Immigration advocates gear up to fight Trump promises in places that voted for him

McALLEN, Texas — Inside the brightly lit law offices here of immigration attorney Alex Martinez, the front desk has been buzzing with activity. Positioned on a quiet street corner just 8 miles north of the bridge that separates the U.S. and Mexico, the law firm has seen a notable uptick in phone calls and in-person visits from people looking for an immigration attorney. Here in Hidalgo County, where President-elect Donald Trump won by just under 3 percentage points last month, many of those customers say they or their family members voted for him. Until this year, Hidalgo County hadn’t voted Republican for president since 1972. Now, it’s one of 14 counties on or near the border that voted for Trump — many for the first time in decades as well. “They believe that he is good for business,” Martinez said. “It seems to be more important that they have money coming into the family than them securing a legal status or not being removed.” In the 35 states that a 2022 Pew Research Center report identified as having undocumented immigrant populations above 50,000, more than half went for Trump this election. This leaves immigrant rights groups, immigration attorneys and undocumented immigrants in those states in a difficult position: gearing up to fight upcoming immigration policies espoused by Trump, supported by a majority of voters in their region.

Ice deports mother and children, including newborn twins, to Mexico

After his wife and children, including newborn twins, were suddenly deported to Mexico by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a Texas man is fighting to get his family back. Federico Arellano Jr, a US citizen, saw his wife, Christina Salazar, and their four children be taken into custody on 11 December, just three months after Salazar had given birth to their twins in Houston. Salazar, 23, and her children were put on a plane at Houston’s George Bush airport bound for Reynosa, Mexico – a place where they had no contacts and no way of getting money, according to the family’s lawyers. Lawyers also said it was cold the night Salazar and her children were detained and they were not allowed to get their coats. By birthright citizenship under US law, the twins are US citizens since they were born within the country. The video player is currently playing an ad. You can skip the ad in 5 sec with a mouse or keyboard Salazar was born in Mexico. She and her two older children were awaiting immigration hearings. Arellano Jr told local Houston news outlet KHOU the family had missed an immigration hearing on 9 October, when Salazar had been recovering from the emergency cesarean section she had had to deliver the twins. According to the family, they had been told the hearing would be rescheduled when they called to inform the court of the health issue. The family allegedly received a call back from an official at the immigration court and were instructed to arrive at a meeting point in Houston to discuss their case. It was there Salazar and her four children were arrested. The family did not have legal representation at the time of the arrest, but is now represented by immigration attorneys Isaias Torres and Silvia Mintz, who said “the reason she was arrested, they were told, is that she failed to go to an immigration hearing”. Torres told KHOU: “This case shouldn’t have gone to this extreme. There were options, legal options, that were available, and he was not given those opportunities. They thought that they were complying and doing as they were told. And it turns out that they were not.” Arellano Jr’s goal is to get his family back to the US so they can go through the legal immigration process. Ice and the Department of Justice did not respond to the Guardian’s requests for comment. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

DHS overhauls H-1B visa program

The Biden administration announced a rule Tuesday clarifying who can apply for an H-1B work visa, a key program to attract international talent that’s been criticized as too complicated and susceptible to abuse. The new rule expands the definitions of specialty occupation positions and spells out the requirements for nonprofit and governmental research organizations to sponsor H-1B visas. “The H-1B program was created by Congress in 1990, and there’s no question it needed to be modernized to support our nation’s growing economy,” said Ur Jaddou, director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). “The changes made in today’s final rule will ensure that U.S. employers can hire the highly skilled workers they need to grow and innovate while enhancing the integrity of the program.” The changes follow years of lobbying for a more streamlined H-1B, the workhorse of labor-related visas. Earlier this month, Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), Alex Padilla (Calif.) and Ben Ray Luján (N.M.) petitioned the Biden administration to address a series of gaps in the immigration system in preparation for the incoming Trump administration’s announced crackdown on immigrants. Among their requests was codification of the H-1B’s cap exemptions for research jobs to allow nonprofits and academia to sponsor the visas year-round. “I’m glad that President Biden took action to streamline the H-1B program, which will strengthen our economy and make it easier for U.S. businesses to sponsor DACA recipients for work permits. Of course there’s still more work to do to protect Dreamers and TPS [Temporary Protected Status] recipients, and I’m going to keep pushing this administration to do all they can to protect hardworking immigrant families,” said Cortez Masto in a statement. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through USCIS is legally limited to awarding 65,000 H-1Bs per year, with an additional 20,000 for applicants with advanced degrees, but many nonprofits are exempt from that cap. H-1B petitions subject to the cap regularly exceed the number of legally available visas, which are issued annually at the start of the fiscal year. Applicants are chosen by a lottery system for review, meaning eligible applicants are often denied due to chance. Cap-exempt organizations can petition for H-1Bs year-round, and they are not subject to a statutory limit. Under the new rule, nonprofit and governmental research organizations will be defined as those whose “fundamental activity” is research, rather than the previous “primarily engaged” or “primary mission” definitions, which led to confusion regarding which organizations were exempt from the cap and which were not. And foreign nationals transitioning from a student visa to an H-1B will be able to extend their postgraduation work permit to a year after they’ve filed their H-1B petition in order to prevent gaps in employment. “American businesses rely on the H-1B visa program for the recruitment of highly-skilled talent, benefitting communities across the country,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said. “These improvements to the program provide employers with greater flexibility to hire global talent, boost our economic competitiveness, and allow highly skilled workers to continue to advance American innovation.” The rule will also streamline the application process for people who previously held H-1B visas and allow some people with controlling interest in petitioning organizations to themselves apply for the visa. “We applaud the Biden administration for finalizing the H-1B Modernization rule, which will make the H-1B visa program more efficient and predictable, while also enhancing the program’s integrity, among other important updates. Implementing this rule will strengthen the United States’ ability to attract and retain more highly educated individuals with skills critical to our country’s economic future,” said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, an immigrant advocacy organization with ties to big tech. “The finalized rule addresses longstanding challenges within the H-1B visa program and introduces important updates. It allows USCIS to defer to prior decisions for the same employer and employee, reducing redundant reviews and delays. It simplifies eligibility for nonprofits and governmental research organizations to hire specialized workers, strengthening collaboration between industry, academia, and government. Additionally, the rule requires clear documentation to ensure H-1B roles are not speculative and grants DHS site visit authority to verify compliance.” Under the new rule, USCIS will receive expanded authority to conduct site visits to ensure proper implementation of the visa. The H-1B program has previously come under criticism for being susceptible to abuse in large part by organizations that flood the application system, lowering the chances of applicants subject to the cap lottery. The new rule seeks to counter that phenomenon in part by tightening the rules for H-1B recipients to provide their services to third-parties, imposing H-1B eligibility requirements on the third-party beneficiaries rather than on applicant organizations. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

