April 16, 2024

Free Online Event: EVERYONE WHO IS GONE IS HERE - The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis

eCornell - Wednesday, May 01, 2024, 1pm EDT [Register at the link.] In this discussion, Marielena Hincapié, Distinguished Immigration Fellow and Visiting Scholar at Cornell Law School, interviews Jonathan Blitzer, staff writer at The New Yorker and immigration expert, on his recently published book Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis . They will discuss...

April 16, 2024

Can President Biden Really Shut Down Asylum at the Border? A Q&A with Immigration Expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick

Melissa del Bosque, The Border Chronicle, Apr. 16, 2024 "Spoiler alert: No, he can't. But he'll probably issue an executive order anyway. The Border Chronicle spoke with immigration expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, about Biden’s proposal and what an asylum ban would mean for asylum seekers and border communities. ... "

April 16, 2024

Terminating Immigration Court Cases Helps Some, Hurts Others

Anna-Catherine Brigida, Houston Landing, Apr. 12, 2024 "When Blanca, 49, found out her immigration court case was thrown out, she let out a sigh of relief. When the same happened to Maria Pineda, 31, it was one of the worst days of her life. Both women have spent more than a decade in the U.S., living and working in Houston and raising their kids, who are U.S. citizens. Blanca, originally from Mexico and who asked...

April 11, 2024

Iowa Gov. Signs SB4 Copycat Law

Robin Opsahl, Iowa Capital Dispatch, Apr. 10, 2024 "Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a series of bills Wednesday, including a measure making illegal immigration a state crime in Iowa based on a Texas law currently being challenged in court. Senate File 2340 gives Iowa law enforcement officers the ability to charge people with an aggravated misdemeanor if they have been denied admission, deported or otherwise removed from...

April 10, 2024

A New Report Shows Skyrocketing Deaths in El Paso, New Mexico Border Region

Melissa del Bosque, The Border Chronicle, Apr. 9, 2024 "As safe corridors for migration disappear, more people risk their lives crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. And more people die. A new report by the nonprofit No More Deaths , along with a searchable map and database, documents the increasing number of migrant deaths at the border in New Mexico and far West Texas. Until now, not much research has been done on...

April 05, 2024

Expert: SpaceX, Walmart Wins Against DOJ Create "Brave New World"

Ben Penn, Bloomberg Law, Apr. 5, 2024 "Justice Department efforts to prevent businesses from discriminating against work-authorized immigrants are in jeopardy after two courts sided with Walmart Inc. and SpaceX in declaring a little-known adjudication process unconstitutional. By halting DOJ’s internal judicial panel from considering the government’s immigration cases against the retail giant and Elon...

April 03, 2024

Immigration Law Giant Peter Schey Dies at 77

Juan José Gutiérrez, La Educacion, Apr. 2, 2024 " Today at 1:15 in the afternoon the heart of a giant of jurisprudence stopped beating. He alludes to the lawyer defending human rights, civil rights and constitutional law, the great friend of Mexico and Latin American immigrants, lawyer Peter Schey. He was 77 years old. Schey was born in the Republic of South Africa, on March 23, 1947. He came with...

April 03, 2024

Law School Clinic Rescues Haitian Client

Miami Law Staff, Apr. 2, 2024 "The University of Miami School of Law Immigration Clinic halted the deportation of a Haitian woman by demonstrating to an immigration judge the substantial risk of torture she faces upon return to Haiti. Amelia Anderson and Fiona Zhang represented their client in a court hearing in April when they were second-year law students. After six hours of testimony from the client and an...

April 02, 2024

Immigration Bond Co. Hit With $375 Judgment

CFPB et al. v. Nexus Services, Inc., et al. "Plaintiffs allege that defendants violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act (“CFPA”), the Virginia Consumer Protection Act (“VCPA”), and Massachusetts and New York consumer protection laws in administering “immigration bonds” for indigent consumers facing deportation. ... For the foregoing reasons, the court finds that plaintiffs...

April 01, 2024

Walmart Blocked OCAHO; Are Immigration Judges Next?

Cyrus D. Mehta and Kaitlyn Box, Apr. 1, 2024 "On March 25, 2024 Chief Justice J. Randal Hall of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, Statesboro Division granted Walmart’s motion for summary judgment in Walmart Inc. v. Jean King , which alleged that the administrative proceedings against the company for violations of immigration-related recordkeeping requirements should be...

March 30, 2024

A Love Story

Greg Varner, GW Today, Mar. 21, 2024 "Comedies often end with a wedding, and there’s a marriage in this story, but it’s not a comedy. This is an immigration story, and it ends in a naturalization ceremony, with some painful, dramatic scenes along the way. It begins in the Soviet Union with a gay boy called Sasha, and ends in the United States with a gay man named Alexander. They’re the same person...

March 28, 2024

481 Organizations Ask Feds for Moratorium on Deportations to Haiti

Haitian Bridge Alliance, Mar. 26, 2024 "Haitian Bridge Alliance and the undersigned 481 immigration, human rights, faith-based, and civil rights organizations write to request an extension and redesignation of the Republic of Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and a moratorium on deportations to the Republic of Haiti."

