September 10, 2020

Furloughs of USCIS Private Contractors Will Trigger Delays, Backlogs Nationwide

Daniel C. Vock, Kansas Reflector, Sept. 10, 2020 " Members of Congress from the Kansas City region scored a victory last month when a federal immigration agency backed off plans that would have led to thousands of layoffs of government employees in the metro area. But their relief was short lived, as the agency now intends to furlough 800 of its local private contractors instead — a move expected to set off immigration...

September 10, 2020

TRAC Documents EOIR's Lies re Admin. Closure

TRAC, Sept. 10, 2020 " The Life and Death of Administrative Closure In August 2020, the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) [1]  proposed a new rule that would effectively eliminate administrative closure as a docket management tool for Immigration Judges. The EOIR justified this proposed rule by claiming that administrative closure has "exacerbated both the extent of the existing backlog of immigration...

September 09, 2020

"We Are Like Slaves, And The Master is ICE"

Joe Penney, NYRDaily, Sept. 8, 2020 "Over the last couple of years, Louisiana has become  a national hub of immigrant detention , with eleven facilities that hold more than 15 percent of the total population in ICE custody. Normally, an average stay for an asylum-seeker held at Pine Prairie would be  forty-five days , but the detentions of many of the African immigrants seeking refugee status now range from eleven...

September 09, 2020

Another Crack in CDC's Border Blockade?

Hamed Aleaziz, BuzzFeed News, Sept. 8, 2020 "The Trump administration is considering changing a pandemic-related border policy to no longer quickly return unaccompanied immigrant children to four countries that require them to test negative for the coronavirus before entering, according to a draft of the order obtained by BuzzFeed News.  The draft would amend an unprecedented order issued by the CDC earlier this...

September 08, 2020

The Nightmare of Video Immigration Court Hearings

Gaby Del Valle, The Verge, Sept. 8, 2020 "... Samuel had traversed 12 countries across three continents to get to his family in Boston. In Tijuana, within spitting distance of the US, he was forced to stop. While he waited, other migrants explained what would happen to him on the other side. He would be detained. He would have to go before a judge and explain everything: his long, roundabout journey to the United...

September 08, 2020

Cyrus Mehta on Gomez v. Trump: Welcome to the Brave New World of Made Up Law Under INA 212(f)

Cyrus Mehta, Sept. 8, 2020 "Before President Trump, one could hardly imagine that an American president would use INA § 212(f) to rewrite immigration law in a manner he saw fit and with whatever prejudices might be harboring in his mind. While INA § 212(f) does give extraordinary power to a president, Trump has exploited these powers beyond what could have been imagined when Congress enacted this provision.  INA...

September 04, 2020

MALDEF Lawsuit: Wolf DACA Memo Illegal

MALDEF, Sept. 3, 2020 "Chad Wolf is unlawfully serving as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security and therefore his memo placing new restrictions on DACA must be nullified, according to a federal lawsuit filed today. MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) and Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP filed the suit on behalf of organizations that work with immigrants and DACA recipients. The groups are...

September 04, 2020

Expert: Tighter H-1B Rule "Flunks Economics 101" (Law360)

Suzanne Monyack, Law360, Sept. 4, 2020 [Subscription required for full article.] "The Trump administration has advanced a policy to tighten criteria for H-1B specialty occupation visas, paving the way for the new rules to take effect soon without public feedback. ... Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law professor at Cornell University Law School , also predicted that the H-1B visa changes would draw lawsuits...

September 04, 2020

Migratory Notes 179 (Sept. 3, 2020)

Migratory Notes 179 (Sept. 3, 2020) - Louisiana detention boom; African migrants elected; Black diplomat deterred...and much, much more!

September 03, 2020

DHS Wants Your Biometrics

Hamed Aleaziz, BuzzFeed News, Sept. 1, 2020 "The Trump administration has drafted a proposal that would dramatically expand the number of people required to provide biometrics for their immigration applications, while also increasing the personal information the government can demand, such as eye scans, voice prints, DNA, and photographs for facial recognition.  According to parts of a draft policy obtained by...

September 02, 2020

Motomura, Doing Better, and "The New Migration Law"

In the September 1, 2020 issue of the "hardcopy" Bender's Immigration Bulletin we are honored to reprint in full Prof. Hiroshi Motomura 's groundbreaking Cornell Law Review article, " The New Migration Law: Migrants, Refugees and Citizens in an Anxious Age ."  Here's the intro: "Once every generation or so, entire fields of law require a full reset. We need to step back from the fray...

September 02, 2020

CBP Targets American Diplomat...Because She's Black

Tianna Spears, Politico, Aug. 30, 2020 "There was one difference between me and my colleagues who rarely if ever got stopped: The vast majority of my colleagues were white, while I’m Black. But I was a U.S. citizen, and a diplomat. I had taken an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Could the color of my skin really be why I was being singled out?"