USCIS Updates Guidance on Case Assistance and Feedback

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced that it is updating Volume 1, Part A, of the USCIS Policy Manual to reflect the available avenues for case assistance or feedback. Specifically, the update: Recommends that stakeholders submit changes of address through the self-service tool available in their USCIS online account as soon as possible following a move or when an update is required; Updates information on our current case assistance tools and resources to reflect the expansion of online tools and resources; Includes a link to our Contact Us webpage, where stakeholders can find information on how to contact us, including detailed, program-specific assistance information; and Updates and clarifies information on providing feedback to USCIS. The Policy Manual update also changes the language on USCIS’ response time goals to service requests from 15 calendar days to 15 business days. The 15-business day timeframe is current practice, so the update aligns the policy manual to match existing practice. We are also removing the timeframe on processing priority service requests but are retaining priority processing of certain categories of service requests. These changes are to better align stakeholder expectations with agency response times. USCIS added a chapter dedicated to changes of address to promote the successful delivery of correspondence. This update includes guidance on address discrepancies to reflect that we do not update the requestor’s address unless there is a specific request to change it.

USCIS Issues Updated Guidance on Evidence for Applicants Under the International Entrepreneur Rule

We are issuing updated policy guidance on the types of evidence that may support an application under the International Entrepreneur Rule. The guidance covers evidence of the applicant’s central and active role in the startup entity and of the applicant’s position to substantially help the entity grow and succeed. The guidance also expands on the types of evidence that can show qualified investments and qualified government awards or grants, and the types of alternative evidence that an applicant may submit. It also clarifies the types of evidence that can support a finding of significant public benefit. The guidance, contained in Volume 3 of USCIS Policy Manual, is effective immediately and applies to requests pending or filed on or after Dec. 12.

Trump ready to ‘seal’ border from immigrants on Day 1

President-elect Trump is signaling he wants to completely reshape the nation’s immigration laws starting Jan. 20, the day he officially takes office. Immigration has always been Trump’s core issue, and he has made clear he plans to follow through on sweeping promises he made on the topic throughout the 2024 campaign. He’s announced appointments on immigration that reinforce those intentions, and he signaled in a weekend interview he intends to push for mass deportations and an end to birthright citizenship. While much of what Trump will try to do will be through executive action, allies have also indicated they will push for Republicans in Congress to prioritize border security measures and changes to immigration law as part of a budget reconciliation package in the early weeks of Trump’s second term. It underscores how Trump enters office with a clearer vision and plan for carrying out policy than his first term, and his allies have argued he also has a clear mandate for taking sweeping action. “They seem to have a plan in place for when they assume office, and there’s every expectation they are going to carry it out,” said Ira Mehlman, media director with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that advocates for stricter immigration laws. “They have some experience. They have four years under their belt,” Mehlman added. “And they’ve put in place people like Tom Homan who really understand the issue and how to deal with it. This term he begins with an American public that understands what the consequences of having an open border are.” Sign up for the Morning Report The latest in politics and policy. Direct to your inbox. Email address By signing up, I agree to the Terms of Use, have reviewed the Privacy Policy, and to receive personalized offers and communications via email, on-site notifications, and targeted advertising using my email address from The Hill, Nexstar Media Inc., and its affiliates Trump’s key appointees on immigration — Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff, Homan as border czar — have maintained a frequent presence on cable television in recent days to outline their vision for how the incoming administration will enact a sweeping crackdown on immigration. Miller, in a Sunday interview with Fox News, predicted Republicans in Congress could get a budget reconciliation bill to Trump’s desk by the end of January or early February. The reconciliation package, which would not require Democratic support, would include increases in funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as it carries out mass deportations, more money for barriers and technology at the border and an increase in the number of border agents. Additionally, Trump is expected to sign a slew of executive orders on his first day in office. One, Miller said, would effectively “seal the border.” “This is something that Republicans have been talking about for decades, but with Donald Trump, this is something that is going to happen,” Miller said, touting it as “the most important and significant domestic policy achievement in half a century.” Trump allies have in recent days increasingly signaled optimism that Republicans can move quickly on a reconciliation package that focuses on investments in border security while addressing tax cuts in a second piece of legislation later in the year. Tax cuts Trump signed into law in 2017 are set to expire in the fall of 2025. But advisers to the president-elect argued it will take more time for Republican lawmakers to get on the same page and work out the details of tax legislation. “Keep in mind that with the tax cuts, we had a lot of new promises that were made on the campaign trail that we have to incorporate,” Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, said in a recent interview. Trump on the campaign trail called for a lower corporate tax rate, as well as the elimination of taxes on overtime, tipped wages and Social Security benefits. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a staunch Trump ally who is slated to lead the Senate Budget Committee beginning in January, said his top priority would be “to secure a broken border” through the reconciliation process. “The bill will be transformational, it will be paid for, and it will go first,” Graham posted on the social platform X. Trump made clear during an interview with “Meet the Press” that his vow to deport millions of individuals in the country illegally and, more broadly, reshape the immigration system, was not idle talk on the campaign trail. “You have no choice. First of all, they’re costing us a fortune. But we’re starting with the criminals, and we’ve got to do it. And then we’re starting with others, and we’re going to see how it goes,” Trump said. The president-elect echoed comments from Homan, saying families with mixed immigration status could be deported together to avoid being separated. Trump said he still intends to end birthright citizenship, something he previously listed as a task for his first day in office, and he is expected to resume construction of a wall along the southern border. Trump did signal an openness to finding a way for Dreamers, people who were illegally brought to the U.S. at a young age, to stay in the United States. Homan has since suggested a legislative solution for Dreamers would require Democratic concessions on border security measures. Immigration advocacy groups are expected to push back hard against mass deportation efforts, and there will certainly be legal challenges to any attempt by Trump to unilaterally end birthright citizenship. Democratic governors in Illinois, California and elsewhere have signaled they are prepared to fight Trump’s policies in court. Homan, speaking at a GOP event in Chicago on Monday, said the city’s mayor should either help federal efforts to deport immigrants in the country illegally who have further criminal records, or “get the hell out of the way.” In a sign of how the fight over immigration policy may play out in the years to come, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday held a hearing on the potential consequences of mass deportations. GOP witnesses included Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, a young woman who was allegedly killed by a man who entered the country illegally. Democratic witnesses cited concerns about the separation of families and ramifications for the economy, as millions of workers in the agricultural industry and other areas could be targeted for deportation. “It would cost hundreds of billions of dollars to deport every undocumented immigrant in our country,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chair of the committee, said at the hearing. “It would damage our economy and separate American families. Instead, we should focus on deporting those who are truly a danger to America, and we should give the rest a chance to earn legal status.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Senate Democrats press Biden to strengthen immigration protections before Trump takes office

