Ballooning immigrant detention enrages advocates

Human rights advocates see the Biden administration’s expansion of detention-reliant immigration enforcement as a betrayal, guided by political headwinds rather than operational necessities. In a letter to President Biden delivered Thursday, 200 organizations voiced “outrage over your administration’s expansion of the cruel and unnecessary immigration detention system.” The groups, most of them longtime opponents of the practice of immigration detention, are incensed over skyrocketing detention spending, with $3.4 billion destined to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention bed space in the $1.2 trillion federal spending package Biden signed in March. “Our organizations work with and advocate on behalf of people who have experienced immigration detention. They carry life long scars from the mistreatment and dehumanization they endured because of the United States’ reliance on detention, mostly through private prisons and county jails. Your administration is further entrenching this reliance, marking an utter betrayal of your campaign promises,” wrote the groups. Changing politics and a massive rise in migration have forced the Biden administration to move to the right on a series of immigration and border security issues, souring relations with human rights advocates who had cheered on his win over former President Trump in 2020. While many aspects of immigration policy are sore spots in that relationship, detention is the most acrimonious. Under current enforcement procedures, foreign nationals who are slated for removal — deportation — are generally detained pending their return flight. Deportees-in-waiting can be jailed regardless of whether they also have a criminal record, even if their immigration violations are entirely administrative, for instance in the case of visa overstays. “The Department screens and vets everyone and detains those who pose a threat to our national security, public safety, and border security. ICE takes its commitment to promoting safe, secure, humane environments for those in its custody very seriously and conducts strict oversight including routine inspections and transparency on a facility’s compliance with care standards,” a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson told The Hill in an email. “DHS continues to enforce U.S. immigration laws and has significantly expanded lawful pathways while strengthening and improving the enforcement of consequences under the law for those without a legal basis to stay, and those with final orders of removal.” Officials contend that proportionate to border encounters and growth in immigrant population, the expansion in detention space still means a smaller proportion of the immigrant population is being detained than in the past. In fiscal 2023, ICE conducted 170,590 administrative arrests, and 43 percent of those arrested had prior criminal convictions or pending charges. A year prior, only 32.5 percent of foreign nationals arrested by ICE had some sort of criminal history, according to official figures. According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a government data tracker housed at Syracuse University, 61.3 percent of ICE detainees as of April 7 have no criminal record, and “many more have only minor offenses, including traffic violations.” Administration officials, as in previous administrations, maintain that immigration detention conditions are not jail-like or punitive and are necessary for operational reasons. But immigration detention has for years been building up a massive file of alleged and proven cases of human rights violations and substandard care, both by government watchdogs and external groups. “The system your administration is expanding is riddled with abuse and impunity. Your senior officials have been aware of these significant human rights concerns since day one. ICE’s jails and prisons operate under insufficient standards with inspections that are notorious for covering up deficiencies,” wrote the groups, which include Amnesty International USA, the National Immigrant Justice Center, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and the International Refugee Assistance Project. “Inadequate medical care results in deaths; LGBTQ individuals in custody suffer homophobic and transphobic harassment and abuse; basic sanitation is often lacking; Black immigrants face unaffordable bonds and violence at disparately high rates; and ICE’s use of solitary confinement regularly meets the United Nations’ definition of torture.” When Biden came into office, detention was at a historic low, in large part due to decreased immigration and enforcement during the pandemic. Human rights advocates saw that as an opportunity to do away with an enforcement tool they find unnecessary. “On the date of your inauguration, fewer than 15,000 people were in ICE detention. This presented a remarkable opportunity to wind down a wasteful and abusive system,” wrote the groups. Detention abolitionists were somewhat heartened by 2023 and 2024 budget requests in which the administration asked for reduced detention funding, and by a growing top-down attitude of internal review and investigations, including recommendations to close some detention centers with the most egregious violations. “In an abrupt change of course, over the last two years, ICE has instead increased the number of people in custody. Most of the facilities on ICE’s internal closure list remain open, despite numerous reports from advocates and service providers further documenting the ineffectiveness of detention and the need for a different approach,” they wrote. Administration officials contend that detention is necessary operationally for removal operations, and even more so with the growing number of encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border. Many of the migrants who are released to the interior of the country either have asylum cases that could fail in immigration court, or are released into the interior with preexisting orders of deportation. Others can be processed through expedited removal, a fast-track way to deport foreign nationals who are apprehended at or near the border within two weeks of entering the country, which generally requires detention. Citing limited resources, the Biden administration in 2022 rescinded an expansion of expedited removal established by the Trump administration, which made eligible for expedited removal any foreign national present anywhere in the country who could not prove their legal presence, or prove having been in the country for more than two years. Still, according to the American Immigration Council, more than 20,000 migrants were placed in expedited removal between May and December of 2023. And expedited removals represent a fraction of ICE detainees. According to TRAC, 34,580 people were being held by ICE as of April 7. The Biden administration has markedly shifted policy from some Trump-era practices, including expansion of alternatives to detention — a series of controversial measures like digital tracking that advocates dislike, but prefer to detention. But advocates and administration officials are operating under different paradigms of immigration policy: on one side mainly as an administrative field with broad humanitarian consequences, and on the other as a hybrid administrative and law enforcement matter subject to compulsory physical consequences and dependent on tactical deterrence. “This suffering does not advance any rational policy goal. Detention does not provide an efficient or ethical means of border processing, and it certainly does not indicate to migrants that they are welcome in the United States. It merely exists to further the political goal of deterrence, which is cruel, inhumane and misguided — as even the most punitive forms of detention have been proven not to deter people from seeking safety or a better life,” wrote the groups. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

What Immigrants Bring To America

Today we hear echoes of a frightening anti-immigrant rhetoric that has emerged and reemerged often in American history. Some politicians are now even describing immigrants to the United States as criminal hoards and calling for an outright ban on immigration. Let’s call this rhetoric for what it is: a dangerous fiction that blinds us to the vast contributions made to our country by immigrants and their children. Throughout American history, immigrants have become some of the most brilliant and successful contributors in fields as diverse as business, sports, the arts, and academia. They’ve helped build a rich mosaic of cultures and perspectives and made America the world’s most vibrant economy. While immigrants make up only 14% of the American population, they are responsible for founding over one-third of all new businesses and over half of startups that are valued over $1 billion. Nvidia, the semiconductor maker that now has a market cap of over $2 trillion (for perspective, that’s two thousand billions or two million millions) was founded by an immigrant. PROMOTED Even though most Americans have believed – and continue to believe – immigrants are good for our country, there have often been moments when that was called into question. In the 1850s, The Know Nothing Party spewed hatred at the waves of German refugees from revolutionary Europe and the starving Irish escaping the potato famine in their native land. In the early 20th century, a toxic brew of nationalism, xenophobia, and eugenics – aimed primarily at immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe – led to the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924, which drastically reduced immigration and virtually eliminated it from Asia. MORE FOR YOU The Best Romantic Comedy Of The Last Year Just Hit Netflix Apple iPhone 16 Unique All New Design Promised In New Report Rudy Giuliani And Mark Meadows Indicted In Arizona Fake Electors Case As the 2024 campaign heats up, voters now say immigration is the single most important problem facing the country, and most want Washington to do more to stop illegal immigration. Although most Americans continue to believe immigrants benefit our country, fewer people believe in the value of immigration than did just a few a years ago. Investing Digest: Know what's moving the financial markets and what smart money is buying with Forbes Investing Digest. Email address Sign Up By signing up, you agree to receive this newsletter, other updates about Forbes and its affiliates’ offerings, our Terms of Service (including resolving disputes on an individual basis via arbitration), and you acknowledge our Privacy Statement. Forbes is protected by reCAPTCHA, and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. In other words, Americans’ justifiable frustration over illegal immigration is starting to dent their support for legal immigration. If that continues, all Americans will be worse off. We do have to secure our borders. But we mustn’t lose sight of the competitive advantage that comes from the world’s smartest and most entrepreneurial people wanting to come here. I’ve spent several years chronicling the journeys of immigrants to the U.S. and the exceptional contributions they have made. These are the kinds of stories that all Americans need to hear to remind them of the enduring value of immigration for our country. symbol 00:02 03:12 Read More Stories like that of Andrew Grove, the longtime president and chairman of Intel, which gave birth to the semiconductor industry. ANDREW S. GROVE, FORMER PRESIDENT OF INTEL Intel's Andy Grove holds a press conference.SYGMA VIA GETTY IMAGES Born Andras Grof in 1936, in Budapest, Grove’s father owned a small dairy business. As a child, Mr. Grove was afflicted with scarlet fever and an ear infection that left him almost deaf. During World War Two, his father was arrested by German troops and sent to a labor camp where he was tortured and worked as a slave laborer. As Jews, the young Mr. Grove and his mother lived in hiding until the war’s end. Liberation from the Nazis was followed by Communist rule in Hungary. In 1956, a popular uprising suppressed by Soviet troops led Grove to flee the country and cross the border into Austria, all the while evading the Russian soldiers. He headed to New York. With no money, very little English, and a severe hearing impairment, Grove moved in with relatives living in a small Bronx apartment and enrolled as a chemical engineering student at the City College of New York. Mr. Grove got through lectures by learning to read lips and then deciphering his notes at home. After receiving a doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley, Grove joined Fairchild Semiconductor and in 1968, Grove became the third employee of the newly formed Intel. In 1979, Grove became the company’s president, and over the course of two decades, he repeatedly reinvented the company until it became the 7th most valuable public corporation in the world. At Intel, Grove came to be regarded as the father of the semiconductor revolution, which was as momentous as the discovery of hydrocarbon fuels, electricity, and telephones in earlier eras. Jan Koum is the co-founder and former CEO of WhatsApp, the mobile messaging app which was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $19.3 billion. Co-founder and former WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum gives a keynote address at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Co-founder and former WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum gives a keynote address at Mobile World Congress in ... [+]GETTY IMAGES Born in 1976, Koum grew up in Soviet Ukraine in extreme poverty. When the Soviet Union fell, the 16-year-old Koum and his mother moved to Mountain View, California, but their poverty persisted. His mother worked as a babysitter while he swept floors and cleaned shelves at a grocery store. In 2000, Koum’s mother died of cancer. Now on his own, Koum decided he wanted to learn computer programming. He entered San Jose State University and simultaneously worked at Ernst & Young as a security tester. In January 2009, Koum bought an iPhone and realized that the then seven-month-old App Store was about to spawn a whole new industry of mobile applications. On his 33rd birthday, he incorporated WhatsApp Inc. in California. Koum chose the name WhatsApp for his product because it sounded like "what's up." WhatsApp was initially unpopular, but soon after Koum and his friends began to use WhatsApp as a messaging tool, in place of SMS, the app gained a large user base and continued to grow rapidly. On February 9, 2014, Mark Zuckerberg asked Koum to have dinner at his home, and formally proposed an acquisition of WhatsApp and asked Koum to join the Facebook board. Ten days later Facebook announced that it was purchasing WhatsApp, leaving Koum with a personal fortune of $6 Billion. Then there’s Derrick Rossi, a stem cell scientist, serial entrepreneur, and co-founder of the pharmaceutical company, Moderna, which played a key role in the rapid development of the Covid-19 vaccine. Derrick Rossi speaks at the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Gala & Science Fair Derrick Rossi speaks at the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Gala & Science Fair at Jazz at ... [+]PATRICK MCMULLAN VIA GETTY IMAGES Rossi grew up in Toronto, the son of poor immigrants from Malta. His father was a mechanic who worked in auto shops for 50 years. His mother co-owned a Maltese bakery. Rossi earned his undergraduate and master's degrees in molecular genetics at the University of Toronto and his Ph. D from The University of Helsinki. He went on to an appointment as an associate professor at the stem cell and regenerative biology department at Harvard Medical School. Rossi was fascinated by developing strategies capable of harnessing the clinical potential of stem cells to treat both heritable and acquired degenerative conditions. In 2010, he co-founded Moderna which was focused on RNA therapeutics, primarily mRNA vaccines. These vaccines use a copy of a molecule called messenger RNA to carry instructions for proteins to produce an immune response. From 2020 to 2021, Moderna received $955 million from Operation Warp Speed to accelerate development of its COVID-19 vaccine. The company invested a total of $4.9 billion in the production of 300 million vaccine doses. Moderna currently has more than two dozen therapeutic and vaccine candidates under development for the treatment of cancer and other diseases. The stories of Grove, Koum and Rossi and other are ones that have been – and continue to be – written in America hundreds of times over. It certainly isn’t just business where immigrants find success either. You could argue the best player in major league baseball (Shohei Otani) is an immigrant and so are the three best players in the NBA (Nikloa Jokic, Luka Doncic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo). Then there is immigrants’ impact on the sciences: Since 1901, immigrants have been awarded 38% of the U.S. Nobel Prizes in physics, 37% in chemistry, and 34% in medicine. We are lucky that the United States remains the most desired destination for people around the world. They certainly aren’t looking to settle among our adversaries in places like Russia, China, or Iran. Many wonder if the 21st century – like the 20th – will also be an American-led century. The answer to that question could depend on whether we remain a place where people the world over are welcome to pursue their dreams and to create innovations, companies, and jobs that benefit all Americans. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Without Expanded DACA Protections, Undocumented Students Are Being Left Behind

