February 17, 2021

DHS Scraps Last-Minute ICE Contract

Nicole Sganga, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News, Feb. 16, 2021 "The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday moved to scrap a contract signed at the tail end of the Trump administration that could have allowed a union of deportation officers to stall the implementation of certain immigration policy changes. The agreement, signed the day before President Biden's inauguration by Ken Cuccinelli, the second-in...

February 17, 2021

Will John D. Trasviña Reform ICE OPLA? I Have High Hopes...

In late January 2021 John D. Trasviña was appointed Principal Legal Advisor at ICE. Here is his ICE bio dated 1-26-21, and here is his Wikipedia entry. Call it wishful thinking, but I hope he can revamp the ICE legal team from top to bottom and set a new direction, especially regarding who gets put into proceedings and why.

February 16, 2021

National Interest Exceptions: Is There a Better Way?

Cyrus D. Mehta, Feb. 16, 2021 "On February 10, 2021, the Department of State (DOS)  announced  that certain business travelers, investors, treaty traders, academics, students, and journalists may qualify for national interest exceptions under the Presidential Proclamation (PP) covering travelers from the Schengen Area, United Kingdom (UK), and Ireland. Qualified travelers who are applying for or have valid visas...

February 15, 2021

Expert: Changing ICE Like Steering An Ocean Liner

Will Bunch, Philadelphia Enquirer, Feb. 15, 2021 " Stephen Yale-Loehr, a longtime immigration expert who teaches at Cornell Law School , told me this week in an email interview that Biden faces a long road in undoing Trump’s immigration policies. “First,” he said, “former President Trump emboldened ICE agents to arrest anyone they suspected of being here illegally, even if the person merely overstayed their visa...

February 15, 2021

How FAIR Pushed the Census Issue for 40 Years

Hansi Lo Wang, NPR, Feb. 15, 2021 "Even before taking office, former President Donald Trump's administration obsessed over the U.S. census. From a  failed bid for a citizenship question  to a  presidential memo about unauthorized immigrants  that was fast-tracked to the Supreme Court, its moves over the past four years followed a playbook first drawn up more than four decades ago by the Federation for American...

February 15, 2021

Government Misleadingly Posts Enjoined Asylum Regs

Jeffrey S. Chase, Feb. 14, 2021 "As we all know, on December 10, the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security jointly published final rules widely referred to as the “Death to Asylum” regulations.  On January 8, a U.S. District Court Judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking those rules from taking effect.  The rules remain enjoined at present. However, EOIR, the agency housing the Immigration Courts...

February 15, 2021

Free Webinar on Wed: What to Expect on Immigration from the Biden Administration

What to Expect on Immigration from the Biden Administration We invite you to join us as three of the foremost experts — Stephen Yale-Loehr, Ron Wada and Dan Kowalski — discuss the policy changes they anticipate from the Biden administration. What to Expect on Immigration from the Biden Administration Wednesday, February 17  2:30 PM ET You’ll learn how these leaders in immigration law expect Biden’s policies to affect...

February 12, 2021

More than 18,500 Individuals Unlawfully Detained by L.A. County Sheriff's Department Over ICE Holds to Receive Compensation from $14 Million Settlement

PRNewswire, Feb. 11, 2021 - Migrants' rights group searches for victims in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Ecuador "Individuals who were held in L.A. County jail based on ICE holds in the period from October 2010 to June 2014 may be eligible to participate in a financial settlement to compensate them for rights violations committed by the L.A. County Sheriff's Department (LASD). More than 18...

February 11, 2021

Migratory Notes 199 (Feb. 11, 2021)

Migratory Notes 199, Feb. 11, 2021 - Border crossings +; Pangas on the move; Nursing in the icebox...and so much more!

February 11, 2021

Diversity Visa Lottery Winners Launch Campaign Urging Biden To Rescind Trump Rules That Could Dash Dreams Of Living In U.S.

Chantal Da Silva, Forbes, Feb. 11, 2021 "A group of U.S. diversity visa lottery winners have launched a new campaign calling on the Biden administration to take action to reverse restrictions introduced under President Donald Trump that could see them lose the chance to migrate to the U.S. Launching the  “#SaveDiversityVisa” website  on Thursday, hundreds of diversity visa lottery winners called on the US to reverse...

February 10, 2021

Biden Immigration Team Will Review Hundreds of Trump/Miller Changes

Michael D. Shear, Miriam Jordan, New York Times, Feb. 10, 2021 "Donald J. Trump’s four-year quest to wall the country off from immigrants led his aides to Form N-648: a physician’s declaration that an applicant for naturalized citizenship is unable to complete the civics and English-language tests because of a disability or mental impairment. They saw  Form N-648  as an opportunity for an immigrant’s doctor to...

February 09, 2021

Measuring In Absentia Removal in Immigration Court

Ingrid Eagly, Esq. and Steven Shafer, Esq., January 28, 2021 "Do immigrants attend their immigration court hearings? This question is central to current debates about the immigration court system. Contrary to claims by the government that most immigrants fail to appear in immigration court, our analysis of data provided by the federal government reveals that 83% of all nondetained immigrants with completed or pending...