Washington — A group of Senate Democrats is pressing President Biden to work to "protect immigrant families" in the final weeks of his presidency, with President-elect Donald Trump set to take office next month. "As Senators who represent diverse states across our nation and who collectively represent millions of immigrant families, we write to express our deep concern about the threat the incoming administration poses to immigrants in our communities," the group of senators, led by Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, wrote in a letter to the president Monday. The senators cited Trump's threat of mass deportations that they say will "jeopardize the safety and security" of millions of families, "sow deep distrust and fear" in the communities and "destabilize the U.S. economy." And they urged Mr. Biden to take a number of actions in advance of Trump's inauguration, stressing that the "window to secure and finalize your administration's policies is closing rapidly." "We urge you to act decisively between now and the inauguration of the President-elect to complete the important work of the past four years and protect immigrant families," Durbin said in the letter, which was also signed by Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico and Alex Padilla of California. Sen. Cory Booker and Sen. Dick Durbin listen during a hearing with the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Capitol Hill on June 12, 2024, in Washington, DC. Sen. Cory Booker and Sen. Dick Durbin listen during a hearing with the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Capitol Hill on June 12, 2024, in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Among the requests, the group asked the president to prioritize redesignating and extending Temporary Protected Status for all eligible countries, which allows migrants from countries experiencing unsafe conditions to legally reside in the U.S. The group also asked the president to expedite the processing of benefit requests for recipients of DACA, the program for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children and have been granted protection from deportation. The push comes as Trump has made clear his intention to pursue a radical shift on immigration policy, which became a key part of his campaign as he promised to target both unauthorized and legal immigrants with unprecedented measures. In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" that aired Sunday, reiterated a number of the pledges, including that he's "absolutely" still planning to end birthright citizenship on Day One of his presidency. He also made clear that he plans to carry out his mass deportations pledge, beginning with criminals. When asked by host Kristen Welker whether it's possible to deport everyone who's in the U.S. illegally, Trump responded that "you have no choice." He said his administration would be "starting with the criminals" before others, noting that "we're going to see how it goes." On DACA recipients, known as Dreamers, Trump said he would work with Democrats on a plan, claiming that "Republicans are very open to the Dreamers." "I want to be able to work something out," Trump said, while indicating that he wants the DACA recipients to be able to stay. Legislative efforts to codify the DACA program have failed for more than a decade, and Republican-led states have filed numerous lawsuits over the years arguing the program is unconstitutional. The president-elect tried to end the program during his first administration. On immigrant families more broadly, Trump emphasized that he doesn't "want to be breaking up families," saying that "the only way you don't break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back." In their letter, the senators noted that while they support "commonsense" border security measures, they "will continue to oppose any policies that contradict our nation's core values." Cristina Corujo contributed to this report.