t age 15, Luis came to the United States from Veracruz, Mexico. Today, he’s a 22-year-old senior at Rice University, studying math and planning to go to graduate school next fall. This story was produced for StudentNation, a program of the Nation Fund for Independent Journalism, which is dedicated to highlighting the best of student journalism. For more Student Nation, check out our archive or learn more about the program here. StudentNation is made possible through generous funding from The Puffin Foundation. If you’re a student and you have an article idea, please send pitches and questions to pitches@thenationfund.org. The video player is currently playing an ad. You can skip the ad in 5 sec with a mouse or keyboard His grandparents are US citizens, and his mom has applied for a green card. Since Luis was brought into the US as a minor, you might think he qualifies for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which shields young adults who arrived in the US as children from being deported, offering them work authorization along with temporary and renewable legal status. “I checked all the boxes, except for one,” said Luis, “which is that you have to have been here since 2007.” Around 80 percent of the nearly 120,000 undocumented students who graduated high school in 2023 do not qualify for DACA, and even fewer undocumented high school graduates will qualify this spring. Yet nearly three-fourths of Americans are in favor of “granting permanent legal status to immigrants who came to the US illegally as children.” Despite its popularity, when Obama tried to update the program to include those who had been present in the US since 2010, it was challenged in court by Texas and 25 other states, arguing that it was an overstep of presidential authority. In 2016, the Supreme Court upheld this view, leading to the Obama administration rescinding the update. Current Issue Cover of April 2024 Issue April 2024 Issue For a current minor to be under 18 when they came into the United States, the earliest they could have arrived is 2005. According to the President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, this means a majority of undocumented students entering higher education are no longer eligible for DACA. “That number is going to continue to decline, and the population [of those eligible for DACA] is going to get smaller because they’re not updating [the policy],” said Dr. Felecia Russell, director of the Higher Education Portal at the President’s Alliance and former Dreamer. Sam is a 20-year-old undocumented student who qualified for DACA but wasn’t able to apply before the Trump administration terminated the program in 2017. In 2020, the Supreme Court decided that cancellation was unconstitutional, but did not give a clear directive on the constitutionality of DACA itself. Currently, no new DACA applications can be processed, and only current DACA holders can apply for renewal. Sam said that not being allowed to file was heartbreaking. “I remember being very upset and emotional. I was 14 and in high school, and I just thought, ‘My one chance of living a normal life, completely shot in front of me,’” she said. For her, being undocumented “feels like you can never truly relax. Things tomorrow could get worse.” People like Sam are left without a Social Security number, making it harder to find work. In high school, she was able to get a job at a Mexican restaurant, but they had to pay her in cash. Most internships are also off the table. Evelyn, an undocumented student whose dream is to work at NASA, can’t even apply. “At the end of the day, you could have the most stellar degree, but if you have zero experience, it’s going to be really tough to find a job,” she said. The Nation Weekly Fridays. A weekly digest of the best of our coverage. Email By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You may unsubscribe or adjust your preferences at any time. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign Up Sam was able to get an unpaid internship at a law firm. But because Texas, like most states, doesn’t allow undocumented individuals to apply for a driver’s license, she had to give it up. “I can’t ask my friends for a ride every single day. I can’t afford to take an Uber every single day, and the public transportation in Houston is not good, efficient, or reliable.” “If you can’t work, you can’t contribute to your education. One way that a lot of students pay for their education is by having a job on campus or by doing work study,” said Russell. But undocumented students also face barriers to taking out loans and cannot apply for scholarships that require applicants to be US citizens or legal permanent residents. “We know that the biggest barrier to higher education for people in general is the cost. Now, here’s a group of folks who cannot access federal financial aid, along with states that don’t provide undocumented students with access to in-state tuition rates,” said Russell. In 2021, undocumented students made up less than 2 percent of the population of students enrolled in postsecondary education programs, compared to around 6 percent in 2019. “The only university that was giving really good financial aid [to undocumented students] in Texas was Rice,” said Luis, who completed two years at a community college before transferring. Outside of Texas, the schools that offered substantial aid were private schools or Ivy Leagues. “My brother is also undocumented. He’s a freshman in high school right now,” said Luis. “I feel worried because what if he doesn’t get into these colleges? We have to be perfect students in order for us to get opportunities.” The problem, as Russell puts it, is that “DACA itself was never a permanent fix.” The policy was a result of the Obama administration’s taking unilateral action because Congress did not pass the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which would have granted similar protections to undocumented individuals brought into the US as minors. President Biden has voiced support for DACA and moved to expand federal health insurance programs to current DACA holders, but has not moved towards an update of the policy. Now, according to Russell, we need to turn back to Congress. The American Dream and Promise Act, which would expand DACA protections for millions, was introduced again last June. The bill previously passed the House in 2019 and 2021 but has yet to pass the Senate. But an expansion won’t apply to any undocumented individual brought in as a child in perpetuity. “Under the American Dream and Promise Act, you have continuously lived in the US since January 1, 2021, and it would be great if we could get it into law,” Russell said. “No policy is going to be perfect. This one is not perfect, but it is good.” Popular The Supreme Court’s 5 Male Justices Are Fully in the Tank for TrumpThe Supreme Court’s 5 Male Justices Are Fully in the Tank for Trump ELIE MYSTAL “The Bulldozer Kept Coming”: A Girl Stares Down Death in Gaza“The Bulldozer Kept Coming”: A Girl Stares Down Death in Gaza LUJAYN How the US Media Failed to Tell the Story of the Occupation of PalestineHow the US Media Failed to Tell the Story of the Occupation of Palestine DAVE ZIRIN The Crackdown on Campus Protests Is Happening EverywhereThe Crackdown on Campus Protests Is Happening Everywhere STUDENTNATION / STUDENTNATION As a former undocumented student herself, Russell said she had no autonomy over her life. “I couldn’t drive, I couldn’t get a driver’s license, and I couldn’t get a job on campus, even though I needed one terribly,” she said. “Probably all the things that I’m doing, or the things I’ve accomplished, I would not have done without this policy.” Sam, who came to the US at 3 years old, recently spoke to a lawyer about her situation. “They told me that my only true pathways to citizenship would be: Congress intervenes and passes something, I get married, or I return to my country of birth for at least 10 years and try to get in the so-called ‘right way,’” she said. “Hearing that—I always knew these things were true—but hearing that spoken out loud by a legal professional broke something in me.” Submit a correction Send a letter to the editor Reprints & permissions Thank you for reading The Nation! We hope you enjoyed the story you just read. It’s just one of many examples of incisive, deeply-reported journalism we publish—journalism that shifts the needle on important issues, uncovers malfeasance and corruption, and uplifts voices and perspectives that often go unheard in mainstream media. For nearly 160 years, The Nation has spoken truth to power and shone a light on issues that would otherwise be swept under the rug. In a critical election year as well as a time of media austerity, independent journalism needs your continued support. The best way to do this is with a recurring donation. This month, we are asking readers like you who value truth and democracy to step up and support The Nation with a monthly contribution. We call these monthly donors Sustainers, a small but mighty group of supporters who ensure our team of writers, editors, and fact-checkers have the resources they need to report on breaking news, investigative feature stories that often take weeks or months to report, and much more. There’s a lot to talk about in the coming months, from the presidential election and Supreme Court battles to the fight for bodily autonomy. We’ll cover all these issues and more, but this is only made possible with support from sustaining donors. Donate today—any amount you can spare each month is appreciated, even just the price of a cup of coffee. The Nation does not bow to the interests of a corporate owner or advertisers—we answer only to readers like you who make our work possible. Set up a recurring donation today and ensure we can continue to hold the powerful accountable. Thank you for your generosity. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Trump downplays deadly Charlottesville rally as a ‘peanut’ compared to Israel-Gaza protests

