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Political games have left Dreamers uncertain.

More than 590,000 dreamers are once again facing uncertainty due to a request from 9 Republican-led states to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Many of those affected see this request as a legal threat against the program, which since 2012 has protected from deportation more than half a million dreamers, who arrived in the country irregularly as children and are seeking temporary status to live and work in the USA, as reported by CBS News.

Dreamers have pressured Joe Biden to fulfill his commitment to provide them with a path to citizenship (since there is currently no such path) through comprehensive immigration reform, which he had promised to implement within his first 100 days in office.

Many of the hopeful promises that could be seen at the beginning of the Biden administration under his government program are fading more and more each day for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States and the immigration challenges that keep coming.

This new lawsuit, led by 9 Republican states*, is the third lawsuit against DACA expected to reach the Court.
The lawsuit argues that the program is illegal and seeks to overturn it. Furthermore, it hopes that this request will abolish the program's renewal process, which allows applications every two years.

The uncertainty for thousands of migrants covered by the DACA program continues, and is further compounded by the fear of other migrants who have not yet been able to join the program due to an amendment issued by Judge Andrew Hanen, declaring DACA illegal.

No dates have yet been set for the next hearings, nor for the issuance of their final sentence, which has left almost 700 dreamers in legal limbo.

Source: Telemundo, CNN

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«"Welcome Corps" private sponsorship for refugees in the United States

“WELCOME CORPS” PATROCINIO PRIVADO PARA REFUGIADOS EN USA

The Biden administration unveiled a new program called “Welcome Corps” that will allow groups of permanent residents and citizens to sponsor refugees from around the world to live in the United States.

Many define this program as a measure to fulfill at all costs the commitment to implement a private sponsorship program to resettle refugees in the United States, as instructed in Biden's executive order since February 2021.

This program will be implemented in 2 stages:

  1. Participating private sponsors will be connected with refugees whose cases have already been approved for resettlement. The State Department will begin coordinating sponsors with refugees arriving during the first six months of 2023.
  2. It will be launched in mid-2023, and private sponsors will be able to identify refugees to send to the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) for resettlement purposes.

During the first year of the program, the State Department will seek to motivate 10,000 Americans to apply as sponsors to host at least 5,000 refugees.

According to the program, groups of at least 5 people can apply to sponsor refugees and help them adjust to life in the USA, with the support of a consortium of non-profit resettlement organizations.

Sponsor groups must raise a minimum of US$1,275 per refugee, but they are not obligated to provide ongoing financial support to the refugees they sponsor. The support they provide will be fixed for the first three months, and they must ensure continued financial support for the refugees as needed for two years.

The migration process for a refugee is not an easy task; finding a school, a job, learning how to get around, having financial support, and other everyday things takes time. All of these tasks would have to be taken on by a group of 5 or more Americans.
Now, the main concern that remains is whether sponsors will actually come forward for this arduous task.

Source: State Department and CNN en Español

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Migrants in the United States will be able to report labor abuses without fear of legal retaliation.

Unfortunately, undocumented migrants are subject to far more abuse than people with legal immigration status. It's very common for them to be underpaid, forced to work in unsanitary conditions, or forced to work in environments that put their lives at risk.

Many work environments create unfair, low-paying, and unsafe conditions in the labor market, perpetuating illegal and inhumane acts by employers toward migrants, who are often afraid to report abuses for fear of deportation or immigration retaliation.

However, this will no longer be the case, as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that undocumented workers who are victims or witnesses of labor rights violations can now report them without fear of legal retaliation and can request deferred action, which protects workers from threats by employers.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services stated that through these new efforts, and with the support of labor agencies, it will be possible to protect the dignity of the workers who drive the American economy, the U.S. labor market, and workplace conditions. *U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

This new measure is also expected to encourage many workers to assert their rights by reporting violations they have suffered or observed and to cooperate in investigations of labor standards.

How can you apply?

In order to submit the application, the worker must:

  • Complete a written request signed by the worker.
  • Letter from employment agency supporting the application
  • Evidence about the case
  • Identification tests
  • Attach the 3 required forms.

Thanks to this new measure, people who are granted deferred action may be eligible for employment authorization, provided they demonstrate financial need.