Trump’s deportation plan would hurt families and economy, Senate hears

Donald Trump’s vow to carry out the largest deportation campaign in American history would separate families and hurt the economy, witnesses testified during a Tuesday Senate hearing, as a top Republican on the committee warned that undocumented people living in the country should “get ready to leave”. The president-elect has outlined an aggressive second-term immigration agenda that includes plans to declare a national emergency and deploy the US military to round up and expel millions of people living in the country without documentation. Trump has also vowed to end humanitarian protections for millions of people who fled violence, conflict or other disasters in their home countries. The hearing, convened by Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee, set out to explore the economic and human toll of a large-scale deportation operation. But the session also revealed the ideological tensions that have for decades thwarted legislative attempts at immigration reform. How would Donald Trump carry out his mass deportation scheme? “If you’re here illegally, get ready to leave. If you’re a criminal, we’re coming after you,” said Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Senate judiciary committee. When Republicans assume the Senate majority next year, Graham promised, his party would bring forward a “transformational border security bill” that would expand capacity at detention centers, boost the number of immigration officers and “finish the wall”. Many of Trump’s most controversial immigration policies, including family separation, proved deeply unpopular during his first term in office. But a post-pandemic rise in global migration led to a surge of asylum claims at the US-Mexico border during the early years of the Biden administration. Americans strongly disapproved of Biden’s handling of the issue, and ranked immigration as a top election issue. The November election was a “referendum on the federal border policies for the Biden-Harris administration”, the senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and the ranking member on the judiciary committee’s immigration subcommittee, declared during the hearing. The Democratic senators insisted that there were areas of common ground between the parties – repeatedly stating their support for the removal of immigrants with criminal records and the need for better controls at the border. And they emphasized the broad support for protecting Dreamers, people brought to the country as children. “Instead of mass deportations, [let’s have] mass accountability,” said the Democratic senator Dick Durbin, the committee’s chair. “Let’s fix our broken immigration system in a way that protects our country and honors our heritage as a nation of immigrants.” Democrats turned to their witnesses – an immigration expert, a retired army major general and an undocumented prosecutor – to make the case that mass deportations would do far more harm than good. “The president-elect’s mass deportation plans would crash the American economy, break up families and take a hammer to the foundations of our society by deporting nearly 4% of the entire US population,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the non-partisan American Immigration Council, testified to the committee. An analysis by his group estimates that it would cost nearly $1tn to carry out Trump’s mass deportation plan and slash the annual GDP by between 4.2% and 6.8% – a level on par with the recession of 2008. Asked how Trump’s plans could affect Americans financially, Reichlin-Melnick said it would exacerbate inflation and cause food prices to rise. “A single worksite raid in 2018 under the Trump administration at a beef plant in Tennessee led to ground beef prices rising by 25 cents for the year that the plant was out of operation following the raid,” he said. Randy Manner, a retired US army major general and anti-Trump Republican, cautioned against using US troops to assist with a politically divisive domestic mission that he warned could undermine military readiness and erode public trust in the institution. “The US military is the best trained in the world for its war fighting mission, but it is neither trained or equipped for immigration enforcement,” he said. Among the witnesses invited to testify was Foday Turay, an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia who fled Sierra Leone as a child and testified that he did not know he was undocumented until he went to apply for a driver’s license. He is shielded from deportation by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. As a father, a husband, an immigrant and a prosecutor, Turay said the threat of mass deportations would affect him “on a personal level, on a community level and on a societal level. “If I were to be deported, my wife and our son would be left without money to pay the mortgage. My son would also be without a father,” he said. He also warned that the widespread deployment of immigration agents could chill the ability of law enforcement to pursue criminals. “As a prosecutor, I know how delicate the ties between law enforcement and immigrants can be if immigrants are afraid to cooperate with the police or prosecutors like myself because they’re afraid of deportation,” he added. “Mass deportation hurts all of us, our families, our community and our society.” Republicans invited Patty Morin, the mother of 37-year-old Rachel Morin, who was beaten, raped and killed in August 2023 during a hiking trip. Officials say the suspect in her death was in the US illegally after killing a woman in his native El Salvador. Trump, with the support of the Morin family, has cited the murder as part of his appeal for stricter border controls. “The American people should not feel afraid to live in their own homes,” Patty Morin told the committee. “We need to follow the laws that are already on the books, we need to close our borders. We need to protect American families.” Seeking common ground, the Democratic senator Peter Welch of Vermont asked Morin if she would support a deportation policy that targeted undocumented people with a criminal record while pursuing a legal remedy for those who have lived and worked in the US with no criminal record. “Are we saying it’s OK to come to America in an unlawful way?” Morin replied. “There has to be some kind of a line, a precedent, of what is lawful and what isn’t lawful.” Alex Padilla, a California Democrat who has been sharply critical of Trump’s immigration proposals, accused his Republican colleagues of distorting data and conflating fentanyl deaths with immigration. Citing federal statistics, he said the vast majority – more than 80% – of people prosecuted for trafficking the drug into the country were US citizens. “If that’s a concern, then let’s address the heart of the concern and not just use it as a sound bite to further attack immigrants,” he said. Ahead of the hearing, Padilla was among a group of Democratic senators who sent a letter to the president urging Biden to extend humanitarian protections to certain groups and to expedite the processing of applicants for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which shields from deportation undocumented people brought into the US as children. “We urge you to act decisively between now and the inauguration of the president-elect to complete the important work of the past four years and protect immigrant families,” the letter said. Earlier this week, the White House released a memo outlining Biden’s priorities for his final days in office that did not include any reference to immigration-related actions. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

How would Donald Trump carry out his mass deportation scheme?