CNN — Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday night downplayed the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which led to a woman’s death, as a “peanut” compared to the demonstrations happening across the US against Israel’s actions in Gaza. In August 2017, White nationalists, neo-Nazis and other right-wing groups descended on Charlottesville to protest the city’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, with some gathered chanting, “Jews will not replace us.” One of the attendees rammed his car into a crowd, killing a 32-yeard-old paralegal and injuring several others. There have been no reports of any comparable violence occurring during the pro-Palestinian demonstrations taking place across the country, which have centered largely on college campuses. Public officials have condemned incidents of antisemitism that have occurred amid the protests and raised concerns over the safety of Jewish students. Trump’s comments are his latest attempt to minimize the Charlottesville incident. He was widely condemned in 2017 for declaring there were “very fine people” on both sides of the demonstrations. Joe Biden invoked those comments when he announced his 2020 president campaign against Trump. “Crooked Joe Biden would say, constantly, that he ran because of Charlottesville. Well, if that’s the case, he’s done a really terrible job because Charlottesville is like a ‘peanut’ compared to the riots and anti-Israel protests that are happening all over our Country, RIGHT NOW,” Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday night. Trump also accused Biden in the post of hating Israel and the Jewish people, but hating the Palestinian people even more. When asked about Trump’s post, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told CNN, “President Trump is 100% correct.” Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement that “the American people are not going to be lectured to by the guy who called white supremacists very fine people after they chanted ‘Jews will not replace us’ and killed a woman.” Biden on Monday decried antisemitic incidents that have occurred amid protests around college campuses and said his administration was working to combat anti-Jewish hatred. “I condemn the antisemitic protests, that’s why I’ve set up a program to deal with that,” Biden said when questioned about the events at Columbia University in New York. “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.” Pro-Palestinian protests have taken place at major universities across the US with nearly 100 people arrested at the University of Southern California and dozens arrested at the University of Texas in Austin on Wednesday. Protesters at Columbia University, the epicenter of demonstrations that began last week, said they won’t disperse until the school agrees to cut ties with Israeli universities and commits to divesting funds from Israel-linked entities, among other demands. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson visited the campus on Wednesday to call for Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to resign if she cannot bring order to the campus. His calls were amid the growing unrest on these college campuses, leading to numerous congressional hearings and, at least in part, to the resignation of two Ivy League presidents – Claudine Gay at Harvard University and Liz Magill at the University of Pennsylvania. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

White House seizes on Mitch McConnell's remarks that Trump stalled action on border security

WASHINGTON — The White House seized on remarks by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that former President Donald Trump resisted accepting any bipartisan compromise to toughen border security laws. McConnell, R-Ky., made the comments hours before the Senate passed a sweeping $95 billion foreign aid package to provide assistance to Ukraine and Israel, capping months of internal GOP infighting that culminated in no immigration add-ons. “This week Senator McConnell explicitly said why the toughest, fairest bipartisan border legislation in modern American history is stalled: ‘our nominee for president did not seem to want us to do anything at all,’” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in an email Thursday. “After President Biden worked with Republicans and Democrats in the Senate to assemble a landmark deal that secured the border and cracked down on fentanyl, congressional Republicans have been direct about why many of them sided with drug cartels and human smugglers over the Border Patrol Union and the Chamber of Commerce — because Donald Trump told them to,” Bates added, while noting the declining crime rate nationwide. “President Biden will not allow extreme Republican officials to endanger American communities. He will keep fighting for the toughest, fairest border security deal in decades.” The White House’s swipe at Trump and Republicans comes in the midst of a campaign between Biden and the ex-president. Trump has made anxieties about the immigration and the asylum system a central component of his pitch to voters, and surveys show voters trust Trump over Biden by wide margins on handling the border. Biden is trying to neutralize his vulnerability by arguing that Trump doesn’t care about securing the border and is seeking to weaponize the issue only for political gain. The new White House statement is an indication that Biden’s team plans to continue to lean into that argument. McConnell told reporters Tuesday, hours before the bill passed, that Trump had a role in delaying the passage of Ukraine aid because of his resistance to a bipartisan border deal. “I think the former president had sort of mixed views on it. We all felt that the border was a complete disaster, myself included,” McConnell said. “First there was an effort to make law, which requires you to deal with Democrats, and then a number of our members thought it wasn’t good enough. And then our nominee for president didn’t seem to want us to do anything at all. That took months to work our way through it. So we ended up doing the supplemental that was originally proposed, which dealt with not all problems — it didn’t solve the border problem but certainly addressed the growing threats at the moment.” Biden and Democrats initially rejected GOP demands to include border security in a foreign aid package. But eventually they backed down and struck a deal with McConnell’s designee, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., who called it “by far the most conservative border security bill in four decades.” Recommended JOE BIDEN Biden says he would be 'happy to debate' Trump TRUMP ON TRIAL Key prosecution witness in Trump trial faces grilling from former president's lawyers The bill they released would have raised the bar to seek asylum, and it included a host of triggers to turn away new arrivals, but it had none of the legalization provisions Democrats had initially demanded as part of any immigration deal. Trump pressured Republicans to kill the bill anyway, saying on social media that “we need a Strong, Powerful, and essentially ‘PERFECT’ Border and, unless we get that, we are better off not making a Deal.” In a separate post, he wrote: “I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions & Millions of people, many from parts unknown, into our once great, the soon to be great again, Country!” Even though McConnell championed the bipartisan bill, it was blocked by a Republican filibuster, as only four GOP senators voted to advance it in February, with the rest arguing that it fell short. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the chief Democratic negotiator on the border deal, said in an interview: “This all took way too long. But if you’re a Democrat and, in the end, you got the full Ukraine, Israel, humanitarian aid — and you fundamentally expose Republicans on their most critical issue, immigration? Query whether that’s a political deal worth taking. “We got Ukraine done,” he said. “And we improved our position dramatically on the issue that we were most vulnerable on in the election: immigration.” Since then, the Biden administration has been considering executive actions to deter illegal migration, but any unilateral steps would pale in comparison to what Congress can do. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Should Americans be worried about the border? The first Texas border czar says yes.

Mike Banks likes to joke that he spent one day in retirement after serving more than two decades in the U.S. Border Patrol. But it only took one phone call from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to get him back to border enforcement – this time, for the state. Abbott's Texas is testing the limits of what states can do to control immigration. As the pioneering first "border czar" of Texas, Banks is advising the governor's evolving – and controversial – border security strategy even as the Biden administration fights Texas' tactics in federal court. The election-season stakes were on display earlier this year when a bipartisan border security bill – endorsed by the White House – failed despite broad voter support. Republicans backed off the bill after Donald Trump publicly blasted it. In a mobile command vehicle parked near the Rio Grande river in Eagle Pass, Banks spoke to USA TODAY about his views on cartel threats, concertina wire and comprehensive immigration reform. (This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.) Texas Border Czar Mike Banks navigates in the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas during his visit to Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas on April 16, 2024. Polls have shown that voters across the country, even outside of border states, are ranking immigration border security as a top issue. Should they be worried? Every state has really become a border state. Never in my career have I seen such large numbers entering the country illegally. And so I think we should be worried about it. First and foremost, we need to separate immigration from border security. What you have right now is the cartels weaponizing immigration against the forces on the border, whether it be Border Patrol, the state of Texas, any other law enforcement. They're weaponizing the migrants, holding them back, pushing them across at certain times, in order to overwhelm the system. That now leaves miles and miles of border wide open where they can push through the got-aways, they can push through the hard narcotics, they can push through the high-value targets. So I think it's way beyond time for America to be concerned about our border being as wide open as it is. What do you mean when you say we need to 'separate immigration from border security'? It's far past time for the U.S government to come up with comprehensive immigration reform. Immigration reform isn't 'Let's create a crisis at the border, and then you'll just give me whatever I want.' The left and the right need to sit down and come up with a viable immigration system that works for today's migrants, for what we need in this country for workforce, for what we need for population (growth), for what we need in getting experts into this country. What we can't do is have open borders in between the ports of entry where anyone can come through. And the federal government is inviting this to continue happening. Texas Border Czar Mike Banks navigates in the Rio Grande pass buoys on the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas during his visit to Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas on April 16, 2024. Texas is building its own border infrastructure from concertina wire to a 'forward operating base' here in Eagle Pass. What's next? What does the Texas border look like five years from now? You need the right combination of technology, infrastructure, personnel and consequences. So that's what we're trying to put together as a total package in the state of Texas. We are building state border wall at the exact same specifications that the previous (Trump) administration was building border wall. Does border wall stop everything? No. It's like a lock on anything else. It keeps honest people honest. And it works as a force multiplier. You can control the area with less manpower. Additionally, I would say that over the next five years... we're going to continue building tactical infrastructure. We're going to continue building border wall. Right now, our current pace is about one mile a week. We're going to put up things like the the border buoy barriers, with the understanding that you don't need a wall from sea to shining sea. A Texas National Guard soldier keeps guard atop of shipping container in Shelby Park where the Texas Guard has set up infrastructure to prevent asylum seekers from entering U.S. territory from Piedras Negras, Mexico. If you look at the numbers... you will see that while Texas owns almost 64% of the entire land mass with Mexico, 1,254 miles, we now account for less than 30% of all the cross-border traffic. (Editor's note: U.S. Customs and Border Protection data show 44% of illegal crossings have occurred in Texas in fiscal 2024 through March.) To me, what that shows is that deterrence does work, that you can deter people from crossing illegally. Right now they're going to the path of least resistance. And the path of least resistance for illegal immigration is California, Arizona, New Mexico. Do you have any contact with counterparts in Mexico? We do. We don't communicate at the same level as I did when I was in the Border Patrol, at the federal level. But on the state level, we communicate. There's communications from governor to governor. There's communications from the different state police agencies with our police agencies, with Guardia Nacional and our National Guard. We communicate with Mexico daily, if not multiple times a day. How much does it cost to become an American? For some, the price just went up. Fewer hours, fewer flowers: Denver's migrant crisis threatens to overwhelm its compassion Texas AG Ken Paxton sues Catholic migrant aid organization for alleged 'human smuggling' Border life goes on despite bill failure and threat to 'shut it down' Could evangelical Christian women hold the key to compromise on immigration reform? Can the US handle more immigration? History and the Census suggest the answer is yes. Texas gov transforms immigration from a border issue to a backyard one. Dems aren't happy. Is Mexico doing enough to slow the flow of migrants? Many (Mexican) states along the border... are feeling much the same way Texas is, where the states are being overrun with illegal immigration and being left to fend for themselves on the south side, without the proper assistance from the federal government. So they're stepping up on the south side in these Mexican states and doing what they can to deter illegal immigration, as well. Is the federal government of Mexico doing enough? No. Is the federal government United States doing enough? No. Do you envision a state-level Border Patrol? Or will the Texas National Guard be on permanent assignment? I think the border states definitely have to be involved in border security. I can tell you from the 23 years I was in the Border Patrol, we worked with state military, we worked with state law enforcement (and) the state of Texas. As far as a Texas Border Patrol, I think that's for the legislature and the people of Texas to decide. We're going to do everything we can to protect Texas and the rest of America. If you go out in (Shelby Park), you will see soldiers from the state of Florida. You will see them from Iowa. You will see them from Indiana. You will see them from North Dakota. Half of the (Republican-led) states in the United States are sending some type of support to the state of Texas, whether it be in the form of law enforcement or National Guard, to help us hold that line. And they're footing their own bill because they understand that what is happening here is going to affect them, whether it be the narcotics, the fentanyl, the opioids, or whether it be the high-value targets. You know, we're not going to back down. We believe everything we're doing is lawful and within our constitutional rights. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