Source: USCIS

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The United States, Mexico, and Canada seek to curb illegal crossings

The United States, Mexico, and Canada are using a digital platform to require migrants to check their eligibility for any programs before beginning their journey to the border, so they can receive travel authorization. Otherwise, they will be immediately deported from all three countries.

This new strategy, described as the latest in a series of North American efforts, comes at a time of unprecedented movement in the Western Hemisphere and is designed to combat the root causes of irregular migration, defined as the flight of thousands of people from their countries of origin due to poverty, lack of opportunities, violence, drug trafficking, government corruption, and the effects of climate change, among other reasons.

SMOKESCREEN?
The reality of immigration in the United States has faced changing patterns that pose unique challenges for Joe Biden; however, many question whether this measure will be yet another of the many soft policies that have NOT contributed to controlling the immigration crisis and HAVE generated strong criticism among Republicans and Democrats.

TO COVER THE SUN WITH ONE FINGER
One of the main points of the agreement was the announcement of the creation of this digital site with access to information regarding legal pathways available to emigrate to the three countries, an initiative that the USA has been using since last year to receive immigrants from Ukraine and Venezuela, and for the last few weeks to Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans.

IT WAS TIME TO REACH AN AGREEMENT
Through this plan, they seek to implement “practical steps to improve coordination and address the root causes of irregular migration” in the region, which has reached an unprecedented level of migration, with migrants fleeing their countries in search of asylum, primarily at the southern border of the United States.*

*The agreements include the opening of a migrant center in Tapachula on the southern border of the United States.

IT WAS TOO MUCH FOR BIDEN
Many believe that the immigration issue has gotten out of President Joe Biden's control, which is why he is seeking, through this alliance with Mexico and Canada, to stop the flow of migrants from the main source countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, and El Salvador.

MEANWHILE?
During this summit, Mexico, the US, and Canada strengthened their relationship and affirmed their commitment to building a more equitable, fair, inclusive, resilient, secure, and prosperous North America.
Now, we can only wait to see how much of what was discussed at this summit can be put into practice to achieve more equitable results that respond to the needs and aspirations of migrants.

Do you think this digital platform will work for such an advanced migration problem?

FOUNTAIN: Editorial Staff/With information from Univision/CNN

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Migration 2022: challenges and crises

During these 12 months, the United States border has seen unprecedented numbers of migrants, causing a migration crisis due to the difficult economic and political situation in Latin America, especially in countries like Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.  

VENEZUELAN EXODUS 

Venezuelan migration has been recognized as one of the world's largest displacement and migration crises, surpassing that of Syria, according to the International Organization for Migration.

The number of displaced Venezuelans has exceeded 7.1 million, according to the Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela (RAV).

Cubans in the USA

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), approximately 224,607 Cubans attempted to enter the United States during 2022, a number that surpasses the combined records of the Mariel Boatlift in 1980 and the Balseros Crisis in 1994, the worst migration crises in the history of the Caribbean island to date.

MIGRATION RECORD IN THE DARIEN

According to forecasts from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), an estimated 200,000 irregular travelers will have crossed the Darien Gap border crossing located between Colombia and Panama in 2022.

HISTORICAL MIGRATION IN THE USA

Political and economic crises in the region, coupled with the effects of COVID-19, have influenced the record numbers of migrants arriving in the US.

US border patrols recorded contact with more than 2.7 million migrants in 2022 and 1.6 million in 2021, a dramatic spike compared to previous reports of 405,036 (2020), 859,501 (2019) and 404,142 (2018).

VISAS FOR VENEZUELANS

The U.S. government has implemented a humanitarian visa program for Venezuelans* that will allow 24,000 applicants to enter the country and live and work legally for two years. *This new measure was implemented to reduce the record number of people arriving daily at the U.S. southern border.

RECORD OF NATURALIZATION IN THE USA

Nearly 1 million immigrants became U.S. citizens in 2022, the highest number of naturalizations in the past 15 years, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. *The top five countries of birth for the new citizens were Mexico, India, the Philippines, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic.

TITLE 42 REMAINS 

The administration of US President Joe Biden intended to repeal Title 42, a measure that allows for the expulsion of people who cross the border illegally. Although it was officially set to expire on December 21, the Supreme Court issued an order postponing its repeal. The decision on whether the law will remain in effect could still be delayed until February.

Do you think 2023 poses a challenge for Joe Biden's government on immigration issues?