When Donald Trump takes office in January, his administration plans to ignite the “largest deportation operation in American history” to rid the US of people he has claimed are “poisoning the blood” of the country. The steps required to carry out this kind of campaign, which his supporters clamored for with “mass deportation now” signs at his rallies, would be unprecedented. It would involve made-for-TV raids designed to instill fear and menace. It would require the cooperation of local law enforcement. Tents would be put up for people to wait in before being sent away. Hundreds of thousands could be deported quickly. The incoming president plans to use obscure laws to justify these removals. Places previously seen as off-limits to immigration agents, like churches or schools, could become targets. A memo from the American Civil Liberties Union earlier this year laid out the mechanics of a mass deportation. Trump would need to arrest millions of people, put them into removal proceedings before judges, litigate those cases including appeals and then actually remove them – a herculean task with constitutional and statutory requirements at each step. New York mayor condemned over plan to deport migrants accused of crimes “No part of it has ever operated at anything approaching the scale and speed that Trump’s plan requires,” the organization wrote. “There can be no doubt that Trump would attempt to defy constitutional and other legal protections in service of his draconian goal.” There are more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US, estimates show. The vice-president-elect, JD Vance, has suggested 1 million people could be deported each year. For context, Trump deported about 1.5 million people during his first term. Jason Houser, a former chief of staff for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) under Biden, was more blunt about the coming wave of deportations in an interview with the radio show This American Life. “I think the first 90 days is going to be hell,” he told the show. “You’re going to see the buses … You’re going to see kids not in your schools. You’re going to know where they’re at because they’re waiting in a detention cell and they have cellphones. You’re going to see it in social media. You’re going to see businesses not be able to open up because their workers didn’t show up. You’re going to see businesses being raided.” This is what a swift, large-scale deportation movement could look like once Trump takes office. Ending programs and ‘low-hanging fruit’ Trump and his “border czar”, Tom Homan, have said they intend to first deport people who are facing criminal charges. But their plans don’t stop there. They have not been clear on who, if anyone, could be spared from removal, including the millions who have been in the US for many years and have established community ties. Trump can quickly end programs that Biden started via executive order, and he probably will do so. He can also direct agencies to reorder their priorities, such as who is granted parole to stay in the country on an emergency basis. Some examples of people in the US under parole programs include Afghans under temporary protected status, and Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. These groups are easily tracked by the government – they were fingerprinted and are able to work in the country. People brought to the US as children and covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program, often referred to as Dreamers, could be at risk – but probably not immediately. They are a politically more popular group of immigrants, said Michelle Lapointe, the legal director for the American Immigration Council. But ongoing legal challenges could end Daca, giving the Trump administration “the outcome they want without having to do anything new”. Immigration advocates expect Trump to go after “low-hanging fruit”. This would include people who have final orders of removal who have exhausted their legal rights in the courts. Trump did this during his first term. “There’s nothing stopping the new administration from looking to target those people right away,” Lapointe said. The incoming administration has also signaled it will again try to expand “expedited removals”, a way to remove undocumented immigrants without the typical legal processes if they meet certain parameters, such as being in the country less than two years. Red states v blue states Trump will probably target cities that seek to defy immigration enforcement to make a point that he can deport people from anywhere, which could lead to showdowns between Democratic jurisdictions and the feds. “The first raids are going to look heavily militarized, even if they won’t involve the military,” said Naureen Shah, the deputy director of government affairs for the American Civil Liberties Union. “I think it’s going to be choreographed to create a sense of fear and chaos in immigrant communities, because they cannot actually operate at the scale that they want.” Trump will also deport from red states that will work in concert with the federal government and provide the resources and cooperation needed to achieve his goals. In Arizona, voters approved a ballot measure that will allow local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws. Other states have pledged to participate in deportation plans. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, a Chicago alderman, previously worked on casework in the representative Luis Gutiérrez’s office. He would often get phone calls from people outside the office’s geographical area seeking help from deportations. “They were from Alabama, they were from Missouri. They were from rural communities in Georgia. They were from places where the infrastructure to support immigrant families was very sparse or nonexistent,” Ramirez-Rosa said. Trump has threatened to use the military to carry out deportations, which Lapointe said would be “ugly and extremely controversial”. The president-elect’s team has also suggested using law enforcement from a friendlier state to arrest people in a state hostile to deportations, the ACLU memo notes. Because there are not enough Ice agents to operate at Trump’s desired scale, he will use the 287(g) program to seek local law enforcement collaborators. The ACLU also expects some local law enforcement to “act as badge-wearing vigilantes” and use minor offenses to funnel immigrants into the deportation process. Workplace raids, which Trump used in his first term, are expected to be part of the plan. In his first term, one target of raids was east Tennessee, where one woman previously told the Guardian she and her colleagues were rounded up on buses and sent to detention centers. “We definitely expect them,” Lapointe said. “I don’t know, operationally, how many they can carry out. They do it for purposes of instilling fear in communities, and so that’s part of their strategy here is terrorize the maximum number of people possible, and perhaps suggest that people will give up their rights voluntarily or leave voluntarily.” Ice agents have typically avoided churches, schools and hospitals, known as “sensitive locations”, but they could be back on the table. “They are so aggressive, I wouldn’t put anything out of the realm of possibility for them,” Lapointe said. Trump might target heads of household, cutting off financial resources for a family and forcing them to make difficult decisions on whether to stay in the country, Shah said. Deportation requires detention Large-scale arrests will require more space to detain people as they await immigration proceedings. Immigrant rights advocates say there is not enough space in existing bricks-and-mortar facilities for these detentions. Houser, the former Ice official, told This American Life that detention facilities could lower their standards to house more people, for instance by putting more people into a jail cell than their current policies allow. He said unused warehouses or former department stores could be turned into detention camps. The federal government will also try to use space in state or local prisons or jails to house people, Lapointe said. There will be tent cities constructed to temporarily house people. Texas has offered state land to use for deportation facilities. Stephen Miller, Trump’s immigration adviser, told the New York Times in 2023 that single adults would mostly be housed in these tent camps because a legal settlement prevents indefinite detentions of children. These “soft-sided facilities” could be sources of unrest and unsafe conditions, Houser warned, both for those detained and Ice agents. To actually remove people to other countries, planes will be used to return people to their countries of origin. Some countries accept few deportation flights, making returns difficult or slow. But, Houser warned, he could see Trump sending flights to wherever will take them. “Why not load up a few planeloads of Cuban nationals and send them to the Bahamas and just send them to a third party?” he said. “I could go find a country that says they’ll accept three or four planeloads of Cuban nationals, and I’ll send them to a third-party country.” Roadblocks that could stall Trump’s plans Trump wanted to deport far more people than he was able to in his first term, but was blocked by a combination of resources, court rulings and federal bureaucracy. Congress will play a role in deciding whether to fund a large-scale deportation scheme and in serving as a check if Trump tries to divert funds from other purposes toward deporting people. Congress can also require site visits of detention facilities as a part of appropriating money, the ACLU’s memo suggests. Cities and states that oppose such deportations can refuse to participate in Ice actions or aid immigration agents. They could also fight plans to federalize their state national guard units, depending on the legal underpinnings the Trump administration uses to call them up. He has said he plans to use the Insurrection Act to dispatch the military as a domestic force. Liberal and immigrant advocacy groups will also use the courts to push back against Trump. The president-elect has said he intends to use the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law that allows the country to deport undocumented people from enemy nations during a time of war, a legal theory that will undoubtedly invite lawsuits. The Brennan Center for Justice notes that the law “is best known for its role in Japanese internment, a shameful part of US history for which Congress, presidents and the courts have apologized”. “We’ll go to the courts,” Lapointe said. “We will point out the instances of illegal behavior and lack of due process and hope that the guardrails hold.” There will be economic effects from mass deportation – from the high cost of detentions and deportations themselves, the ripple in industries such as farming and construction, and the loss of tax revenues, the American Immigration Council estimates. And there’s the crucial role of the public, which could oppose deportations if the Trump administration’s campaign becomes too aggressive or affects them in ways they didn’t anticipate. “I think they’re going to overreach, and I think that there’ll be a backlash, partly because communities do not want to be terrorized, and because the human cost will become clear, and also because it will wreck our economy,” Shah said. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Trump’s Mass Deportation Plan Has One Major Vulnerability