County in rural New Mexico extends agreement with ICE for immigrant detention amid criticism

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — County commissioners in rural New Mexico extended authorization for a migrant detention facility Wednesday in cooperation with federal authorities over objections by advocates for immigrant rights who allege inhumane conditions and due process violations at the privately operated Torrance County Detention Facility. The 3-0 vote by the Torrance County commission clears the way for a four-month extension through September of an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the detention of migrants at the facility. At a public meeting, advocates renewed criticism that the facility has inadequate living conditions and provides limited access to legal counsel for asylum-seekers who cycle through. Critics of the detention center have urged federal immigration authorities to end their contract with a private detention operator, while unsuccessfully calling on state lawmakers to ban local government contracts for migrant detention. ADVERTISEMENT The ACLU announced Tuesday that it had uncovered documents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that show a 23-year-old Brazilian migrant didn’t receive adequate mental health care prior to his suicide in August 2022 at the Torrance County Detention Facility after being denied asylum. Contacted by email Wednesday, ICE representatives had no immediate response to the allegations by the ACLU. READ MORE FILE - The Federal Correctional Institution is seen in Dublin, Calif., Monday, April 15, 2024. Nearly all inmates have been transferred out of the troubled women's prison set to be shut down in California, and U.S. senators on Wednesday, April 24, demanded an accounting of the rapid closure plan for the facility where sexual abuse by guards was rampant. (AP Photo/Terry Chea, File) Senators demand accounting of rapid closure plan for California prison where women were abused FILE - Richard Katsuda, educator and co-chair of Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress opens the LA Day of Remembrance at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, Feb. 18, 2023. The names of thousands of people held in Japanese American incarceration camps during World War II will be digitized and made available for free, genealogy company Ancestry announced Wednesday, April 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File) Ancestry website cataloguing names of Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II Sister Helen Prejean, right, talks as Richard Obot, left, detainee in Division Of Correction 11, listens to her during a book club at Department Of Corrections Division 11 in Chicago, Monday, April 22, 2024. DePaul students and detainees are currently reading Dead Man Walking and the author, anti death penalty advocate, Sister Helen Prejean attended to lead a discussion. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) College students, inmates and a nun: A unique book club meets at one of the nation’s largest jails The ACLU urged federal authorities reconsider its contract the Torrance County facility based on a “mortality review” by ICE’s health services corps of circumstances leading up to the death of Kelsey Vial during the migrant’s monthslong detention. The document describes Vial’s symptoms and treatment for depression while awaiting removal to Brazil and concludes that detention center staff “did not provide Mr. Vial’s health care within the safe limits of practice.” County Commissioner Sam Schropp said events described by the ACLU took place nearly two years ago and don’t reflect current conditions at the facility that he has witnessed during his own unannounced visits. He described numerous accounts of desperation among migrants related to food, water and health care access within the facility as “hearsay.” ADVERTISEMENT “The accounts which you attribute to the federal government will not be changed by closing of (the Torrance County Detention Facility). Those detainees will be moved to another facility and there will be no one like me appearing,” Schropp said. The ACLU’s Mike Zamore petitioned a top ICE official to conduct a new review of the detention center before extending the contract beyond May. “While this review continues, ICE should let the contract for Torrance expire,” wrote Zamore, national director of policy and government affairs for the ACLU. “From a good governance perspective, it makes no sense to renew a contract for operations that have repeatedly resulted in dangerous conditions and chronic violation of federal standards.” The detention center at Estancia can accommodate at least 505 adult male migrants at any time, though actual populations fluctuate. ADVERTISEMENT Torrance County Manager Janice Barela said federal authorities proposed terms of the four-month extension of the services agreement for immigrant detention. County government separately contracts for jail space unrelated to immigration at the detention center, which is the county’s largest payer of property taxes. by Taboola Suggested For You For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Centrist Democrats want to refocus on border security

A group of moderate, swing-district House Democrats called for Washington to shift its focus to border security just hours after President Biden signed an aid bill to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan into law. Why it matters: It signals a rare area of potential bipartisan compromise as Republicans rage about the lack of border security language in the $95 billion foreign aid bill. Driving the news: The lawmakers said they "strongly agree" with a U.S. Border Patrol labor union which said it is "beyond disappointed" the foreign aid package did not include funding for border security or border policy changes. "Congress and the President must act and bring order to the Southern border," the lawmakers said in a statement. They called for Biden to use his authorities to quickly remove some migrants to Mexico and for Congress to pass a law to allow border officials to rapidly expel asylum seekers like under the pandemic policy of Title 42. Between the lines: The group is made up of Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez (D-Wash.), Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Mary Peltola (D-Alaska), Reps. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) and Don Davis (D-N.C.). Those five lawmakers were the only Democrats to vote for a GOP bill last week enhancing criminal penalties for transmitting the positions of Border Patrol agents and destroying Border Patrol communications devices. Catch up quick: Republican lawmakers have fumed about the foreign aid bill passing without border security funding or border policy provisions after they spent months arguing the two could not be decoupled. A bipartisan Senate group proposed a foreign aid bill in January that would have significantly restricted migration along the Southern border, but House and Senate Republicans quickly declared it dead on arrival. A $66 billion foreign aid and border bill proposed by a bipartisan House group, including Golden and Pérez, never gained traction. The other side: Republicans may be skeptical of the Democratic border security push, with the National Republican Congressional Committee accusing the vulnerable lawmakers of election-year politics. "It's a pathetic charade that says more about Democrats' political freakout over their open borders policies than it does about their willingness to end the crisis," NRCC spokesperson Jack Pandol said. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Immigration advocates see work permits as Biden’s best option