News story created with information from Voice of America

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US labor shortage

Many wonder why the country's labor shortage persists almost three years after the COVID-19 pandemic, and the answer is simple: they don't have enough immigrants. Furthermore, immigration has long been a political tool in the United States, rather than a genuine priority, says journalist Vanessa Yurkevich. 

“Part of the reason there are so many vacancies and unfilled jobs in the U.S. is that many immigrants who came regularly before COVID are no longer here,” said Giovanni Peri*. The reality is that migrants are filling thousands of positions that many Americans don't want to do. *Author of the research at the University of California and director of the UC Davis Center for Global Migration.

According to research from the University of California, by the end of 2021 there were about 2 million fewer working-age immigrants in the United States than there would have been if pre-pandemic immigration had continued unchanged.

Illegal migration is one of the factors that has affected the labor shortage over the past two years for American companies focused on construction, agriculture, and hospitality. 

Similarly, the lack of available workers has driven up wages, leading to higher inflation. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that in addition to an aging workforce, a shortage of foreign labor is contributing to the labor shortage.

The greatest impact is felt in industries such as construction, agriculture, and hospitality, which rely on immigrant workers. There are currently 10.3 million job openings in the US: 377,000 in construction and 1.6 million in hospitality. This number has been increasing in recent months. *According to research from the University of California, Davis. 

The only solution that many of the industries directly affected by Covid-19 see is that through immigration reform, industries affected by unskilled labor will be improved, in addition to allowing more legal immigrants who need the job and contribute to the progress of the American nation. 

Written from: CNN en español

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Even without Title 42, they will continue to deport

Title 42 is a 1944 law that Trump recently used to expel immigrants from the US. This law empowers the federal government to take extraordinary measures to prevent the introduction of easily transmissible diseases into the country. Trump used this legislation to expel thousands of immigrants under the pretext of COVID-19.

After a long legal battle between Democrats and Republicans over the legality of this policy, Title 42 will expire this Wednesday, December 21. This represents a victory for the Democrats, but leaves a bitter taste for the immigration system.

With the end of Title 42, we return to Title 8, regulations that are more rigid and strict than 42. Under these regulations, people who enter irregularly must be interviewed by a border agent and demonstrate a "credible fear" of returning to their country
of origin.

The penalties for those who have entered the country illegally on repeated occasions are more severe. Furthermore, the situation is unclear for individuals who were removed under Title 42 and are now attempting to enter under Title 8, since removal under Title 42 is based on public health concerns, while removal under Title 8 is based on admissibility or inadmissibility under immigration law.

In other words, this means that deportations under Title 42 did not take into account a person's merits for remaining in the U.S. Therefore, the government could deport people to Mexico and make them wait there for their hearing, regardless of whether or not they had a strong asylum case. This discouraged many people from crossing irregularly.

With the end of this policy, the door is opened for thousands of immigrants to attempt to enter irregularly starting Wednesday. This is for two reasons: first, there is no mechanism to deport anyone who fails the credible fear interview; and second, those who were deported under Title 42 have not been deported under Title 8, which has a different standard.

Faced with the surge of migrants waiting to cross the border, the Biden team claimed to have increased resources for the area, improved application processing, imposed penalties for illegal entry, and targeted smugglers. Even so, the issue of immigration is a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment.

News report compiled from: CNN and San Diego Union Tribune

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Job crisis in the United States due to lack of professional qualifications

Imagine this scenario: you find a job offer that's perfect for you, requiring exactly the kind of skills you have. But you can't apply, or if you do, you're rejected because the position requires a university degree you don't possess.

WORK LIMITATIONS

More than 70 million people in the USA are affected by not having a degree, including many undocumented professionals or self-taught individuals who cross the border in search of a better quality of life and with the desire to find jobs that match their skills, according to estimates from the NGO Opportunity at Work.

WHO HITS THE CEILING?

Workers known as STARs* who acquired their skills and knowledge on the job, through non-university training courses and/or programs, among other means. * (acronym for "trained through alternative pathways") 

LABOR CRISIS 

In general, the number of workers without a bachelor's degree is even higher among minorities; 62.1% of those over 25 do not have a bachelor's degree, but that percentage increases to 72.1% for African Americans and 79.1% for Latinos. *According to the U.S. Census Bureau. 