February 09, 2021

Biden to Review Deportations of Veterans

Tara Copp, McClatchyDC, Feb. 8, 2021 "President Joe Biden will review the deportations of veterans and military family members that occurred under the stricter immigration enforcement policies of former President Donald Trump, a White House official told McClatchy. The review is part of Biden’s broader effort to undo some of Trump’s immigration policies. For service members and veterans, Trump’s stricter policies...

February 09, 2021

ICE Snubs Biden, Mayorkas, Deports Kids to Haiti

Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, Feb. 8, 2021 "US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) deported at least 72 people to Haiti on Monday, including a two-month-old baby and 21 other children, in an apparent flagrant breach of the Biden administration’s orders only to remove suspected terrorists and potentially dangerous convicted felons. The children were deported to  Haiti  on Monday on two flights chartered by...

February 05, 2021

Migratory Notes 198, Feb. 4, 2021

Migratory Notes 198, Feb. 4, 2021 - Biden reviews; AZ record deaths; Workhorse congresswomen...and much, much more!

February 04, 2021

Back on the Table: U.S. Legalization and the Unauthorized Immigrant Groups that Could Factor in the Debate

Jessica Bolter, Muzaffar Chishti and Doris Meissner, MPI, Feb. 2021 "After several years on the policy sidelines, the debate over legalizing the unauthorized immigrant population was revived with President Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day pledge to send Congress a measure to grant legal status to the nation’s estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants. Given the failure of broad legalization efforts in 2006, 2007...

February 04, 2021

Experts Advise Sec. Mayorkas on Discretion, Immigration Enforcement: Letter

Over 120 law professors and experts, Feb. 2, 2021 "On Day 1 of the Biden-Harris administration, the White House and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued an Executive Order and a memorandum intending to restore the use of humane and sensible discretion in immigration enforcement. Since the issuance of this order and memorandum, immigrant communities and their advocates and legal service providers have...

February 04, 2021

Like Social Security? Medicare? Increased Immigration Can Save Them

National Immigration Forum, Feb. 2021 - Room to Grow "An increase in net immigration is necessary to address demographic realities and avert socioeconomic decline, the authors of a new report from the National Immigration Forum find. Room to Grow: Setting Immigration Levels in a Changing America  proposes an evidenced-backed approach to setting immigration levels that recognizes the varied contributions of immigrants...

February 04, 2021

Masks Required at All Ports of Entry

CBP, Feb. 4, 2021 "Effective Feb. 2, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is enforcing the requirement that travelers wear face masks at all air, land and sea ports of entry in the United States in accordance with President Biden’s  Executive Order  on Promoting COVID-19 Safety in Domestic and International Travel and the  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Order  Regarding the Requirement for...

February 03, 2021

Justices Take Immigration Cases Off February Calendar

Amy L. Howe, Feb. 3, 2021 "The Supreme Court on Wednesday removed two cases from its February argument session after the Biden administration began to unwind the two immigration policies being challenged in the cases. Although  the release of an order list  on a Wednesday morning during the justices’ winter recess was unexpected, the decision to take  Mayorkas v. Innovation Law Lab  and  Biden v. Sierra Club  off...

February 03, 2021

Biden Administration Faces Backlog of 380,000 Waiting to Immigrate

Caleb Hampton, New York Times, Feb. 3, 2021 "A State Department official said in federal court last month that, as of Dec. 31, more than 380,000 immigrant visa applicants were awaiting a consular interview. Immigration experts said it would take up to a year under normal circumstances to work through that many applications. ... The backlog will keep growing, immigration experts said, until the new administration...

February 02, 2021

White House Immigration Fact Sheet (Feb. 2, 2021)

White House, Feb. 2, 2021 "On January 20th, the Biden Harris Administration took the first steps in a broad, whole of government effort to finally reform our immigration system, including sending to Congress legislation that creates a pathway to citizenship for the nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants living in and contributing to our country. Today, the Administration is announcing a series of additional...

February 01, 2021

UHLC Immigration Clinic Newsletter

UHLC Immigration Clinic, Feb. 2021

February 01, 2021

Biden's Rescission of Trump's BAHA EO Will Benefit Everyone

Cyrus D. Mehta, Jan. 31, 2021 "On January 25, 2021, President  Biden signed an executive order entitled the  Future  is Made in All of America by All of America’s Workers . This executive order revokes Trump’s  Buy American Hire American Executive Order  (BAHA), 13788, of April 18, 2017. Although President Biden’s Buy American executive order requires government agencies to purchase goods and services from US companies...

February 01, 2021

REIMAGINING CITIZENSHIP: Prospects for Immigration Reform During the Biden Administration (Online Event, Thursday, February 11, 2021, 12pm EST)

Cornell Law School "The Biden administration has promised to undo the damage to immigration caused by the Trump administration. But the incoming administration has many competing priorities with which to contend, including the coronavirus pandemic, the economy, and climate change. In this first event in our Reimagining Citizenship series, we’ll examine what President Biden and his team can realistically achieve...