President Biden’s left flank is pushing for expanded work permits for undocumented immigrants, not just as a humanitarian imperative, but as a political boon ahead of November. Speculation over Biden’s next play on immigration has reached a fever pitch, with reports of imminent executive action on two fronts: expanded work permits and a crackdown on asylum at the border. While the administration is widely expected to do both, civil rights advocates say action on work permits will do more to move the needle in Biden’s favor. “It’s not just good policy, it’s good politics. Recent polling shows that two-thirds of voters in swing states support expanding work permits for undocumented immigrants, including long-term workers, farmworkers, Dreamers without DACA and spouses of U.S. citizens,” said Deirdre Schifeling, the ACLU’s chief political and advocacy officer. “Today, President Biden has a remarkable opportunity to deliver on behalf of the American people and to uphold his campaign promise to ensure that immigrant families can stay together.” ADVERTISING The Biden administration is trying to thread the needle between support for mixed-status families and strict enforcement at the border. Though tough-on-the-border stances can be found throughout the political spectrum, the Biden campaign is leaning into the sharp contrast between him and former President Trump on family relief. “While President Biden continues to do everything possible in his authority to create more legal pathways to citizenship, it will ultimately take Congress acting to fix our broken system, which Donald Trump made worse as president,” said Fabiola Rodríguez, deputy Hispanic media director for the Biden campaign. “That’s exactly why he worked in good faith to pass bipartisan immigration legislation. Trump killed that legislation, and is openly running on an anti-immigrant agenda. The American people deserve a president who works to deliver solutions for families instead of personal politics — only Joe Biden is that president.” But advocates are warning Biden against a middle-of-the-road approach amid the heated immigration rhetoric from Trump. “I don’t think we have ever faced the kind of MAGA extremism that we are facing now. And Democrats have always for good – but sometimes to our chagrin – have wanted to do things in a bipartisan way, have wanted to solve this problem in the way that we know needs to be solved, which is through Congress,” said María Cardona, a top Democratic political strategist. Cardona added that former President Obama went to lengths to show good faith in bipartisan immigration and border negotiations. “And we know how that ended up. Joe Biden has done the same thing. He has tried to do this in good faith. Good faith does not exist on the Republican side anymore. And so we are now at the point where we need to do this because it’s the right thing to do and because frankly, it will save lives.” A Data for Progress poll reviewed exclusively by The Hill found that voters overwhelmingly support a softer approach to asylum if it is framed as a choice between humane and punitive approaches. The poll found that 52 percent of respondents overall are more likely to support a candidate with a humane approach, while 26 percent said they’d be less likely; 38 percent said they would be more likely to support a candidate with a punitive approach, and 40 percent said they would be less likely to support such a candidate. The poll found Democrats overwhelmingly support an approach labeled humane, with a 63 percentage-point net positive. The punitive approach garnered a 30 percentage point net negative among Democrats. The numbers are closer among independents — net positive of 18 percentage points for a humane approach, net negative of 9 percentage points for punitive — and swing state voters, who returned a 7 percentage-point net positive for a humane approach and a 6 point net negative for a punitive one. An order limiting asylum will face at least two practical limitations: the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) budget and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. A crackdown on asylum, as proposed in the bipartisan Senate immigration deal that failed earlier this year, would prevent U.S. border officials from processing asylum claims at the border under certain circumstances. Foreign nationals encountered by the Border Patrol would then be either returned to Mexico, indefinitely detained pending repatriation or released with orders of deportation. López Obrador, a crucial partner in immigration enforcement, would have to approve of any plan to return third-country nationals to Mexican territory. Indefinite detention of hundreds of thousands of migrants is neither a political nor a logistical option, and the release of migrants with orders of deportation versus pending asylum claims could mean hundreds of thousands of new arrivals without work permits, a situation likely to anger Democratic mayors in big cities. Still, many advocates are bracing for an executive order limiting who can claim asylum at the border while getting ready to campaign for Biden on the back of a work permit expansion. “I can share with you that if the president chose to do affirmative action of relief for the undocumented individual, he will defang MAGA of talking points and rhetoric, because all of a sudden they will not know who is ‘not supposed to be here,’ and I use that in quotes,” said María Teresa Kumar, CEO of Voto Latino. At least one of the measures in the advocates’ wish list, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), is a commonly used program that’s proven resilient against court action and has already been aggressively used by the Biden administration. Under TPS, DHS designates specific countries as too dangerous or unstable to repatriate its nationals, who — if already present in the United States — are granted work permits and deferral from deportation. The Biden administration’s largest TPS designation by population benefited more than 400,000 Venezuelans who were in the United States before August 1; a redesignation of Venezuela, for example, could give TPS protections to Venezuelans who have come since. Those protections apply regardless of immigration status, so TPS would apply whether foreign nationals are undocumented, have been processed and released into the country with orders of deportation, are asylum applicants, or even if they have temporary visas. But nearly half the country’s undocumented population is from Mexico, a country that for diplomatic, logistical and geographical issues is unlikely to ever be designated for TPS. For similar reasons, designations are unlikely for other countries of origin of large undocumented populations, such as India. Advocates are also eyeing an existing program that currently allows undocumented spouses of U.S. military service members to regularize their status, which could be expanded to apply to all undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens without legislative changes. And they’re pushing for expansion of cancelation of removal, a program that allows U.S. citizens to petition for an undocumented relative whose removal would cause the citizen to “suffer exceptional and extremely unusual hardship.” Granting work permits to long-term undocumented immigrants could also ease some growing pressure in cities including Chicago, where some undocumented immigrants and their families are souring on Democrats, as new arrivals get work permits and they don’t. In all, advocates expect up to 3 million undocumented immigrants could apply for work permits under those programs. The expansion of the military spouses program and cancelation of removal would also directly benefit adult U.S. citizens — eligible voters. “We strongly believe that if President Biden acts to solve our family’s immigration nightmare, he will be rewarded by the voters, the 10 million voters in mixed status families, by Latino and immigrant family voters, and by the overwhelming majority of decent Americans who believe in immigration solutions,” said Allyson Battista, a board member of American Families United whose undocumented husband of 20 years would have to leave the United States for 10 years to have a shot at fixing his paperwork. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

How Republican-led states far from the US-Mexico border are rushing to pass tough immigration laws

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Republican-led states are rushing to give broader immigration enforcement powers to local police and impose criminal penalties for those living in the country illegally as the issue of migrants crossing the U.S. border remains central to the 2024 elections. The Oklahoma Legislature this week fast-tracked a bill to the governor that creates the new crime of “impermissible occupation,” which imposes penalties of as much as two years in prison for being in the state illegally. Oklahoma is among several GOP-led states jockeying to push deeper into immigration enforcement as both Republicans and Democrats seize on the issue. That was illustrated in February when President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump both visited the U.S.-Mexico border the same day and tussled from a distance over blame for the nation’s broken immigration system and how to fix it. ADVERTISEMENT Here are some things to know about the latest efforts in various states to target immigration: WHAT’S HAPPENING IN TEXAS? Lawmakers in Oklahoma followed the lead of Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill last year that would allow the state to arrest and deport people who enter the U.S. illegally. That law is currently on hold while the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals considers a challenge brought by the U.S. Department of Justice. READ MORE Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., walks to the chamber as the Senate prepares to advance the $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan passed by the House, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) To pass Ukraine aid, ‘Reagan Republican’ leaders in Congress navigated a party transformed by Trump FILE - Texas National Guard watch migrants after beaching barriers set up on the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas, March 21, 2024. A Texas grand jury on Tuesday, April 23, indicted more than 140 migrants on misdemeanor rioting charges over an alleged mass attempt to breach the U.S.-Mexico border, a day after a judge threw out the cases. (Omar Ornelas/El Paso Times via AP, File) Migrants indicted in Texas over alleged border breach after judge dismissed charges Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gives his regularly scheduled morning press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte) The head of Mexico’s detective service says his country is the ‘champion’ of fentanyl production Opponents consider the law to be the most dramatic attempt by a state to police immigration since an Arizona law more than a decade ago, portions of which were struck down by the Supreme Court. WHAT DOES OKLAHOMA’S BILL DO? Oklahoma’s law would make it illegal to remain in the state without legal authorization, with a first offense a misdemeanor punishable by as much as a year in jail. Violators would be required to leave the state within 72 hours of being released from custody. A second and subsequent offense would be a felony punishable by as much as two years in prison. ADVERTISEMENT Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat, who carried the bill in the Senate, voiced frustration with the federal government and Congress for not taking more definitive steps to solve the immigration problem. “The federal government has failed. The U.S. Congress, they have not done anything to impact it,” said Treat, an Oklahoma City Republican. “So what can we do? We can say you have to be here legally in Oklahoma.” Outside the state Capitol, more than 100 people gathered Tuesday in opposition to the bill. Sam Wargin Grimaldo, 36, an attorney from south Oklahoma City whose mother emigrated from Mexico in 1979, urged those who rallied to register to vote and become more politically engaged. Grimaldo said many Latinos in Oklahoma are frightened about the new law. “We feel attacked,” said Grimaldo, wearing a shirt that read, “Young, Latino and Proud.” “People are afraid to step out of their houses if legislation like this is proposed and then passed.” WHAT ARE OTHER STATES DOING? Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has signed a bill requiring law enforcement agencies to communicate with federal immigration authorities if they discover people are in the the country illegally, and would broadly mandate cooperation in the process of identifying, detaining and deporting them. That bill takes effect July 1. Another proposal there would allow sentencing enhancements up to life in prison for someone in the country illegally who commits a violent crime. ADVERTISEMENT In Iowa, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill this month that mirrors part of the Texas law. Another approach at a Texas-style bill is advancing in Louisiana. Idaho lawmakers considered a similar measure but adjourned without passing it. Georgia lawmakers passed a bill that seeks to force jailers to check immigration status, part of a continuing political response to the killing of a nursing student on the University of Georgia campus, allegedly by a Venezuelan man. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill last month to increase prison and jail sentences for immigrants in the United States illegally if they are convicted of felonies or of driving without a license. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Like Texas’ new law, many of the bills are almost certain to face legal challenges because immigration is a federal, not a state, issue under the U.S. Constitution, said Kelli Stump, an immigration attorney in Oklahoma City and the president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. ADVERTISEMENT “The whole thing is a mess and the system is broken, but the Constitution says that states handle state issues and the feds handle federal issues,” Stump said. “This will ultimately end up at the Supreme Court if I’m a betting person.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Trump called this visa ‘very bad’ for Americans. Truth Social applied for one

