immigration
U.S. Supreme Court wrestles over Biden’s immigration enforcement policy
[This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2022/11/29/supreme-court-texas-biden-immigration-policy/.] The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday on whether the Biden administration has the right to decide which undocumented immigrants federal agents should prioritize for deportation. During the two hours of arguments, the court’s conservative justices sounded skeptical of the Biden administration’s efforts to prioritize […]
New plan for Venezuelan migrants will accept some into the U.S., send others to Mexico
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Wednesday night announced new guidelines for Venezuelan migrants, under which some will have a pathway to temporary residence in the United States and others who crossed the border without authorization will be sent back to Mexico. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced an agreement between Mexico […]
Editorial cartoon aptly describes the ongoing right-wing effort to end the DACA program
As Ariana Figueroa reported yesterday for NC Policy Watch, the decade-old federal immigration initiative known as DACA — which stands for “Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals” — remains on life support in the aftermath of some recent federal court rulings. If conservative politicians and judges get their way, hundreds of thousands of young people who […]
Immigration advocates call again for DACA renewal in Congress, as possible end looms
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats said Tuesday that they remained hopeful Congress could create a legal pathway to citizenship before the end of the year for the more than 600,000 undocumented people enrolled in a program that is at risk of being deemed illegal by a lower court. Immigration rights advocates held a press call including Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Robert Menendez of New Jersey to stress the need for legislative action, following a recent 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that upheld a lower court decision in the Southern District of Texas.
DACA ruled unlawful by federal appeals court, but program continues for now
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court has upheld a prior ruling that the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is unlawful, sending the case back to a lower court that will decide the legality of the program that includes more than 600,000 undocumented people. The ruling means the program remains for now and those […]
DeSantis’ compassionless conservatism underscores urgency of real immigration reform
‘The migrants are human beings, and we’ve got to treat them like human beings. They are being used as political pawns to get publicity,’ U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, of Texas, said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to airlift 48 migrants from San Antonio, Texas to the island resort of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. last week was depthless in its cruelty and cynicism, evoking the worst of America’s nativist and segregationist history.
“Thanks, and God bless you”: Asylum-seekers allowed to enter U.S. after “remain in Mexico” ends
Two weeks after a federal judge allowed the Biden administration to end the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols, U.S. judges are beginning to allow migrants to stay in the country as their asylum claims are pending. EL PASO — Willian woke up before dawn on a recent Tuesday, packed his legal documents into a blue folder […]
Courts take the lead role as U.S. immigration policy remains in limbo
WASHINGTON — Eighteen months into the Biden administration, immigration reform has stalled despite campaign promises to reform the system, with the most recent movement on immigration policy doled out by the U.S. Supreme Court and in lower federal courts. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Biden administration in a 5-4 decision on June […]
Federal judge allows continued Title 42 migrant expulsions at the border
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Louisiana on Friday temporarily blocked the Biden administration from ending Title 42, a designation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that has allowed border patrol officials to turn migrants away at the border. The order from U.S. District Court Judge Robert Summerhays for a preliminary nationwide injunction […]
Waiting at a closed border
Asylum-seekers in a Mexican shelter share their stories of hope and disappointment The inner courtyard of Casa del Migrante in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, looks like a day care center. Plastic toys are scattered from one end to the other. Tiny baby clothes hang on the chain link fence, drying in the sun.
Title 42 exception helps LGBTQ asylum-seekers
In a red brick house on the south side of El Paso, Texas, Susana Correa sits in front of a wall of five computer monitors, the biggest filled with lists of the names of hundreds of LGBTQ asylum-seekers waiting to cross from Juárez into El Paso. To her left, one monitor features a long string of WhatsApp conversations with asylum-seekers — more than 200 messages await for her response. Sharing the screen are recorded messages from her coworkers who are interviewing people waiting in Juárez, administering COVID tests and arranging for border crossings.