Donald Trump campaigned on a promise of mass deportations beginning on the first day of his presidency, and from every indication, he intends to make good on it. He has tapped white nationalist–friendly hard-liners for key posts in the executive branch, and he claims that the government will deport millions of migrants by the end of 2025. If Trump’s public statements and the actions of his first administration are any guide, the new administration appears poised to expand detention facilities, attempt to reinstitute family separations, end programs like temporary protected status, deputize state and local officials and members of the military as immigration officers, and attempt to eliminate or limit the right to asylum for individuals fleeing persecution. But for those familiar with the nation’s immigration system, a key question about mass deportations is how the administration will contend with the need to hold hearings for individuals apprehended within the U.S. Generally, noncitizens who are present in the country (as opposed to arriving at the border) may be deported only following a hearing at which they can present evidence that they’re not deportable or are eligible for asylum. U.S. immigration courts have yearslong backlogs, so the need for hearings is likely to be a key choke point in Trump’s plan to rapidly deport millions. Perhaps the administration will just ignore the hearing requirement, because it has no intention of operating a “precise, legal” deportation scheme. But as much as lawlessness is part of Trump’s modus operandi, the administration seems unlikely to disregard the law entirely. The people who will carry out mass deportations—everyone from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to sheriffs to lawyers and contractors—want to believe that they are upholding the law. Rather than direct them to defy it, Trump’s appointees will likely come up with arguments for why mass deportations are legal. When it comes to hearings, the goal will be to find a way around the need to go before an immigration judge, so that individuals can be removed from the country quickly (perhaps within hours of being apprehended) and with no real process. Advertisement The play, specifically, will be to vastly expand what’s known in immigration law as “expedited removal.” Established by Congress in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, expedited removal was designed to allow immigration officials to shut the door to migrants who appear at the border without permission to enter. The statute provides that an immigration officer may deport such a person “without further hearing or review” unless they claim asylum or fear persecution. Hundreds of thousands of noncitizens arriving at the border are already deported every year through this “shadow removal” regime, as Jennifer Lee Koh terms it. But the statute is not limited to the border. Technically, it allows the Department of Homeland Security to use expedited removal against most individuals residing anywhere in the United States who entered without permission and who do not “affirmatively show … to the satisfaction of an immigration officer” that they have been present in the country for at least two years. And there’s the rub. Deporting someone living in Atlanta or Milwaukee on the say-so of a single immigration officer is at odds with the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees due process of law to everyone in the United States regardless of immigration status. So, historically, expedited removal has generally been limited to people arriving at the border or those present in the U.S. for fewer than 14 days who are apprehended within 100 miles of the border. But the administration won’t care. During Trump’s first term, DHS attempted to expand expedited removal to the full limits of the statute, and the incoming administration is poised to repeat the gambit. DHS will likely authorize the use of expedited removal against anyone a single immigration officer thinks lacks status and who cannot come up with affirmative proof that they have been in the U.S. for two years. And it will issue “guidance” stacking the deck against individuals whom immigration officers target—for example, by limiting their time to produce evidence or providing that only certain forms of documentation will be considered. An individual who doesn’t have the right papers on them when they are approached by an immigration officer at 7 a.m. might be on a plane to Mexico by the evening. Advertisement Deporting immigrants in this manner is not only an insult to due process; it will often put the nation in violation of its international obligations. Expedited removal isn’t meant to be used against individuals who credibly fear persecution in their home countries. But statements by Trump’s surrogates and actions by his previous administration suggest that this requirement will be honored in name only. According to Customs and Border Protection’s own guidelines, immigration officers are supposed to ask those in expedited-removal proceedings about their fear of return. The administration could easily roll back this guidance such that immigrants who do not know to state their fear of return will be summarily deported. The bar for passing a credible-fear interview, which is intended to serve merely as a screening tool to determine whether an individual can make their case in court, has historically been very low. Even with this low bar, those with meritorious asylum claims have been erroneously deported. But the prior Trump administration unlawfully raised the bar for credible-fear interviews and will likely attempt to do so again, allowing ICE officers to deport many more individuals with meritorious claims for asylum with little to no oversight or review and with no recourse for the noncitizen. Officers will move particularly quickly against those without a lawyer. Related From Slate Mark Joseph Stern The Most Perverse Part of the Hunter Biden Pardon Read More The upshot is that even though most immigrants residing in the U.S. without permanent legal status are ineligible for expedited removal, hundreds of thousands—including individuals who are targeted because of their political beliefs, authorized immigrants, and possibly even citizens who don’t fit the Trump administration’s image of a “real” American—could be rounded up and deported without the opportunity to appear before an immigration judge. The administration will bank on individuals with strong cases being unable to litigate them once they’re deported. Families will be torn apart. Prices will spike. And an untold number of individuals who are legally entitled to asylum will be returned to countries where they’ll face death or serious harm. Advertisement Although groups like the ACLU will challenge the expanded use of expedited removal, don’t look to the courts for a quick remedy. IIRIRA strips the courts of jurisdiction to hear challenges to many immigration policies. And even if the courts reach the merits of those cases, the administration has the power of unilateral action: As it did during Trump’s first term, it can change the rules, restart deportations in a slightly different way, and force lawyers and courts to play catch-up as planes full of deportees depart the U.S. Perhaps the most relevant precedent for the situation the nation faces is the battle over the Muslim ban Trump put in place at the beginning of his first administration; that policy threw the border into chaos and was repeatedly halted before the Supreme Court allowed a cleaned-up, watered-down version to take effect. That experience teaches that the key to resisting mass deportation will be to slow the program’s momentum to allow Congress, the courts, civil society, and the business community to push back. Recommended for You I’ve Started Dating a Very Sexy, Younger Woman. But I’m Worried About What Inevitably Comes Next. Our Cheap Friends Keep Asking for “Recommendations.” We Can’t Trust Them to Do Right By Local Businesses. My Ex Is Such a Typical, Conservative Guy. And He’s Doing a Major Disservice to His Teen Daughter. There’s no silver bullet. But states can make clear that they’ll resist the administration’s unconstitutional plans, as Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has done; strip immunity from sheriffs and others who participate in indiscriminate roundups; impose civil and criminal liability on those who participate in illegal deportations; and allocate funding for immigrant representation, following the lead of states such as New Jersey and New York. Nonprofit organizations and lawyers can provide community education on the limits of expedited removal, the right to a hearing, and the ways individuals can claim asylum or show they’re not subject to expedited removal. And business leaders can take a stand to protect the economy. None of this would prevent the administration from going to Congress and seeking the resources to run a humane, efficient immigration system that complies with the Constitution and the nation’s international obligations. But since it won’t do that, the priority must be to maintain the rule of law. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Senator calls on Biden to protect legal immigrants before Trump takes office