MIAMI (AP) — The social media company founded by former President Donald Trump applied for a business visa program that he sought to restrict during his administration and which many of his allies want him to curtail in a potential second term. Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind Truth Social, filed an application in June 2022 for an H-1B visa for a worker at a $65,000 annual salary, the lowest wage category allowed under the program. Federal immigration data shows the company was approved for a visa a few months later. The company says it did not hire the worker. Filing for the visa sets the image of Trump the candidate, who has proposed a protectionist agenda for companies to “hire American,” in conflict with Trump the businessman, who has said his companies will use every tool at their disposal. Records show the investment firm started by Trump’s son-in-law and White House adviser, Jared Kushner, also filed an application and was approved to hire a foreigner as an associate under the same visa program. ELECTION 2024 First lady Jill Biden and President Joe Biden greet riders at the Wounded Warrior Project's Soldier Ride on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, April 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Biden just signed a bill that could ban TikTok. His campaign plans to stay on the app anyway FILE - Chester County, Pa. election workers process mail-in and absentee ballots at West Chester University in West Chester on Nov. 4, 2020. A form Pennsylvania voters must complete on the outside of the envelopes used to return mail-in ballots has been redesigned, but that did not keep some voters from failing to complete it accurately for this week's primary, election officials said. Some votes will not count as a result. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File) Pennsylvania redesigned its mail-in ballot envelopes amid litigation. Some voters still tripped up First lady Jill Biden and President Joe Biden greet riders at the Wounded Warrior Project's Soldier Ride on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, April 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Biden just signed a bill that could ban TikTok. His campaign plans to stay on the app anyway ADVERTISEMENT Trump Media & Technology Group said in a statement the application “was made under prior management,” even though the current CEO, former House Intelligence Committee chairman and longtime Trump ally Devin Nunes, was already leading the company at the time the application was first filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. “The company has never hired — and has no plans to hire — an H-1B visa program worker. When current management learned of this application, which was made under prior management, it swiftly terminated the process in November 2022,” the company said in a statement. An H-1B visa petition can cost companies about $5,000 per employee. Companies can withdraw petitions even after being approved. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services records data doesn’t note when visas are revoked. But a spokeswoman for the Labor Department, which also tracks H-1B applications, said they had no records of Truth Social requesting a withdrawal. ADVERTISEMENT A COMMON TOOL FOR TECH COMPANIES Tech companies commonly hire employees using the H-1B program. Trump never hid the fact he used the visas before he became president, using them mostly to bring in foreign models and a few workers for his hotels and resorts, per a review of petitions filed since 2009. But with exceptions to renew existing applications, his companies appeared to have no longer petitioned for H-1B visas until Truth Social was created. Data from the Labor Department shows that an application was filed by Trump Media & Technology Group for an employee to earn $65,000. It lists as the employer Will Wilkerson, a company co-founder and former senior vice president of operations, and an Atlanta address as the job’s location. Wilkerson filed a whistleblower complaint in August 2022 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, alleging securities violations by the company. He was fired, according to The Washington Post, and is cooperating with federal authorities. His lawyers said he would not comment. ‘I SHOULDN’T BE ALLOWED TO USE IT’ Trump frequently talks about the arrivals of migrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, but his policy proposals while in the White House also included curbs on legal immigration such as family-based visas and the visa lottery program. ADVERTISEMENT In a 2016 primary debate, Trump spoke about the H-1B visa program and said it was “very bad” and “unfair” for U.S. workers. “First of all, I think and I know the H-1B very well. And it’s something that I frankly use and I shouldn’t be allowed to use it. We shouldn’t have it,” he said. “Second of all, I think it’s very important to say, well, I’m a businessman and I have to do what I have to do.” Three months after taking office, Trump issued his “Buy American and Hire American” executive order, which directed Cabinet members to suggest reforms to ensure that H-1B visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most-skilled applicants to protect American workers. He has previously said the program was used by tech companies to get foreign workers for lower pay. During his administration, a study by the nonpartisan National Foundation for American Policy found the government was scrutinizing cases more by launching requests for more information from companies filing to hire foreign workers and denying more petitions. ADVERTISEMENT The “Project 2025” handbook, compiled by allies preparing for Trump’s potential transition to power, says the H-1B program should be transformed “into an elite mechanism exclusively to bring in the ‘best and brightest’ at the highest wages while simultaneously ensuring that U.S. workers are not being disadvantaged by the program.” Companies in the professional, scientific and technical services fields account for more than 60% of the total visas granted, said Nicolas Morales, an economist at the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond who specializes in labor and migration. Morales said he has found the visa program has been beneficial for small companies to stay in business. ADVERTISEMENT “Winning the H-1B lottery actually helps them. It increases their chances of survival,” he said. “In the next five years, they are more likely to stay active, particularly small companies that are very dependent on skilled labor.” The applications require companies to attest they will provide the foreign workers the same benefits offered to U.S. workers and pay more than what they pay others with similar experience and qualifications or more than the typical wage for that type of occupation. Companies also have to provide a notice of the filing to the workers by posting a notice in two locations at the place of employment. Much of the criticism regarding the H-1B program is about companies offering salaries in the lower wage categories to foreign workers. The application filed by Kushner’s investment firm to hire a foreign employee appears to satisfy that complaint. The Labor Department certified a document where Kushner’s investment firm specified it would pay this employee a $200,000 salary, which falls under the highest wage level for the H-1B visas typically reserved for those who are experts in their field and have senior responsibilities. Recent data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services shows the company was approved for a visa. Kushner has not joined the Trump campaign and has been pursuing his own business interests applying for tourism projects in the Balkans. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

The mostly red state of Texas has only 1 competitive congressional district this year

Democrats hope to regain control of a South Texas district but Republicans say the area is no longer blue. Both Democrats and Republicans have targeted that part of Texas. Sponsor Message MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: The mostly red state of Texas has just one competitive congressional district this year, and both Republicans and Democrats have targeted that part of South Texas. NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales has this report. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Order for Tibs (ph). CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: At a McAllen, Texas, coffee shop, Democrat Michelle Vallejo is hammering a key message in a race to win back the state's 15th congressional district. MICHELLE VALLEJO: Pay attention to South Texas because we are going to be a pivotal race not just for the state but for our entire country. GRISALES: This is a comeback bid for Vallejo, a local small business owner. Democrats lost this traditionally blue district in the last election cycle after state redistricting, but they're betting they can win it back this year. Both the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the party's campaign arm for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are among the groups upping their investments to support Vallejo. VALLEJO: We have a lot of work to do here, but I know that with all of the support of our community and supporters outside of our region, we could get this done. GRISALES: A lot of work is facing both Democrats and Republicans in the fight for the state's 15th congressional district, which runs north from the McAllen border region to the outskirts of San Antonio. Texas Republican Monica De La Cruz, who flipped the seat in 2022, says Democrats' path to a majority will not go through her district. Here's De La Cruz on Capitol Hill. MONICA DE LA CRUZ: We've got boots on the ground from my campaign both putting up a campaign office both in the south of the district and in the north of the district. GRISALES: Republican successes across Texas have come by way of some pockets of Latino voters, fueled by their more conservative positions on issues like the U.S.-Mexico border. And that's especially top of mind here. Experts say the region is well-known for its Tejano voters who are right of center politically, culturally and socially. Alvaro Corral, politics professor at the University of Texas in the Rio Grande Valley, says that has created a key opportunity for the GOP. ALVARO CORRAL: The Republicans have built a sort of more solid base of support among Latinos in the state slowly, gradually, incrementally. GRISALES: And with this year's election, former President Trump is expected to pull in Republican voters. That adds to GOP advantages across the state. Texas' 15th was previously a Democratic stronghold, but with new lines drawn in 2021, it flipped from a President Biden district to one that now favors Trump. BRANDON ROTTINGHAUS: The gerrymandering issue definitely hems in the Democrats. GRISALES: That's Brandon Rottinghaus, politics professor at the University of Houston. ROTTINGHAUS: The structure makes it hard for Democrats to be able to overcome some of those built-in advantages that Republicans have. GRISALES: Back on Capitol Hill, Representative De La Cruz is taking on a bigger role within her party, including some very public opportunities to highlight her district. Earlier this year, the former insurance agent turned lawmaker gave the Spanish-language rebuttal to Biden's State of the Union address. She recently told NPR she thinks her efforts are paying off. DE LA CRUZ: Think that it is the policies that are moving us forward and moving the bluest part of the district to red. GRISALES: If De La Cruz pulls off another win against Vallejo in this year's fight, it could help Republicans hold onto the U.S. House and signal more opportunities for the GOP to expand their reach in what was once a Democratic stronghold. Claudia Grisales, NPR News. (SOUNDBITE OF SZYMON'S "ANHALT") For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Migrants indicted in Texas over alleged border breach after judge dismissed charges

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A Texas grand jury indicted more than 140 migrants on misdemeanor rioting charges Tuesday over an alleged mass attempt to breach the U.S.-Mexico border, a day after a judge threw out the cases. No injuries were reported during the alleged breach on April 12 in El Paso, which authorities say began when someone in the group cut through a razor wire barrier. Mass arrests also followed a separate episode in the Texas border city in March. On Monday, a county judge had thrown out the charges against those who were arrested this month, ruling there was insufficient probable cause. A public defender representing the migrants had argued there was not enough evidence and accused authorities of trying to make headlines. “The citizens of El Paso, through the grand jury, essentially overruled the judge’s ruling and found probable cause to believe that the riots did occur,” El Paso County District Attorney Bill Hicks told reporters Tuesday. ADVERTISEMENT Kelli Childress-Diaz, the El Paso Public Defender who is representing the 141 defendants, said she wasn’t surprised. “I imagine they had that already prepared before the hearing even started yesterday,” she said. READ MORE Protesters block traffic during a pro-Palestinian demonstration demanding a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, near the home of Sen. Chuck Schumer in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki) Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows FILE - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton makes a statement at his office, May 26, 2023, in Austin, Texas. The Supreme Court of Texas on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, ordered Harris County, which includes Houston, to put on hold for now a guaranteed income program that would provide $500 monthly cash payments to roughly 2,000 residents in one of the largest counties in the U.S. The program has become a target of Paxton. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File) Houston-area program to give $500 monthly payments to some residents on hold after Texas lawsuit FILE - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton makes a statement at his office, May 26, 2023, in Austin, Texas. Paxton is dropping a request for a Seattle hospital to hand over records regarding gender-affirming treatment potentially given to children from Texas as part of a lawsuit settlement announced Monday, April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File) Seattle hospital won’t turn over gender-affirming care records in lawsuit settlement with Texas The arrests have drawn more attention to Texas’ expanding operations along the border, where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has rolled out a series of aggressive measures in the name of curbing illegal crossings. Following the arrests in March, Abbott responded by saying he sent 700 additional National Guard members to El Paso. Hicks, whom Abbott appointed to the job in 2022, said that although it is not common for a grand jury to indict misdemeanor cases, he felt it was “fair” to pose the cases before them. In all, Hicks estimated they had arrested over 350 people on rioting charges since March. If convicted, those charged could each face up to 180 days in county jail and a fine of up to $2,000. Those in jail still face federal charges, and Hicks said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents could still pick them up from jail to process them on an illegal entry offense. “It turns my stomach that these people are nothing more than than, you know, political coins in a bet that some of our government officials have hedged,” Childress-Diaz told The Associated Press. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Citizenship and Immigration Services to open new refugee processing centers in Turkey, Qatar

