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September 10, 2024

Study: Language Matters

Bill De La Rosa and Zachary Neilson-Papish, Sept. 10, 2024 "The language we use to describe people living in the United States without authorization can reveal our political positions on immigration. Consider, for instance, the words lawmakers use on the Senate floor . Research shows that liberal senators favor terms like “undocumented” and “unauthorized,” while conservatives more commonly...

September 09, 2024

Family Unity Parole in Place Legal Clinic Toolkit And Video

ABA, Sept. 6, 2024 "**Please note the Family Unity Parole in Place as part of the Keeping Families Together program is currently being litigated. The videos and Toolkit are current as of their publication dates. Please find updated information on the lawsuit here . On August 26, 2024, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, in Texas v. Department of Homeland Security , Case Number 24...

September 06, 2024

Introduction to: Borders and Belonging

UCLA Law, Aug. 2024 " This excerpt is the Introduction to: Hiroshi Motomura , Borders and Belonging (Oxford University Press forthcoming early 2025). Borders and Belonging is a comprehensive yet compact analysis of responses by governments, communities, and people to human migration. It is for a general audience that wants to view migration issues from many different perspectives. Though working primarily with...

September 06, 2024

80+ Organizations Express Objection to Border Act of 2024

Refugees International, Sept. 5, 2024 "United We Dream and the undersigned 83 national, international, state and local organizations write to express our unwavering objection to the Border Act of 2024 (S.4361) . Recently, some have touted this bill as a reasonable piece of policy, worthy of another chance for a vote in Congress. We write this letter to make it clear that we will not allow any elected leader to...

September 06, 2024

Mike Wilson: From Green Beret to Border Activist

Todd Miller, The Border Chronicle, Sept. 5, 2024 "How does one go from a U.S. Special Forces Green Beret in El Salvador to doing humanitarian aid work on the border? This is where Tohono O’odham Mike Wilson begins this podcast conversation, with a profound and personal story of transformation. It happened at the height of the U.S. counterinsurgency campaign in 1989, when Wilson accepted an invitation to eat...

September 05, 2024

The Importance of Immigrant Labor to the US Economy

Kevin Appleby, CMS, Sept. 2, 2024 "As US citizens and residents celebrate Labor Day, it is important to recognize the contributions immigrants—both legal and undocumented—make to the national economy. Legal immigrants work in a variety of occupations, from skilled scientists and engineers to health-care and home care workers. Over eight million undocumented immigrants also provide important labor to...

September 05, 2024

How Luck, Not Justice, Prevails in US Immigration Courts

David Gura, David Fox, Bloomberg, Sept. 3, 2024 "The US asylum process is meant to offer a fair shot at safe haven. But new reporting from Bloomberg uncovers how the difference between those who are granted asylum and those who are denied often boils down to chance. On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg investigative reporter Monte Reel joins host David Gura to trace the arc of one man’s journey and...

September 05, 2024

Study: ICE fails to provide detainees with language interpretation required by its own rules

Andrea Castillo, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 5, 2024 "[L]anguage-access failures [are] documented in a report published Thursday that concluded the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was failing to provide adequate translation services mandated by federal law and its own rules. The report, conducted by the immigration clinic at the Cardozo School of Law in New York, surveyed more than 200 detainees and legal...

September 04, 2024

Experts: On Immigration, "Our Country Cannot Afford to Go Back"

Fiona McEntee, Stephen Yale-Loehr & Dan Berger, The Well News, Sept. 3, 2024 "[T]he Biden-Harris administration has put forth a sustained effort to attract and retain global talent, especially those in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This administration has coupled its rhetoric — “America’s greatest strength is our ability to attract global talent to strengthen...

September 02, 2024

Editor's Corner: More Border Musings

Much is being made about the drop in numbers of unauthorized crossings, and asylum requests, at the southern border. Whether the drop is due to recent Biden policy moves, or to other factors, is an open question. The purpose of this post is to explain, in layperson’s terms, why Biden’s Asylum Ban, as I call it, is the same as Trump’s Asylum Ban, and equally illegal.

September 02, 2024

In TV Ad, Trump Lies About Immigration, Harris

Daniel Dale, CNN, Aug. 31, 2024 "A new television ad from former President Donald Trump’s campaign piles deception upon deception to attack Vice President Kamala Harris on immigration. The ad uses an edited quote to attack Harris over a supposed proposal that she hasn’t actually made."

August 30, 2024

Podcast - Author of Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands, Sarah Towle

"Sarah Towle joins The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about her book "Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands" where she writes about how unwelcoming our government is to people fleeing danger and seeking refuge at our border with Mexico."

August 29, 2024

Beyond the “Black Jobs” Controversy: Immigrants and U.S.-Born Black Workers Share a Growing Jobs Pie

Valerie Lacarte, Ph.D., Aug. 2024 "The charge that immigrants are taking jobs from U.S.-born Black workers has made its way from conspiracy circles to the broader public conversation this election season. Several economists have refuted this : they say that despite persistent discrimination and systemic issues, Black Americans are facing one of the best job markets in recent times as a result of historically low...