Donald Trump is threatening to revoke the legal status of immigrants living in the U.S., particularly those granted temporary protected status. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., is calling on the Biden administration to protect the program.

Immigrants’ Resentment Over New Arrivals Helped Boost Trump’s Popularity With Latino Voters

At first, she didn’t think much about the Nicaraguan asylum-seekers who began moving into town a few years ago. Rosa was an immigrant too, one of the many undocumented Mexican immigrants who’d settled nearly 30 years ago in Whitewater, a small university town in southeast Wisconsin. Some of the Nicaraguans had found housing in Rosa’s neighborhood, a trailer park at the edge of town. They sent their children to the same public schools. And they got jobs in the same factories and food-processing facilities that employed many of Rosa’s friends and relatives. Then Rosa realized that many of the newcomers with ongoing asylum cases could apply for work permits and driver’s licenses — state and federal privileges that are unavailable to undocumented immigrants. Rosa’s feelings of indifference turned to frustration and resentment. “It’s not fair,” said Rosa, who works as a janitor. “Those of us who have been here for years get nothing.” Her anger is largely directed at President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party for failing to produce meaningful reforms to the immigration system that could benefit people like her. In our reporting on the new effects of immigration, ProPublica interviewed dozens of long-established Latino immigrants and their U.S.-born relatives in cities like Denver and Chicago and in small towns along the Texas border. Over and over, they spoke of feeling resentment as they watched the government ease the transition of large numbers of asylum-seekers into the U.S. by giving them access to work permits and IDs, and in some cities spending millions of dollars to provide them with food and shelter. It’s one of the reasons so many Latino voters chose Donald Trump this election, giving him what appears to be Republicans’ biggest win in a presidential race since exit polls began tracking this data. Latinos’ increased support for Trump — who says he could use the military to execute his plans for mass deportations — defied conventional wisdom, disrupting long-held assumptions about loyalties to the Democratic Party. The shift could give Republicans reason to cater to Latinos to keep them in the party’s fold. On the campaign trail, Trump singled out Whitewater after the police chief wrote a letter to Biden asking for help responding to the needs of the new Nicaraguan arrivals. While some residents were put off by Trump’s rhetoric about the city being destroyed by immigrants, it resonated with many of the longtime Mexican-immigrant residents we interviewed. They said they think the newcomers have unfairly received benefits that they never got when they arrived illegally decades ago — and that many still don’t have today. Among those residents is one of Rosa’s friends and neighbors who asked to be identified by one of her surnames, Valadez, because she is undocumented and fears deportation. A single mother who cleans houses and buildings for a living, Valadez makes extra money on the side by driving immigrants who don’t have cars to and from work and to run errands. It’s a risky side hustle, though, because she’s frequently been pulled over and ticketed by police for driving without a license, costing her thousands of dollars in fines. One day two summers ago, one of her sons found a small purse at a carnival in town. Inside they found a Wisconsin driver’s license, a work permit issued to a Nicaraguan woman and $300 in cash. Seeing the contents filled Valadez with bitterness. She asked her son to turn in the purse to the police but kept the $300. “I have been here for 21 years,” she said. “I have five children who are U.S. citizens. And I can’t get a work permit or a driver’s license.” When she told that story to Rosa one afternoon this spring, her friend nodded emphatically in approval. Rosa, like Valadez, couldn’t vote. But two of Rosa’s U.S.-born children could, and they cast ballots for Trump. One of Rosa’s sons even drives a car with a bumper sticker that says “Let’s Go Brandon” — a popular anti-Biden slogan. Rosa said she is glad her children voted for Trump. She’s not too worried about deportation, although she asked to be identified solely by her first name to reduce the risk. She believes Trump wants to deport criminals, not people like her who crossed the border undetected in the 1990s but haven’t gotten in trouble with the law. “They know who has been behaving well and who hasn’t been,” she said. Immigrants seeking asylum arrive in Philadelphia in December 2022. They had been bused in from Texas, which has sent thousands of immigrants to cities around the country this way during the Biden administration. Credit:Photo by Ryan Collerd/AFP via Getty Images In the months leading up to the presidential election, numerous polls picked up on the kinds of frustrations felt by Rosa and her family. Those polls indicated that many voters considered immigration one of the most pressing challenges facing the country and that they were disappointed in the Biden administration’s record. Biden had come into office in 2021 promising a more humane approach to immigration after four years of more restrictive policies during the first Trump administration. But record numbers of immigrants who were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border