bier, Feb. 16, 2021 "Since 1952, American employers have hired H-2B foreign guest workers to fill seasonal or temporary jobs that U.S. workers have not taken. Onerous rules kept participation low until the late 1990s, but as more Americans left these types of temporary jobs, more employers accepted the H-2B visa’s restrictive requirements as their only chance to find legal workers. Now the H-2B program...

February 22, 2021

To Amend, or Not to Amend: That is the Question For Visas Not Associated With a Labor Condition Application

Cora-Ann Pestaina, Feb. 22, 2021 "As the COVID-19 pandemic unfortunately rages on, employers nationwide continue to seek ways to keep their businesses open and reduce costs while also protecting their nonimmigrant employees. This blog has addressed,  here ,  here  and  here , some of the unique challenges facing employers of H-1B and other nonimmigrant workers. Employers have basically come to accept the fact that...

February 19, 2021

In Case You Missed Wednesday's Webinar...

LexisNexis hosted a free webinar on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021 entitled What to Expect on Immigration from the Biden Administration, featuring Steve Yale-Loehr, Ron Wada and yours truly.  If you missed it, here is a link to a video of the webinar .  The slide deck is here .  Handouts are here and here .

February 19, 2021

Experts Comment on Biden Immigration Bill

The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 was unveiled on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021.  As it moves through Senate and House committees we will see numerous changes and amendments.  These three experts have some initial thoughts: Jill Family: Biden’s Immigration Bill: Reforming Immigration Court through Substantive Law César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández: Criminal bars, policing changes, & meaningful reforms in proposed legislation...

February 18, 2021

Angelo A. Paparelli on Terminology

Angelo A. Paparelli, Feb. 18, 2021 "The English nursery rhyme was wrong.  Not only do sticks and stones break our bones, but words can also hurt.  This is the lesson recently imparted by the Acting Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Tracy Renaud, in a recent internal memorandum.  Insisting on a new set of descriptors for the foreign citizens whom her agency serves, she banished into...

February 18, 2021

Migratory Notes 200, Feb. 18, 2021

Migratory Notes 200, Feb. 18, 2021 - Frigid tent camps; What’s in the immigration reform bill? Remain in Mexico no more?

February 17, 2021

The Prison to Deportation Pipeline: Crimmigration & Black Immigrants

ABA Webinar, Feb. 10, 2021 (90-min. video) "Immigration enforcement operates absent many of the protections available in the criminal justice system, resulting in heightened detention and surveillance of Black immigrants. Panelists will discuss how the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (“IIRIRA”) of 1996 expanded the crimes for which a noncitizen can be deported, disproportionately impacting...

February 17, 2021

COVID-19 and Immigration Detention

Caitlin Patler, PhD, Jackie Gonzalez, JD, Hamid Yazdan Panah, JD, Immigration Initiative at Harvard, Feb. 2021 "The COVID-19 pandemic exposes a federal immigration detention system of imprisonment without trial that has long failed to properly ensure the health and wellbeing of detained people—and with little-to-no accountability. In the long term, we must work to end this broken system and prioritize the humane...