August 29, 2024

Editor's Corner: A Word About the Border

I have some thoughts for the Harris/Walz team, the Supreme Court, Congress, DHS, DOL, and DOJ regarding the border. Please consider subscribing to my free Substack . Comments welcome via Substack, Threads, X or LinkedIn. Thank you. Register! Vote!

August 27, 2024

From Visa Overstay to American Citizen (and Acclaimed Restaurateur)

Eric Asimov, New York Times, Aug. 27, 2024 (gift article) "Arjav Ezekiel rose through the restaurant ranks becoming a sommelier and opening Birdie’s in Austin, Texas. Few knew of his past as an undocumented immigrant."

August 26, 2024

New Report Exposes Rampant Abuse in Louisiana ICE Immigration Jails

Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the ACLU, the ACLU of Louisiana, Immigration Services & Legal Advocacy, National Immigration Project, Aug. 26. 2024 "A coalition of immigrants’ rights groups including Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights , the ACLU , the ACLU of Louisiana , Immigration Services & Legal Advocacy , and the National Immigration Project today released a new report documenting widespread abuse...

August 26, 2024

Parole in Place – A Means to an End or An End in Itself?

Cyrus D. Mehta, Kaitlyn Box, Aug. 26, 2024 "On June 18, 2024, President Biden announced new measures aimed at ensuring that “U.S. citizens with noncitizen spouses and children can keep their families together”. One of these measures provides a discretionary grant of parole in place (“PIP”) to individuals who: are present in the United States without admission or parole; have been continuously...

August 26, 2024

Experts: Challenge to Biden's "Keeping Families Together" (Parole in Place) Program May Fail on Standing

Andrew Kreighbaum, Bloomberg, Aug. 23, 2024 "About half a million immigrants married to American citizens are expected to qualify for the program—dubbed Keeping Families Together by the Biden administration—launched Aug. 19, along with another 50,000 immigrant stepchildren. ... The states bringing the lawsuit argued that they would suffer “considerable financial injuries on education, health care...

August 23, 2024

Expert: Legal Challenges to Biden's Asylum Block May Take Time

Robert Brodsky, Newsday, Aug. 23, 2024 "The number of new court cases involving immigrants lacking permanent legal status has plummeted on Long Island and around the country since President Joe Biden's June order restricting entry into the country for most asylum-seekers, according to a new federal data analysis. Biden's presidential proclamation , issued amid a record increase of illegal border crossings...

August 23, 2024

States Challenge Keeping Families Together (Parole in Place) Program

On Aug. 19, 2024 DHS "announced a Federal Register notice to implement Keeping Families Together, a process for certain noncitizen spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens. This is part of an effort to promote the unity and stability of families, increase the economic prosperity of American communities, strengthen diplomatic relationships with partner countries in the region, reduce strain on limited U.S. government...

August 22, 2024

The Truth About Immigration and Crime

LAW-ABIDING IMMIGRANTS: THE INCARCERATION GAP BETWEEN IMMIGRANTS AND THE US-BORN, 1870–2020 "We provide the first nationally representative long-run series (1870–2020) of incarceration rates for immigrants and the US-born. As a group, immigrants have had lower incarceration rates than the US-born for 150 years." © 2023 by Ran Abramitzky, Leah Platt Boustan, Elisa Jácome, Santiago...

August 21, 2024

LGBTQ+ asylum seekers detail harsh conditions and abuse in ICE custody

Kate Sosin, The 19th, Aug. 21, 2024 "[A] new report, “ No Human Being Should Be Held Here ,” claims that nearly a third of *** detainees interviewed (18 out of 41) were sexually assaulted while in the custody of federal immigration authorities. Almost all of those interviewed (35 out of the 41) reported being harassed for being LGBTQ+ or an immigrant in custody."

August 21, 2024

Judges Order Approvals of Credit Union-DACA Class Action Lawsuit Settlements

Peter Strozniak, Credit Union News, Apr. 17, 2024 "Federal judges approved the settlements of class action lawsuits against two credit unions for allegedly violating state and federal discrimination laws when they denied loans to Dreamers – persons brought to the U.S. as minors who are not lawful permanent citizens. A California judge ordered the preliminary approval of a class action lawsuit last week involving...

August 21, 2024

ICE Fails to Monitor Kids, Count Prisoners

DHS OIG, Aug. 19, 2024 - Management Alert - ICE Cannot Monitor All Unaccompanied Migrant Children Released from DHS and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Custody GAO, July 23, 2024 - Arrests, Removals, and Detentions Varied Over Time and ICE Should Strengthen Data Reporting

August 20, 2024

The Cost of Immigration Enforcement and Border Security

AIC, Aug. 14, 2024 "Since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003, the federal government has spent an estimated $409 billion on the agencies that carry out immigration enforcement, and tens of billions more on border barriers and other immigration enforcement-related infrastructure projects. As Congress continues to increase enforcement-related funding to new record highs, it is important...