Log in

Category: News

Posted on

From November 29th, no immigrant can be deported for being undocumented.

According to the new deportation priorities regulations, as of today, November 29, 2021, no undocumented immigrant (non-citizen) may be deported for not having legal residency papers in the U.S.

Alex Gálvez, an immigration lawyer in Los Angeles, stated that the 60-day wait for the new regulation to take effect "avoids lawsuits from Biden's policy detractors, who insist on reinstating the 'zero tolerance' immigration policy" that criminalized undocumented stay between January 2017 and January 2021.

During the month of January, new deportation priorities were announced, which were halted by a Texas district judge in August in response to a lawsuit filed by the states of Louisiana and Texas, who alleged that Biden's immigration policy violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

News taken from UNIVISION: https://bit.ly/3d0LuUH

Posted on

Closure of the first Afghan shelter in the United States due to resettlement

President Joe Biden's administration announced on Wednesday, November 17, that it has stopped housing evacuated Afghans at one of the military sites that has housed them since the summer, arguing that it is due to the increased pace of their resettlement in the United States.

More than 25,000 Afghans have been able to leave military installations since the Taliban seized power in their homeland. The resettlement process has served as an opportunity for Afghans to start a new life, in addition to providing them with relocation to the United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

As of November 17, approximately 45,000 evacuees from Afghanistan remained in temporary accommodation at seven military installations: Indiana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Although the government has not provided a deadline for the relocation of all those evacuated from the temporary military bases, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Congress on Tuesday, November 16, that the goal is to complete the resettlement between December and February.

Posted on

Proponents of the Democrats propose giving green cards to undocumented immigrants

The new bill includes an “immigration parole” provision which would give undocumented immigrants permission to work and temporary 10-year protection from deportation.

Immigrant advocates prefer to reinstate a repealed provision that allowed undocumented immigrants who were in the United States before 2010 to obtain green cards. However, restoring the provision faces an uphill battle.

Recently, undocumented immigrants, instead of receiving the benefit of legalization, have obtained a quasi-legal status, which limits their ability to access various resources such as financial support or scholarships.

«The threat of deportation is always there. A path to citizenship is a path to stability,» said Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, representing immigrants from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, at a virtual conference.

Posted on

Federal judge orders more than $1,441 per day provided to immigrants detained in Washington

Thousands of detainees earned $1 a day for washing, cleaning bathrooms, and other jobs at facilities run by the GEO Group in Washington state, a company contracted by the government.

The GEO Group was registering millions of dollars in profits at the Northwest ICE Processing Center, so a federal jury in the U.S. District Court made an extraordinary decision that GEO Group should begin providing 1,441,730 retroactive payments to more than 10,000 former and current detainees.

In addition to the jury's decision, Federal Judge Bryan issued a court order requiring the company to pay the state minimum wage ($13.69) to detainees participating in the Voluntary Worker Program going forward.

The legal measures employed by the jury and Judge Bryan were based on the following arguments: “Detained immigrants are not criminals. In the U.S., people who have been convicted of a crime are exempt from state labor laws while incarcerated. In contrast, immigrants, who are detained while awaiting civil proceedings to determine whether they can remain in the U.S., fall into a different category and are therefore entitled to minimum wage for their work.”

Posted on

The surge in migrant cases in the US presents challenges

In the United States, an immigration court case can last an average of 4 years; however, according to the mandate of immigration judge Francisco Prieto, the deadlines for resolving cases would be reduced to 300 days.

Six months ago, the Biden administration established the new "dedicated docket" list, which places thousands of newly arrived migrant families seeking asylum at the top of the list, ahead of many other migrants who have been in the country for years.

This program is a measure to establish order at the border and, incidentally, address a backlog of 1.4 million cases in immigration courts, with approximately 35 of the country's more than 350 immigration judges working to expedite cases.

Although the list of cases was only recently started, the idea faces the same complaints and challenges as when it was imposed by former President Barack Obama, as critics claim that migrants will not receive good treatment due to the rushing of their cases, especially for those migrants who do not have a lawyer.

Posted on

Nearly 14 million Central Americans want to emigrate to the U.S. next year.

According to a study, approximately 431% of citizens from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador would be willing to emigrate to the United States in the next 12 months, seeing it as an opportunity to improve their current situation.

The study 'Charting a new regional course of action: the complex motivations and costs of Central American migration' highlights various factors that fuel irregular migration.

The percentage of citizens (43%) far exceeds the 8% of that same indicator from two years ago, according to the study, carried out by the Migration Policy Institute, the Organization of American States (OAS), the WFP and the Michigan Institute of Technology.

The Secretary General of the OAS noted that behind the exponential increase in migrants from those countries are violence, organized crime, unemployment, food insecurity and, more recently, the impact of climate change.

The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and Special Envoy to the Northern Triangle of Central America, Ricardo Zúñiga, stated: “We are trying to provide more temporary work visas to all those who want to come to the United States. This could be an option for the entire region, and we could create some order and, with that, address the migration phenomenon we are currently facing.”.