WHAT EFFECTS DOES IT HAVE?

Unskilled jobs such as construction, agriculture, waiters, baristas and/or hotels among others, that is, cheap and poorly paid labor, in addition to having a wage gap between those with a university degree and those without, which has doubled during the last 40 years, according to Opportunity at Work.  

REQUIREMENTS

Job offers that were generally for people with average skills who could apply with high school diplomas, now establish a university degree as a minimum requirement, a credential that only a third of the adult population possesses according to the NGO report Opportunity at Work.

REALITY

According to Opportunity at Work, STARs* represent more than 501,000 people in the U.S. workforce, including 611,000 African Americans and 551,000 Hispanics. 

THE SOLUTION

The more large companies that join organizations like Chevron, Accenture (where only 261% of their positions require a degree), Google, IBM (where 291% of positions require a degree), LinkedIn, Comcast, and Walmart to raise awareness in the United States about the "paper ceiling" and encourage employers to abandon this practice.

News report compiled from: Washington Examiner and BBC News

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Title 42 Collapse, Migratory Nightmare

Monumental Migration, that's how many border patrol agents classify the event that is expected as soon as the Title 42 pandemic policy ends, just a few days before Christmas.

In other words, there will be no one to stop the more than 1 million migrants who were expelled and crossed the border between the United States and Mexico.


Under Title 42, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) prohibits the entry of certain individuals who "potentially pose a risk to public health (COVID-19).".

After the Biden administration announced it would withdraw the Title 42 policy, a debate erupted over whether ending its enforcement is justified and whether officials are prepared to handle the influx of people who will enter the already dysfunctional immigration system.

The Border Patrol could face investigating nearly 18,000 arrests per day after this policy is withdrawn, while currently handling approximately 6,000 detainees daily amid this crisis. For context, a DHS secretary during the Obama administration stated that 1,000 arrests per day constituted a "crisis.".

The 6,000 daily arrests since President Biden took office have already put agents in a bind, especially since the Biden administration decided not to detain immigrants in federal facilities until they appear in court, resulting in more than 1.5 million people being released in the U.S. instead of being detained.

Backlogged immigration courts mean that someone released today may not be in court until 2028, while living in the U.S. on "parole," a new legal status created by the Biden administration.

The entry of migrants can be classified as free entry starting December 21, since there will not be enough agents to control the entry of illegal immigrants across the border, which will lead the Customs and Border Protection Office to release virtually all of them.

It will be the perfect opportunity for smugglers, who earn between $5,000 and $50,000 per person, to move people with criminal records and drugs across the border in an unguarded area, since approximately half of all agents have been withdrawn from the field to transport, process, and care for detainees.

What some migrants are hoping for is to maintain a glimmer of hope of entering the United States after months or even years of waiting in camps and makeshift shelters in Mexico. Meanwhile, Border Patrol agents are concerned about the unprecedented surge of migrants expected at the border after December 21st.

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Biden: ding ding and no lollipops

Did Biden back down?
The midterm elections will be held on November 8th*, and according to polls, Biden has a disapproval rating of 531%, revealing a frustration with his term, which could pave the way for Republican success.
*The US midterm elections measure the acceptance of the work done by the Joe Biden Administration in its first two years.

Taking Advantage
On the Republican side, inflation, which they blame on the current Democratic administration, the mismanagement of the economy, the immigration crisis, and Biden's health are the issues that opposition candidates emphasize to encourage voting against the Democrats.

What's at stake?
These elections serve as a barometer for public approval of the administration's performance during its first two years in office. Current trends suggest that the opposition party (Republicans) could regain control of the legislature in the midterm elections, providing a counterbalance.

Struggle for power
Democrats currently control the Executive branch and hold a majority in Congress. Should the balance of power shift, Republicans would retain a majority in Congress and the Supreme Court—two of the three branches of political power in the United States—for at least the next two years.

All or nothing
This means that the representatives elected by the people will decide whether Governor Joe Biden can get new laws passed or whether Republicans gain the ability to block the governor's initiatives for the rest of his term.

The highest bidder will win.
These elections will shape the political future of states, affecting decisions such as abortion, voting rights, and COVID-19. They will also set the stage for the 2024 presidential election.

This news story was created from: The New York Times, France24, and Voice of America