February 01, 2021

Biden's Immigration Agenda: Immediate Actions Taken (Online Event, Thursday, February 4, 2021, 2:30PM to 4:00PM EST)

The New School "Immediately after the election in November, the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility and the Center for Migration Studies (CMS) released  a report presenting 40 recommendations for immigration policy reform .  In the first week of his Administration, President Biden signed a number of Executive Orders, reversing many of the more drastic immigration policies put in place during the Trump Administration...

February 01, 2021

The Race to Dismantle Trump's Immigration Policies

Sarah Stillman, The New Yorker, Feb. 1, 2021 "Trump transformed immigration through hundreds of quiet measures. Before they can be reversed, they have to be uncovered. ... In 2017, Lucas Guttentag launched a project to track every Trump-era change to the immigration system. ... [R]eversing the subtler changes will take endurance, particularly amid so many other priorities. Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy...

January 28, 2021

Migratory Notes 197, Jan. 28, 2021

Migratory Notes 197, Jan. 28, 2021 - New executive actions; Deportation pause, paused; Vaccine tourism...and so much more!

January 28, 2021

4 ways the Biden administration can improve the employment-based immigration system without Congress

Dan Berger, Steve Yale-Loehr, Emily Hindle, and Hun Lee, January 28, 2021, Brookings "Despite our collective decades of experience in immigration, our heads have been spinning. The immigration world is very much in flux as numerous court cases challenge  Trump administration immigration changes , and COVID-19 has led to the rethinking of some established practices. For instance, the week before the inauguration...

January 28, 2021

Biden Sets the Stage for a Remarkably Active First 100 Days on Immigration

Muzaffar Chishti, Sarah Pierce, Migration Policy Institute, Jan. 27, 2021 "On his first day in office, President Joe Biden set in motion what could represent the most active first 100 days on immigration by any White House in recent history, including that of predecessor Donald Trump, whose presidency was singularly focused on reshaping the U.S. immigration system. Via executive orders and the unveiling of a framework...

January 28, 2021

Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy: Building a Responsive, Effective Immigration System

Migration Policy Institute "This multiyear MPI initiative is generating a big-picture, evidence-driven vision of the role immigration can and should play in America’s future. Drawing from research, data analysis, and insights gained from convenings of key stakeholders across the spectrum, the Initiative is providing policy ideas and proposals—both administrative and legislative—that reflect new realities and needs...

January 28, 2021

These Young People Were Told They Could Stay in the U.S. They Might Get Deported Anyway.

ANDREW R. CALDERÓN, The Marshall Project, Jan. 28, 2021 "Special Immigrant Juvenile  status   was created by Congress in 1990  to provide “humanitarian protection for abused, neglected, or abandoned child immigrants.”  After arriving in the U.S., young people must go to state juvenile court to request a  ruling of abuse, neglect or abandonment by one or both of their parents . They must also be placed in the custody...

January 27, 2021

EOIR Director McHenry Steps Aside

Hamed Aleaziz, BuzzFeed News, Jan. 27, 2021 "James McHenry, the director of the nation’s immigration court system, will step down from his leadership role at the end of this week, according to a memo and email sent to Department of Justice staffers on Wednesday. During his tenure, the Trump administration executed a monumental overhaul of the way immigration judges worked: placing quotas on the number of cases...

January 26, 2021

Expert: Courts Can Make Biden's Immigration Efforts An "Uphill Battle"

Miriam Jordan, New York Times, Jan. 26, 2021 "In the first legal challenge to the Biden administration’s immigration agenda, a federal judge in Texas has temporarily blocked a 100-day pause on deportations. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on Tuesday issued a 14-day nationwide temporary restraining order sought by the state’s attorney general that would prevent carrying out the policy...

January 26, 2021

Biden Ushers In New Hope on Immigration

Cyrus D. Mehta, Kaitlyn Box, Jan. 25, 2021 "There is much for all of us to be excited about after President Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021 when he aggressively rescinded many of Trump’s most damaging immigration actions. We were also relieved to wake up on Saturday morning to find that there was no Friday midnight Trump regulation night aimed to hurt immigrants or put a further roadblock on legal immigration...

January 22, 2021

Deported Marine Veteran, Exiled For 12 Years, Sworn In As U.S. Citizen

Kate Morrissey, LA Times, Jan. 16, 2021 "This was a 25-year process for him, and it took a federal lawsuit and six lawyers and many members of Congress to actually get his citizenship, which he is legally entitled to because of his military service."

January 22, 2021

Sexual Harassment by IJs, BIA Members: SF Chronicle Investigation

Tal Kopan, San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 22, 2021 "One judge made a joke about genitalia during a court proceeding and was later promoted. Another has been banned for more than seven years from the government building where he worked after management found he harassed female staff, but is still deciding cases.  A third, a supervisor based mostly in San Francisco, commented with colleagues about the attractiveness...

January 21, 2021

Migratory Notes 196, Jan. 21, 2021

Migratory Notes 196, Jan. 21, 2021 - Biden Admin starts boldly on immigration: Reform, Travel Ban revoked, Moratorium...and so much more!