September 01, 2020

Cyrus Mehta on Trump's Census Order

Cyrus Mehta, Aug. 30, 2020 The Impossible Feat of Determining Who is an “Illegal Alien” Under Trump’s Unconstitutional Census Executive Order "In line with other xenophobic actions too numerous to keep tabs on, President Trump issued a  Presidential Memorandum  dated July 21, 2020 entitled “Memorandum on Excluding Illegal Aliens From the Apportionment Base Following the 2020 Census.” From the title itself, it...

August 28, 2020

Clear-Cut Asylum Applicant Valeska Aleman Denied Hearing Under Title 42 Exclusion

Kevin Sieff, Washington Post, Aug. 28, 2020 "She was one of the most recognizable activists in Nicaragua, protesting a government that has jailed and killed its opponents. Her photo ran in national newspapers; one called her the “face of the rebellion.” Her video of police firing at student protesters went viral. Her confrontations with the government were cited by the U.S. State Department. Valeska Alemán...

August 27, 2020

Migratory Notes 178 (Aug. 27, 2020)

Migratory Notes, Aug. 27, 2020 - Solitary COVID confinement, arbitrary asylum, DACA renewals a go...and so much more.

August 27, 2020

Immigrant Family Separation in Northwest Juvenile Jails

University of Washington Center for Human Rights, Apr. 22, 2020 "On April 22, 2020, three youth currently incarcerated at Cowlitz County Youth Services Center were included in a federal lawsuit  seeking the release of migrant children held in US government custody in congregate settings,  due to concerns for their safety in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Click here to review a brief submitted in federal district...

August 26, 2020

VOA Journalists Put at Risk, J-1 Visas Not Renewed by USAGM

Jessica Jerreat, VOA, Aug. 25, 2020 "This week, Valdya Baraputri had been scheduled to broadcast live from the Republican National Convention. Instead, she and a colleague were on a flight home to Indonesia on Monday, after the U.S. Agency for Global Media did not renew the J-1 visas that allowed them to work for Voice of America.   Baraputri is one of at least 15 VOA language service journalists due to return...

August 25, 2020

The Supreme Court's Attack on Habeas Corpus

Prof. Gerald Neuman, Aug. 25, 2020 "At a time when the rule of law is under threat and xenophobic incitement has become a central government policy, a five-Justice majority of the Supreme Court has called into question the Constitution’s fundamental guarantee against executive detention. Refugees are the primary target of the Court’s decision in  Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam , but the immediate...

August 25, 2020

USCIS Furlough Averted...at "Severe Operational Cost"

USCIS, Aug. 25, 2020 "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced that the agency will avert an administrative furlough of more than 13,000 employees, scheduled to begin Aug. 30 as a result of unprecedented spending cuts and a steady increase in daily incoming revenue and receipts. USCIS expects to be able to maintain operations through the end of fiscal year 2020. Aggressive spending reduction...

August 21, 2020

Lawsuit: Rule Imposing High Fees on Immigrants Should Be Set Aside

Public Citizen, Aug. 21, 2020 "A new U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rule will unlawfully force immigrants seeking naturalization, asylum, employment authorization and humanitarian protections to pay high fees, according to a  complaint  filed by Public Citizen with immigrant advocacy groups Ayuda, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and CASA in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. ...

August 21, 2020

Coalition Sues DHS Over USCIS Fee Rule

ILRC, Aug. 21, 2020 "The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) today announced it had joined a coalition of 8 of the nation’s leading immigrants’ rights organizations in  filing a lawsuit  against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Chad Wolf, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and Kenneth Cuccinelli  over DHS’s new  Fee Rule  increasing application fees for immigration benefits...

August 20, 2020

Migratory Notes 177 (Aug. 20, 2020)

Migratory Notes 177 (Aug. 20, 2020) - Tale of two Millers, detainee abuse, child migrant trauma...and much more.

August 20, 2020

Some Employers Refuse to Hire the DACAmented; Lawsuits Ensue

Miriam Jordon, New York Times, Aug. 20, 2020 "It is impossible to know how many people have been denied jobs based on their DACA status, said Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which has filed several lawsuits against companies that refused to hire DACA recipients.  Bank of America and Northwestern Mutual are among those that have settled such...

August 19, 2020

DACA Advocates File Contempt Motion Against DHS

Casa De Maryland v. DHS "Process matters. See, e.g., Regents, 140 S. Ct. at 1909 (“the Government should turn square corners in dealing with the people”) (citation omitted). The rule of law also matters. As does respect for the judiciary. See, e.g., Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, 177 (1803) (“It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is.”). Defendants’ statements in...

August 17, 2020

Are USCIS Furloughs Necessary? "Emphatically Not."

Stuart Anderson, Forbes, Aug. 17, 2020 "To better understand the impact of a USCIS staff furlough, I interviewed Doug Rand, who worked on immigration policy in the Obama White House as assistant director for entrepreneurship and is the co-founder of  Boundless Immigration , a technology company that helps immigrants obtain green cards and citizenship. He is also a senior fellow and director of the Technology and...