Citizenship and Immigration Services is opening up two new field offices where agency personnel will process refugees from abroad. USCIS officials say the new centers are opening in Ankara, Turkey, and Doha, Qatar. And they’re meant to increase capacity for refugee processing and facilitate safe, lawful and orderly migration. The refugee admissions ceiling — or the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. within a fiscal year — was last set at 125,000 people. The agency says these new sites will help bolster and streamline that refugee processing system. The centers will be housed in U.S. embassies. They are the latest of almost a dozen sites internationally. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

USCIS Announces Open Application Period for the Citizenship and Integration Grant Program

WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced the application period for the Citizenship and Integration Grant Program, which provides funding for citizenship preparation programs in communities across the country. The 16-year-old program, specifically Citizenship Instruction and Naturalization Application Services, will provide up to $10 million in grants to prepare legal immigrants for naturalization and promote civic integration through increased knowledge of English, U.S. history, and civics. “The announcement of the Citizenship and Integration Grant Program application period is always an exciting time for USCIS,” said USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou. “Through this program, we empower organizations to help legal immigrants pursue citizenship. Our outreach efforts this year seek to ensure eligible organizations that focus on remote, underserved, or isolated communities are aware of USCIS funding opportunities and that grant funds are assisting more historically underserved communities.” USCIS expects to award up to 40 organizations up to $300,000 each for two years to expand availability of high-quality citizenship and integration services. This grant opportunity will fund public or nonprofit organizations that offer both citizenship instruction and naturalization application services to lawful permanent residents. Applications are due by June 21. Since 2009, the USCIS Citizenship and Integration Grant Program has awarded $155 million through 644 grants to immigrant-serving organizations. These grant recipients have provided citizenship preparation services to more than 300,000 immigrants in 41 states and the District of Columbia. In fiscal year 2024, USCIS received support from Congress through appropriations to make this funding opportunity available to communities and expects to announce award recipients in September 2024. To apply for this funding opportunity, visit www.grants.gov. USCIS encourages applicants to visit www.grants.gov before the application deadline to obtain registration information needed to complete the application process. For additional information on the Citizenship and Integration Grant Program for fiscal year 2024, visit or email the USCIS Office of Citizenship at citizenshipgrantprogram@uscis.dhs.gov.

In 2 years since Russia's invasion, a U.S. program has resettled 187,000 Ukrainians with little controversy

Pennington, New Jersey — Yana, a 10-year-old fourth-grader from Ukraine with a bright smile and big dreams, said she has felt welcomed in New Jersey, calling the U.S. "very, very, very nice." "I like the flowers here," Yana said in English, which she has learned remarkably quickly. "People aren't, like, being mean to anybody. They're being nice to everybody." Asked if she feels safe in America, Yana said, "Yeah." Roughly two years ago, Yana and her family had their lives suddenly upended by Russia's invasion of their native country. Olena Kopchak, Yana's mother, remembers the very moment their neighborhood in the port city of Mykolaiv was shelled by the Russian military. "We heard powerful explosions," Kopchak said in her native tongue. "We could not believe it at the beginning … our house was literally moving. It started to shake. We thought it was the end." Olena Kopchak and her daughter Yana. Olena Kopchak and her daughter Yana. COURTESY OF OLENA KOPCHAK Russia's invasion in February 2022 displaced millions of refugees, most of them women and children, triggering the largest refugee exodus in Europe since World War II. As other European countries like Poland and Germany absorbed these refugees, the U.S. quickly followed suit, with President Biden vowing to welcome 100,000 Ukrainians. In April 2022, the Biden administration created an unprecedented program known as "Uniting for Ukraine," allowing an unlimited number of Ukrainians sponsored by Americans to come to the U.S. and work here legally without having to go through the lengthy visa process. "I didn't sleep on that night when the program was launched. I was sitting at midnight waiting for the website to open," said Lana Rogers, Kopchak's sister and an American citizen living in New Jersey. Rogers used the Uniting for Ukraine program to sponsor her sister and her family, who arrived in New Jersey in June 2022. While they initially lived with Rogers and used government aid for basic necessities, Kopchak and her husband have since found jobs and their own apartment in central New Jersey. Olena Kopchak, left, with her sister Lana Rogers. Olena Kopchak, left, with her sister Lana Rogers. CBS NEWS In two years, U.S. immigration officials have approved more than 236,000 cases under the Uniting for Ukraine program, according to the Department of Homeland Security. As of the end of March, more than 187,000 Ukrainians had arrived in the U.S. under the policy. Another 350,000 Ukrainians have arrived in the U.S. outside of the sponsorship process since the start of the Russian invasion, mainly through temporary visas, according to DHS. "The Department has delivered on President Biden's commitment to welcome Ukrainians fleeing Russia's premeditated and unprovoked war on Ukraine," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement. Unlike most U.S. immigration policies, the resettlement of tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees in American communities has occurred with resounding efficiency and relatively little controversy. Republican-led states, for example, have filed lawsuits against virtually every major Biden administration immigration policy, including a similar sponsorship program for migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. But the Uniting for Ukraine program has not been challenged in court. In fact, some Republican lawmakers have expressed support for welcoming Ukrainian refugees. While the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border has strained resources in some communities like New York City, Chicago and Denver, the resettlement of Ukrainians has not provoked the same backlash, nor triggered major political problems for the Biden administration. Unlike the program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, which is capped at 30,000 approvals per month, Uniting for Ukraine has no numerical limit. Applications for the Uniting for Ukraine program are also adjudicated fairly quickly, sometimes in a matter of weeks or even days — a rarity in a backlogged and understaffed U.S. immigration system. Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of the refugee resettlement organization Global Refuge, said Uniting for Ukraine "shows how the U.S. can act with swiftness when it wants to." Vignarajah said geopolitics is partially behind the warm reception in the U.S. for Ukrainian arrivals, who are seen as victims of an anti-American government in Moscow. "There's certainly a sense of solidarity between the American and Ukrainian people," she said. Another reason Ukrainian refugees have enjoyed a smoother transition in the U.S. than some new arrivals, Vignarajah argued, is the unique nature of Uniting for Ukraine. Those who come to the U.S. under Uniting for Ukraine need an American sponsor willing to help them financially, and they can work legally immediately after setting foot on U.S. soil. Congress also made the first wave of Ukrainian refugees eligible for refugee resettlement benefits, such as food stamps. Migrants coming from the southern border can't work legally until 180 days after they request asylum. They're also generally not eligible for federal benefits. Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who arrive under the other sponsor policy have to apply for a work permit before they can work legally. Vignarajah said race may also be playing a role in how Ukrainians have been welcomed, compared to other immigrant populations. "Just as racism and xenophobia have penetrated so many elements of our society, it did factor into the unique treatment that Ukrainians received," she said. Still, Ukrainians face their own obstacles. Their permission to be in the U.S. under an immigration authority known as humanitarian parole expires every two years, and they lack a path to permanent legal status or American citizenship. While the Biden administration has argued that most Ukrainians will eventually go home once the war in their homeland ends, there's no sign that will happen anytime soon. "I [cannot] come back," Kopchak said in English, noting her hometown of Mykolaiv continues to be bombed by the Russians. "I not have no house. I not have nothing." For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Haitian-American activists bash Biden for resuming Haitian deportation flights

The administration repatriated about 50 Haitians on Thursday, authorities said, marking the first deportation flight in several months to the Caribbean nation struggling with surging gang violence. The Florida Immigration Coalition is blasting the Biden administration for renewing deportation flights of Haitians to their homeland at a time when the Caribbean nation is suffering its worst humanitarian and security crisis in decades. “This deportation flight is another example of the hypocritical position of the Biden administration towards Haiti,” said Tessa Petit, the Miami-based coalition’s executive director, in a statement on Friday. “Haitians have suffered enough and need humanitarian actions from the Biden administration.” The administration repatriated about 50 Haitians on Thursday, authorities said, marking the first deportation flight in several months to the Caribbean nation struggling with surging gang violence. The Homeland Security Department said in a statement that it “will continue to enforce U.S. laws and policy throughout the Florida Straits and the Caribbean region, as well as at the southwest border. U.S. policy is to return noncitizens who do not establish a legal basis to remain in the United States.” Authorities didn't offer details of the flight beyond how many deported Haitians were aboard. Thomas Cartwright of Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that tracks flight data, said a plane left Alexandria, Louisiana, a hub for deportation operations, and arrived in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, after a stop in Miami. Marjorie Dorsaninvil, a U.S. citizen, said her Haitian fiancé, Gerson Joseph, called in tears from the Miami airport Thursday morning to say he was being deported on a flight to Cap-Haitien with other Haitians and some from other countries, including the Bahamas. He promised to call when he arrived but hadn't done so by early evening. Joseph lived in the U.S more than 20 years and has a 7-year-old U.S. citizen daughter with another woman. He had a deportation order dating from 2005 after losing an asylum bid that his attorney, Philip Issa, said was a result of poor legal representation at the time. Though Joseph wasn’t deported previously, his lawyer was seeking to have that order overturned. Joseph was convicted of theft and burglary, and ordered to pay restitution of $270, Issa said. He has been detained since last year. Dorsaninvil said her fiancé has “nobody” in Haiti. "It is devastating for me. We were planning a wedding and now he is gone,” she said. More than 33,000 people fled Haiti’s capital in a span of less than two weeks as gangs pillaged homes and attacked state institutions, according to a report last month from the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration. The majority of those displaced traveled to Haiti’s southern region, which is generally peaceful compared with Port-au-Prince, which has an estimated population of 3 million and is largely paralyzed by gang violence. Haiti’s National Police is understaffed and overwhelmed by gangs with powerful arsenals. Many hospitals ceased operations amid a shortage of medical supplies. The U.S. operated one deportation flight a month to Haiti from December 2022 through last January, according to Witness at the Border. It said deportation flights were frequent after a camp of 16,000 largely Haitian migrants assembled on the riverbanks of Del Rio, Texas, in September 2021 but became rare as fewer Haitians crossed the border illegally from Mexico. Haitians were arrested crossing the border from Mexico 286 times during the first three months of the year, less than 0.1% of the more than 400,000 arrests among all nationalities. More than 150,000 have entered the U.S. legally since January 2023 under presidential powers to grant entry for humanitarian reasons, and many others came legally using an online appointment system at land crossings with Mexico called CBP One. Homeland Security said Thursday that it was “monitoring the situation” in Haiti." The U.S. Coast Guard repatriated 65 Haitians who were stopped at sea off the Bahamas coast last month. With Republicans seizing on the issue in an election year, the Biden administration has emphasized enforcement, most notably through a failed attempt at legislation, after record-high border arrests in December. Arrests for illegal crossings dropped by half in January and have held pretty steady since then after Mexico stepped up enforcement south of the U.S. border. Biden says he is considering executive action to halt asylum at the border during times when illegal crossings reach certain thresholds. The U.S. is the top destination for Haitian migrants, and Biden's carrot-and-stick approach to immigration — promoting new and expanded legal pathways while discouraging illegal crossings — has largely worked as intended with Haitians, despite critics of his unprecedented use of “parole” authority to grant entry on humanitarian grounds. About 151,000 Haitians arrived at a U.S. airport after applying online with a financial sponsor through February, an option that is also available to Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. Illegal land crossings from Mexico by Haitians plunged as more entered on two-year parole with eligibility to work. Haitians accounted for only 0.02% of 140,000 Border Patrol arrests in February. The administration also renewed and expanded Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for about 150,000 Haitians under a law that allows people already in the United States to remain if conditions created by natural disaster or civil strife are considered unsafe. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas must decide whether to renew Temporary Protected Status before it expires this year, but he told McClatchy newspapers and the Miami Heraldthat the administration is not considering a renewal or expansion of TPS. “It’s particularly disappointing to see the Biden administration take this action while people are in despair, said the Florida Immigrant Coalition’s Petit. “It is a loud message that Haitian lives do not matter to this administration.” “The decision by the Biden administration to deport Haitians is not just cruel; it's a policy contradiction that breaks international norms, human decency, and goes against USCIS very own internal rules of deportation priorities,” added Petit. In a separate statement issued through the coalition, Nattacha Wyllie, founder and executive director of the Haitian American Art Network, condemned the administration’s actions. “This deportation shows how disrespectful the administration is towards Haitian migrants," she said. “They removed U.S. citizens out of Haiti because of the deadly crisis, yet the administration decided to start deporting Haitians back.” “The administration is showing that they do not care about the lives of Haitian immigrants," she said. "To say that this is senseless and inhumane would be an understatement.” Marleine Bastien, executive director for Family Action Network Movement, or FANM, a leading nonprofits providing legal and social services to Miami's Haitian community, echoed Wyllie and other Haitian-American leaders in South Florida. Bastien is also a member of the Miami-Dade Commission. "It is unconscionable that, while the U.S. government is evacuating its citizens from Haiti and has a Level 4 Travel Advisory in place to Haiti, the administration is still returning Haitians to Haiti and not extending the planned evacuations to Haitians in Haiti who have been approved by [U.S. immigration officials] to travel to the US." For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Biden’s Hope for Border Crackdown Dimmed by Real-World Limits