January 21, 2021

Trump Leaves Biden 1.3 Million Case Backlog in Immigration Courts: TRAC

TRAC, Jan. 19, 2021 "This report provides an overview of the magnitude and composition of the current active court case backlog. The portrait provides a baseline against which the impact on the backlog of future changes in the Biden Administration's approach to immigration enforcement can be assessed."

January 21, 2021

Salvaging US Refugee Law in 2021: The Case for Tackling the Problem of Discretionary Asylum

Zora Franicevic, Ian M. Kysel and Thomas Shannan, Jan. 20, 2021 "Among many other things, the last four years has been one, long, sustained attack on the role of the United States in refugee protection – and on the rule of law in the immigration system more broadly. Experts have been carefully tracking (for example,  here  and  here ) the outgoing administration’s attempt at death by a thousand cuts and also plotting...

January 20, 2021

Biden Sends Immigration Bill to Congress

Biden White House, Jan. 20, 2021 - FACT SHEET: President Biden Sends Immigration Bill to Congress as Part of His Commitment to Modernize our Immigration System "The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 establishes a new system to responsibly manage and secure our border, keep our families and communities safe, and better manage migration across the Hemisphere President Biden is sending a bill to Congress on...

January 19, 2021

ABA: Achieving America’s Immigration Promise

ABA, Jan. 2021 "[T]he ABA recommends that the incoming administration give immediate attention to our recommendations in five key areas of immigration policy that will have long-term impacts on the immigration system as a whole: I. Reform the administrative adjudication process; II. Ensure access to counsel; III. Minimize reliance on immigration detention; IV. Restore humanitarian protections; and V. Preserve the...

January 19, 2021

Women in Sanctuary File Lawsuit Against ICE to Challenge Retaliatory and Excessive Civil Fines

Center for Constitutional Rights, Jan. 19, 2021 - Joined by Immigrant Rights Groups, Women in Sanctuary Seek to Hold Federal Immigration Officials Accountable Under Religious Freedom Restoration Act, First and Eighth Amendments for Targeting Leaders of Sanctuary Movement "Four women living in sanctuary, along with Austin Sanctuary Network (ASN) and Free Migration Project (FMP), filed a lawsuit on Tuesday suing...

January 19, 2021

For Undocumented Immigrants, a Shot at Lawful Residency Requires Risking It All

Yilun Cheng, Borderless Magazine, Jan. 13, 2021 "In the spring of 2015, Jesus Santos walked into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Oakbrook Terrace to turn himself in to authorities. It was a risky move for an undocumented immigrant. But the 46-year-old father of three, who has lived in America since he was 15, had few other options. Applying for asylum would be nearly impossible: Although his hometown...

January 18, 2021

DHS Inks Immigration Agreements That Could Hamper Biden

Hamed Aleaziz, BuzzFeed News, Jan. 15, 2021 "The Department of Homeland Security has signed agreements with multiple jurisdictions, including the state of Arizona, that appear to be an unusual effort to hamstring the incoming Biden administration’s goals to pause deportations, prioritize immigration arrests to only those with serious criminal backgrounds, and increase avenues to asylum. The agreements would require...

January 18, 2021

Trump's Final Attacks on Legal Immigration

Cyrus D. Mehta, Kaitlyn Box*, Jan. 16, 2021 "Although President Trump is on his way out, his administration has promulgated two new rules that will have a devastating impact on the H-1B visa program and legal immigration. Reissuance of DOL Wage Rule   On January 12, 2021 the Department of Labor (DOL) published an advance copy of a  final rule  which changes the way in which prevailing wage levels will be computed...

January 16, 2021

Illegal Chad Attempts to Legalize His Actions, Again

Shaun Courtney and Genevieve Douglas, Bloomberg Government, Jan. 14, 2021 "Chad Wolf may no longer be the acting secretary of the Homeland Security Department, but he is still serving as a DHS political appointee and using newly delegated authorities to make legal actions he took while he was chief. Wolf resigned from his acting position Monday and named as his successor Peter Gaynor, the Senate-confirmed Federal...

January 16, 2021

Threats from White Supremacists Close USCIS, Immigration Courts on Jan. 19-20

USCIS, Jan. 15, 2021 - "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced it will temporarily suspend in-person services at all field offices, asylum offices and application support centers on Jan. 19 and 20 to ensure the safety of our employees and individuals with appointments. USCIS will reschedule individuals who had appointments on Jan. 19 and 20 and send them notices with their new appointment dates...

January 15, 2021

Federal Court Halts Trump Rule That Would Have Blocked Access To Asylum Process

NIJC, Jan. 14, 2021 "A federal court judge has temporarily blocked a Trump rule that would create insurmountable obstacles for people applying for asylum in the United States. The rule was scheduled to take effect tomorrow, January 15, 2021. Senior Judge Reggie B. Walton of the District Court for the District of Columbia granted a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction halting the implementation...

January 14, 2021

Migratory Notes 195, Jan. 14, 2021

Migratory Notes 195, Jan. 14, 2021 - Who’s in charge at DHS? Feminization of migration, Trump’s final wall visit, and so much more!