December 01, 2023

Judge rejects Texas bid to stop agents cutting border razor wire

Sareen Habeshian, Axios, Dec. 1, 2023 "Texas lawmakers' effort to block the Biden administration from removing razor wire fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border was blocked by a federal judge on Thursday. The big picture: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has been battling with the administration over keeping razor wires and buoy barriers with blades along the Southern border as the state reports a surge in the number...

November 28, 2023

Braving La Bestia

Jordan Vonderhaar, Texas Observer, Nov. 21, 2023 "Forty miles south of Ciudad Juárez, protected from the glaring desert sun by a blanket tied to a ladder, a mother nurses her nine-month-old son as the sun rises on their fifth day aboard the train known as la bestia —the beast. The mom has stuffed cotton balls in her ears for protection from the thunderous sound of the wheels along the track, but the...

November 28, 2023

Experts: New Conditions Challenge Old Asylum Law

Miriam Jordan, New York Times, Nov. 28, 2023 "The story of the Miskito who have left their ancestral home to come 2,500 miles to the U.S.-Mexico border is in many ways familiar. Like others coming from Central and South America, they are fleeing failed states and street violence. But their lawyers also hope to test a novel idea: Extreme weather wrought by climate change can be grounds for asylum, a protection established...

November 27, 2023

Free Border Enforcement Webinar Dec. 6, 2023

ABA "Four national immigration experts will discuss the changing landscape of border law and policies at a free Dec. 6 webinar sponsored by the American Bar Association Commission on Immigration . The program will also introduce an updated ABA primer on border enforcement. The webinar will offer information on current enforcement methods, including the new, abbreviated removal process dubbed Circumvention of...

November 25, 2023

An American-Born Doctor, Now Stateless?

Theresa Vargas, Washington Post, Nov. 25, 2023 "The Northern Virginia doctor was born in D.C. and given a U.S. birth certificate. At 61, he learned his citizenship was granted by mistake."

November 25, 2023

How Prosecutorial Discretion Saved Our Client

Cyrus Mehta and Jessica Paszko, Nov. 24, 2023 " This is the story of our client Nadia Habib who was in immigration proceedings from 18 months till 31 years until an Immigration Judge granted her adjustment of status on November 21, 2023! Nadia Habib came to the US in 1993 from Bangladesh when she was less than 2 years old with her mother Nazmin Habib. They were paroled into the US at JFK airport. Some years later...

November 22, 2023

Groups Protest Lack of Access to Counsel for Detained Migrants

Letter to ICE, Nov. 21, 2023 - Continued Barriers to Attorney Access in Immigration Detention Facilities

November 21, 2023

SpaceX and Labor Certification: What Next?

Cyrus D. Mehta and Kaitlyn Box, Nov. 21, 2023 "On November 9, 2023, the Department of Justice (DOJ) settled a dispute with Apple concerning allegations that Apple’s recruitment practices under the Department of Labor’s (DOL) foreign labor certification program – known as Program Electronic Review Management (PERM) – had discriminated against certain U.S. workers. Specifically, the DOJ alleged...

November 18, 2023

Expert: TX Gov. Abbott Set to Make "Political Statement" by Signing SB4

Ava Sasani, The Guardian, Nov. 17, 2023 "Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, is expected to sign two rightwing immigration bills, setting off a likely constitutional battle over a new law that allows state and local police to arrest anyone suspected of crossing the Texas-Mexico border without documentation. SB4, one of the harshest anti-immigration laws in US history, makes it a state crime to cross into Texas from...

November 17, 2023

Authoritative Stats on the Unauthorized Immigrant Population

Pew Research Center, Nov. 16, 2023 "The unauthorized immigrant population in the United States reached 10.5 million in 2021, according to new Pew Research Center estimates. That was a modest increase over 2019 but nearly identical to 2017. The number of unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. in 2021 remained below its peak of 12.2 million in 2007. It was about the same size as in 2004 and lower than every year...

November 16, 2023

Detained Immigrant Population Grows to Nearly 40,000, the Highest Point in Nearly Four Years

TRAC, Nov. 16, 2023 "According to the latest data released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a total of 39,748 immigrants were held in detention as of November 5, 2023. The last time detention numbers reached 40,000 was in January 2020. Immigrant detention numbers previously grew from around 20,000 at the beginning of the year to around 30,000 at the beginning of June, but then remained steady for most...

November 15, 2023

Experts: Texas Immigration Bill "Plainly Unlawful and Plainly Unconstitutional"

Aarón Torres and Alfredo Corchado, The Dallas Morning News, Nov. 14, 2023 "A sweeping border security bill prioritized by Gov. Greg Abbott would allow for Texas to order undocumented migrants to return to Mexico, but experts, including former federal immigration judges, question whether the legislation would be constitutional. ... In a statement, a spokesperson with the Department of Homeland Security said...

November 15, 2023

Former IJs and BIA Members Push Back Against Texas Bill

Statement of Former Immigration Judges and Appellate Immigration Judges regarding H.B. 4/S.B. 4, Nov. 10, 2023 "We are former Immigration Judges with decades of experience as experts in Immigration Law. We were appointed by and served under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Our personal politics may vary, but we dedicated our careers to the equal and fair administration of federal immigration law...