Share on X April 18, 2024, 2:00 AM PDT Biden’s Hope for Border Crackdown Dimmed by Real-World Limits Ellen M. Gilmer Ellen M. Gilmer Reporter Email Ellen M. Gilmer Tweet Ellen M. Gilmer Related Stories Mayorkas Impeachment Dies In Senate, Thwarting GOP Attack (1) April 17, 2024, 1:18 PM PDT Biden Says He May Have Authority To Close Border On His Own April 9, 2024, 8:45 PM PDT Biden’s Immigration Agenda Faces Uncertain Fate In US Courts December 22, 2023, 2:30 AM PST Search by Topic Asylum Health Insurance Coverage Determination Public Health White House still mulling options to deter illegal crossings Prospective action faces litigation, resource constraints President Joe Biden faces legal and operational obstacles if he tries to mimic Donald Trump’s policies to restrict asylum access and crack down on migrant arrivals at the US-Mexico border. Presidential power has persisted as a key point of contention between the White House and the GOP after the administration sought more legal tools to curb migration through a bipartisan Senate border policy deal. Republicans tanked the agreement and insisted Biden use the authorities he already has. Congressional Republicans have spent months pressuring the White House to take unilateral steps similar to those of former President Trump to reduce illegal crossings, and Biden last week said his team is still hashing out options. The problem, according to administration officials and several lawmakers and advocates, is that a key tool Republicans are pushing would run headlong into litigation and resource constraints. And border policy specialists dispute whether it would succeed in slashing illegal crossings. “There are some authorities there, it’s just not as broad as my colleagues think it is,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who helped negotiate a failed bipartisan border deal. “And it will be interesting to see what they can actually get through the courts.” The White House hasn’t made any decisions yet, an administration official who spoke anonymously to address internal discussions said Wednesday. Sen. James Lankford, Lankford's wife Cindy Lankford, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) walk down a stairwell near the Senate Chambers at the U.S Capitol. Sen. James Lankford, Lankford’s wife Cindy Lankford, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) walk down a stairwell near the Senate Chambers at the U.S Capitol. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images At issue is Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which generally allows the president to restrict the entry of certain immigrants into the US, though courts disagree about the scope of that power. The provision is one of several border measures the White House is weighing but has attracted the most scrutiny as it echoes Trump-era policies and marks a dramatic departure from Biden’s 2020 campaign pledge to restore asylum access. “No executive action, no matter how aggressive, can deliver the significant policy reforms and additional resources Congress can provide and that Republicans rejected,” White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández said in a statement. Legal Prospects Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stressed the shortcomings of executive action last week, reminding lawmakers that litigation is essentially guaranteed. “Whatever actions we take are in fact litigated, and it’s unclear whether they would survive the litigation,” he said during a hearing. House Republicans impeached Mayorkas earlier this year over his handling of the US-Mexico border. The Senate on Wednesday tossed the charges, drawing fresh fury from Republicans who say Democrats don’t take border security seriously enough. Mayorkas Impeachment Dies in Senate, Thwarting Republican Attack Trump’s term in office offers legal lessons if Biden moves forward with a 212(f) policy restricting asylum access. The Supreme Court upheld his use of the authority to restrict arrivals of select nationalities, including those from several Muslim-majority countries. But Trump was stymied in court when he tried to use it to restrict asylum broadly at the border to address “mass migration.” Whether Biden can tailor an executive action that survives legal scrutiny remains to be seen. “Some have suggested I just go ahead and try it,” he said in an interview with Univision last week. “And if I get shut down by the court, I get shut down by the court.” Some hard-line Republicans have endorsed that approach. “The question is, why pussyfoot around it?” Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) said. “Why not go ahead and do it? You’re going to get litigation on everything.” Lawmakers who supported the bipartisan Senate deal argue the package would have avoided this legal uncertainty by giving the government clear, sweeping power to block migrant entries whenever the border is deemed overwhelmed. “If we passed the bill, it would be unambiguous that they have the authority,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat in a tight reelection race in Wisconsin. ‘Slow the Flow’ Legal questions aside, it’s unclear whether using 212(f) at the border would succeed in driving down illegal crossings. The authority has limitations, and its impact depends on policy design and resources for implementation. “It is simply not a grand authority that permits the president to shut the border against migrants seeking protection,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the immigrants’ rights advocacy group American Immigration Council. He contrasted the authority with Title 42, the public health measure that allowed DHS to turn away migrants with minimal processing. American security forces prevent migrants coming to the border from crossing into US as Mexican authorities invite them to shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on April 17, 2024. American security forces prevent migrants coming to the border from crossing into US as Mexican authorities invite them to shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on April 17, 2024. Christian Torres/Anadolu via Getty Images) Many of the issues the Department of Homeland Security is already facing with border-crossers would remain the same if it pursues a 212(f) strategy focused on limiting asylum claims, he said. The agency already has broad asylum restrictions in place, denying access to anyone who hasn’t sought protection in other countries en route to the US. But those people still must be processed and screened under other legal standards, including the Convention Against Torture. The same would likely be true under new restrictions. With limited DHS personnel and capacity for detention and deportation, Reichlin-Melnick said, many of those people would be released into the US, as is the case now. “We cannot give ourselves resources,” Mayorkas said last week. “We depend upon the appropriators.” Resource availability and coordination with Mexico and other countries to take back border-crossers would help determine how successful a 212(f) policy is, said Chris Clem, former chief Border Patrol agent in the Yuma, Ariz., region. But he maintained it’s worth taking action to send a message to migrants that they should reconsider their journey to the US. “It’s not the end-all be-all, but it is something,” he said. “It can slow the flow down.” Election Year The White House’s long deliberation over whether to enact new migration restrictions comes amid increasing frustration among voters about the situation at the southwest border. Public concern about illegal immigration has risen over the past year among Democrats and independents, according to Gallup polls. While migrant apprehensions have dipped in recent months, they’ve hit record highs amid much of Biden’s time in office. The Border Patrol logged more than 2 million encounters at the southwest border last fiscal year, compared with less than 1 million in fiscal 2019. Many moderate Democrats on Capitol Hill have pushed the Biden administration to do more to manage the border. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who’s politically vulnerable in this year’s election, last week demanded that the administration and Mayorkas, along with Congress, “step up” to address border problems. But he and other moderates have fended off GOP attacks by invoking Republicans’ rejection of the bipartisan Senate deal. “The border issue, the Republicans own it,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) said. “They’re the ones that didn’t vote to support it, and they should have.” Biden must also contend with potential fallout from progressives. He’s likely to pay a political price on the left if he enacts new asylum restrictions after campaigning on rolling back Trump-era policies, said Maribel Hernández Rivera, policy and government affairs director at the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU led litigation against the Trump 212(f) border regulation. Republicans aren’t likely to pull back on their criticism of Biden’s border policies even if he does take action with the legal authority they’ve pushed, Rep. Bennie Thompson (Miss.), the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, said. Many have already thrown cold water on prospective moves by the White House. “If President Biden finally invokes 212(f), it will be in an exception-laden manner, amounting to nothing more than an election year gimmick that will be immediately challenged by allied groups in court,” said RJ Hauman, president of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement and a visiting fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/. “The American people won’t fall into a ‘See, I tried,’ trap,” he added.