March 28, 2024

The Limits of the Go-It-Alone Approach: U.S. Migration Management Increasingly Requires Other Countries’ Cooperation

Muzaffar Chishti and Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, MPI, Mar. 27, 2024 "This article looks at the important role that other countries play in actualizing or curbing U.S. immigration enforcement. In a presidential election year for both the United States and Mexico, the future of this cooperation both between the two governments and throughout the region is uncertain and yet all the more important."

March 27, 2024

Expert: Florida Law Unconstitutional

Karin Fischer, Chronicle of Higher Education, Mar. 27, 2024 "A pair of doctoral students and a professor are suing to block a new Florida law that restricts public colleges in the state from hiring graduate assistants or visiting scholars from “countries of concern,” including China, Iran, and Russia. The students, who attend Florida International University, said the law jeopardizes their academic...

March 25, 2024

The Round Table of Former Immigration Judges Statement on EOIR’s Prior Restraint on NAIJ Speech

Round Table, Mar. 25, 2024 "As former Immigration Judges and BIA Board Members we strongly protest the unconstitutional prior restraint imposed by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) which effectively silences the officers of the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ) and prohibits them from providing information or engaging in advocacy involving the complex workings of our nation’s...

March 25, 2024

Immigration Is Not Invasion - Prof. Ilya Somin

Prof. Ilya Somin, Mar. 25, 2024 "Texas’s argument equating the two goes against the text and original meaning of the Constitution, and would set a dangerous precedent if courts accept it. ... In two important cases currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the state of Texas has advanced the argument that illegal migration and drug smuggling qualify as an “invasion” authorizing...

March 25, 2024

Mass Surveillance Program Lawsuit Moves Forward

Just Futures Law , Mar. 22, 2024 email: "Yesterday, in an important victory for the immigrant community, a federal court greenlighted a lawsuit brought by Just Futures Law and Edelson PC against Western Union for its alleged involvement in a dragnet surveillance program called Transaction Record Analysis Center (TRAC). Through TRAC, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and money transfer companies like Western...

March 24, 2024

Ohio, We Have A Problem

AIC, ABLE, Mar. 19, 2024 "BORDER PATROL AND LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT’S PATTERNS AND TACTICS OF ABUSE IN OHIO’S IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT"

March 23, 2024

The Future of Border Patrol: AI Is Always Watching

Monique O. Madan, The Markup, Mar. 22, 2024 "Human rights advocates warn of algorithmic bias, legal violations, and other dire consequences of relying on AI to monitor the border."

March 23, 2024

DHS OIG Gives CBP Mixed Review

DHS OIG, Mar. 15, 2024 "In July 2023, we conducted on-site, unannounced inspections of six U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities in the Rio Grande Valley area, specifically three U.S. Border Patrol facilities and three Office of Field Operations ports of entry. At the time of our on-site inspection, Border Patrol held 2,020 detainees in custody in the Donna and Ursula Centralized Processing Centers...

March 22, 2024

Expert: Executive Order Does Not Give Vote to Noncitizens

Kelly Jones, Verify, Mar. 21, 2024 "Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, immigration and voting rights have been hot-button issues across the country. Recently, those topics were the subject of a letter that Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson sent to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. The letter expressed concern that a 2021 executive order signed by President Joe Biden “creates numerous...

March 21, 2024

Are Immigrants the Secret to America’s Economic Success? (Answer: Yes!)

Paul Krugman, New York Times, Mar. 19, 2024 "[There is] growing evidence that immigration is helping the U.S. economy — indeed, that it may be a major reason for our surprising economic success. ... But are immigrants taking jobs away from native-born Americans? No. ... Still, doesn’t immigration put downward pressure on wages? That sounds as if it could be true — in particular, you might think...

March 21, 2024

Lawsuit Filed To Block New USCIS Fee Rule

Stuart Anderson, Forbes, Mar. 20, 2024 "A new lawsuit challenges a government fee rule that would raise immigration filing costs for many employers. If successful, the litigation could save companies significant sums compared to the projected costs under a final rule published by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on January 31, 2024 . The fees in the rule become effective April 1, 2024."

March 20, 2024

30 Hours of SB4 Whiplash: Prof. Steve Vladeck

Prof. Steve Vladeck, Mar. 20, 2024 "[I]t’s been a truly chaotic day-and-a-half here in Texas with regard to legal developments concerning the state’s controversial new immigration law— SB4 . And I thought it would be helpful to try to put into one (hopefully accessible) narrative exactly what’s happened—and why. I. How We Got Here: SB4 and the First Two Suits Challenging It I’ve...

March 19, 2024

Courts Signal Potential for Immigration Reform Via Executive Action

Cyrus A. Mehta, Mar. 18, 2024 "On March 8, 2024, Judge Tipton in Texas v. DHS dismissed a lawsuit brought by Texas and 20 other states challenging President Biden’s humanitarian parole program. Judge Tipton, who was appointed by Trump, has otherwise been receptive to challenges to Biden’s immigration policies but not this time. Texas filed the lawsuit in his court thinking that Judge Tipton would again...