Posted on

According to advocates, the US Congress must take action regarding the arrival of migrants.

Thousands of migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Central America and the Caribbean embarked on a journey from southern Mexico last month hoping to reach the United States and apply for asylum.

However, there is a strong possibility that Mexican authorities will not allow the group known as Partió a Pie to cross the border, due to the terms of an agreement between the two countries to curb irregular migration to the United States. Even so, if they were to reach the border, they would most likely be deported under Title 42, a Trump-era policy that ensures immediate removal.

This is not the first challenge at the border and it certainly won't be the last, because the crisis in Central and South American countries will continue to cause many people to desperately seek protection in the United States.

Immigrant advocates are currently appealing to U.S. lawmakers, who are divided over passing legislation in Congress to reform the immigration system, arguing that it is the only way to achieve an effective and humane response.

Posted on

78,000 deportation case notices that were not fully processed in the U.S. will be resumed.

The United States will launch an operation to send court documents to 78,000 migrants who were not processed for deportation after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without authorization this year.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) project, also known as "Operation Horizon," is designed to place tens of thousands of migrants who have agreed to ad hoc processing around the southern border into deportation proceedings. The agency will send the migrants "notices to appear," as well as other documents.

In most cases, migrants who are released after crossing the southern border, instead of being quickly deported or detained, are given "notices to appear," which require them to see an immigration judge who can order their deportation if they fail to appear for court appointments.

However, beginning in March, U.S. border officials stopped issuing notices to appear to tens of thousands of migrants who were released, citing limited resources due to a surge in migration. Instead, migrants received “notices to report” or instructions to appear at an ICE office in their respective destination within 60 days for further processing.

The notices sent to thousands of migrants have raised concerns among immigrant advocates who believe that many of the legal packages may be sent to addresses where the recipients no longer live, potentially leading immigration judges to order deportation due to missed court appointments.

That's why Nayna Gupa, associate director of policy at the National Immigrant Justice Center, asked ICE to issue and publish guidance requiring its prosecutors to demonstrate that migrants received notices to appear before proceeding with their deportation.

Posted on

The United States removes restrictions on processing asylum seekers at the border

Currently, the United States government, which maintains the deportation of migrants under public health reasons, has ended the limitations on the number of asylum seekers who can be processed at border crossings due to a memorandum issued by Troy Miller, acting director of the Customs and Border Protection Office.

This memorandum seeks to end the Migrant Protection Protocols (MMP) program established by the administration of former President Donald Trump, under which foreigners who arrive at the southern border seeking asylum are returned to Mexico and Central America while awaiting a hearing before immigration courts.

In the memorandum, Troy Miller, acting director of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), repealed several of the measures adopted by the Trump Administration and ruled an expansion of the processing of applications that are feasible to process in terms of operation.

Troy Miller's memorandum is reaffirmed by one issued on October 29 by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, in which he notified the agencies involved in migration of his decision to end the MPP program "as soon as possible.".

The impact of the memorandum is unclear because President Joe Biden's administration maintains the use of Title 42, implemented by former President Donald Trump since March 2020, which allows for the free deportation of migrants whom border authorities consider a threat to public health.

Posted on

Higher likelihood of asylum denial for Haitians by the United States

Gibbens Revolus, his wife Lugrid, and their 2-year-old son Diego have had to experience firsthand the contempt, racism, and struggles of many Haitian immigrants as they undertake the difficult journey to the border between the United States and Mexico from Chile.

Gibbens Revolus, his wife Lugrid, and their 2-year-old son Diego have had to experience firsthand the contempt, racism, and struggles of many Haitian immigrants as they embarked on the difficult journey to the border between the United States and Mexico from Chile, only to end up like around 15,000 other Haitians in unsanitary conditions at the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas, awaiting asylum.

Revolus has sought opportunities since his country entered a growing crisis due to the aftermath of the devastating earthquake, political instability due to the death of President Jovenel Moïse in July, as well as a wave of gang violence and uncontrollable kidnappings.

Gibbens embarked on his journey from Haiti to Chile, where he found work in a butcher shop, stocking refrigerators and shelves, barely enough to cover his basic needs. However, attitudes toward Haitians soon changed. «Two coworkers tried to stab me,» says Revolus, who was in Chile on a work visa.

Feeling that growing pressure in Chile, he decided to begin his journey to the US border at the beginning of this year, where, according to him, they lived through a hell that took them 3 months of travel by bus, several days walking and crossing from Colombia to Panama in a crowded boat, only to end up being deported by the border patrol on September 27.

“We were just looking for a better life, but they turned us away” … “After each of the decades of US meddling in Haiti’s affairs, I really believed I would be allowed to ask for asylum at the border,” Gibbens says, speaking on his cell phone from Port-au-Prince.

Now Revolus and his family, like many other Haitian immigrants, remain back in a territory where the rule of law seems to have collapsed.