November 15, 2023

Staffing Agency Pays $900K to Settle Hiring Discrimination Case

DOJ, Nov. 15, 2023 "The Justice Department announced today that it has secured a settlement agreement with Kforce Inc. (Kforce), a staffing agency with 36 offices across the United States. The agreement resolves the department’s determination that Kforce violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by discriminating against non-U.S. citizens with permission to work in the United States and excluding...

November 14, 2023

Chicago Law Firm Provides Pro Bono Counsel to Migrants

Kasey Chronis, Nov. 13, 2023 "After trekking thousands of miles prior to arriving in the United States – at times in dangerous conditions – the journey for migrants doesn’t end when they get to America. Instead, a complicated legal process awaits. That's why one Chicago law firm is working to ease the burden. On top of a language barrier, some migrants have reportedly been assigned immigration...

November 14, 2023

San Diego County Program Provides Access to Counsel

Gustavo Solis, KPBS, Nov. 14, 2023 "San Diego County has a program to offer free lawyers to people in immigration court. The San Diego County Immigrant Rights Legal Defense Program started last April. Only a handful of cities, including Los Angeles and New York City, have similar legal defense programs. San Diego is the first border community to do so."

November 13, 2023

Expert Not Surprised by Gov. Hochul's Work Permit Decision

Tim Balk, NY Daily News, Nov. 13, 2023 "Gov. Hochul, who had pursued the idea of issuing state-approved work papers to migrants, took the plan off the table Monday, saying she would not have been able to protect New York employers from criminal exposure under federal laws. “I’m constrained by the law,” Hochul said at a news conference in Midtown Manhattan , two months after she indicated she was...

November 13, 2023

New Book: Humanizing Immigration

Humanizing Immigration: How to Transform Our Racist and Unjust System By Prof. Bill Ong Hing “Incisive and compelling, reflecting the painful wisdom and knowledge that Bill Ong Hing has accrued over the course of fifty years . . . ”—Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow ... "First book to argue that immigrant and refugee rights are part of the fight for racial justice; offers a humanitarian...

November 12, 2023

Expert: Targeted Immigration Reforms Possible Even in Gridlock

Jorge Cancino, Univision, Nov. 10, 2023 "After a review of the political scenario and the stagnation of the immigration debate in both houses of Congress in the last two decades, a group of academics from Cornell University, New York, urged the legislature to urgently debate bipartisan proposals and find solutions to serious problems, such as the historic backlog of cases in the immigration courts and the immigration...

November 09, 2023

Apple Pays $25M in Massive PERM Settlement

DOJ, Nov. 9, 2023 "The Justice Department announced today that it has secured a landmark agreement with Apple Inc. (Apple) to resolve allegations that Apple illegally discriminated in hiring and recruitment against U.S. citizens and certain non-U.S. citizens whose permission to live in and work in the United States does not expire. Under the agreement, Apple is required to pay up to $25 million in backpay and...

November 09, 2023

Free Webinar - Immigration Enforcement Mechanisms at the U.S. Southwest Border: The Only Constant is Change

ABA Commission on Immigration , ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice Date: Wednesday, December 6, 2023 Time: 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. ET Format: Free non-CLE Webinar Joint Sponsors: ABA Commission on Immigration , ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice The ABA Commission on Immigration and the ABA Section of the Civil Rights and Social Justice invite you to a webinar designed to offer up...

November 09, 2023

Unlocking American Competitiveness: Understanding The Reshaped Visa Policies Under The AI Executive Order

Divyansh Kaushik, Ph.D., Oct. 30, 2023 "The looming competition for global talent has brought forth a necessity to evaluate and update the policies concerning international visa holders in the United States. Recognizing this, President Biden has directed various agencies to consider policy changes aimed at improving processes and conditions for legal foreign workers, students, researchers, and scholars through...

November 09, 2023

Green Card Backlog Costs Economy Trillions in Gains, Report Says

Andrew Kreighbaum, Bloomberg Law, Nov. 8, 2023 "The US is missing out on trillions in economic gains thanks to worsening green card backlogs, according to projections from the Bipartisan Policy Center. Roughly 7.6 million people are stuck in queues for lawful permanent residency—the majority of them new potential immigrants to the US who are stuck outside the country. Reducing green card barriers for those...

November 08, 2023

Detained Migrants Sue ICE Over Sham Inspection

ACLU New Mexico, Nov. 8, 2023 "A group of immigrants detained in inhumane conditions at New Mexico’s Torrance County Detention Facility (TCDF) is suing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for certifying a sham inspection in 2022 that allowed ICE to evade federal law and continue detaining immigrants at the facility, despite known ongoing violations of federal detention standards. “The conditions...

November 07, 2023

Aquilino Gonell: Immigrant of the Day

Bill Lueders, Nov. 7, 2023 "AQUILINO GONELL HELD HIS TONGUE as long as he could. He had been among the more than 400 Capitol Police officers on duty on January 6, 2021, as a mob instigated by President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol. He saw his fellow officers being “brazenly beaten with pipes, sticks, and rocks by rioters chanting ‘Fight for Trump’ and ‘USA! USA!’” He...