began to overwhelm the system. While the Biden administration avoided talking about the border situation like a crisis, the way Trump and the GOP had, outspoken critics like Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott amplified the message that things at the border were out of control while he arranged to bus thousands of immigrants to Democrat-controlled big cities around the country. In Whitewater, hundreds of Nicaraguans arrived on their own to fill jobs in local factories, and many of them drove to work without licenses, putting a strain on the small local police department with only one Spanish-speaking officer. While the Biden administration kept a Trump expulsion policy in place for three years, it also created temporary parole programs and an app to allow asylum-seekers to make appointments to cross the border. The result was that hundreds of thousands more immigrants were allowed to come into the country and apply for work permits, but the efforts didn’t assuage the administration’s critics on the right or left. Meanwhile, moves to benefit undocumented workers who were already in the country were less publicized, said Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. The White House did not respond to requests for comment. Conchita Cruz, a co-founder and co-executive director of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, which serves a network of around 1 million asylum-seekers across the country, said that because of either court challenges or processing backlogs, Biden wasn’t able to deliver on many of his promises to make it easier for immigrants who’ve lived in this country for years to regularize their status. “Policies meant to help immigrants have not always materialized,” she said. Cruz said that while the administration extended the duration of work permits for some employment categories, backlogs have hampered the quick processing of those extensions. As of September, there were about 1.2 million pending work permit applications, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data, with many pending for six months or more. USCIS said the agency has taken steps to reduce backlogs while processing a record number of applications. Biden’s attempts to push for broad immigration reform in Congress, including a proposal his administration sent on his first day in office, went nowhere. Earlier this year, in an effort to prevent a political win for Biden before the election, Trump pressured Republicans to kill bipartisan legislation that would have increased border security. Camila Chávez, the executive director of the Dolores Huerta Foundation in Bakersfield, California, said Democrats failed to combat misinformation and turn out Latino voters. She recalled meeting one young Latina Trump supporter while she knocked on voters’ doors with the foundation’s sister political action organization. The woman told her she was concerned that the new immigrant arrivals were bringing crime and cartel activity — and potentially were a threat to her own family’s safety. “That’s our charge as organizations, to make sure that we are in the community and educating folks on how government works and to not vote against our own self-interests. Which is what’s happening now,” said Chávez, who is the daughter of famed farmworker advocate Dolores Huerta and a niece of Cesar Chávez. Trump has made clear he intends to deliver on his deportation promises, though the details of how he’ll do it and who will be most affected remain unclear. The last time Trump was elected, he moved quickly to issue an executive order that said no “classes or categories” of people who were in the country illegally could be exempt from enforcement. Tom Homan, who Trump has picked to serve as his “border czar,” said during a recent interview with Fox & Friends that immigrants who were deemed to be a threat to public safety or national security would be a priority under a new administration. But he said immigrants with outstanding deportation orders will also be possible targets and that there will be raids at workplaces with large numbers of undocumented workers. The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist, said it’s wishful thinking to believe Trump will give any special treatment to undocumented immigrants who have been living and working in the U.S. for a long time. But he’s heard that sentiment among Latino voters in focus groups. “They believe that they are playing by the rules and that they will be rewarded for it,” Madrid said. “Republicans have never been serious about legal migration, let alone illegal migration. They’re allowing themselves to believe that for no good reason.” Sergio Garza Castillo, who owns a gas station and convenience store in Del Rio, Texas, had long voted for Democrats. But his frustration with border policy led him to vote for Trump this year. Credit:Gerardo del Valle/ProPublica The Republican Party’s growing appeal to Latino voters was especially noticeable in places like Del Rio, a Texas border town. As ProPublica previously reported, Trump flipped the county where Del Rio sits from blue to red in 2020 and won it this year with 63% of the vote. Sergio Garza Castillo, a Mexican immigrant who owns a gas station and convenience store in Del Rio, illustrates that political shift. Garza Castillo said he came to the U.S. legally as a teenager in the 1980s after his father, a U.S. citizen, petitioned and waited for more than a decade to bring his family across the border. Ever since Garza Castillo became a U.S. citizen in 2000, he has tended to vote for Democrats, believing in their promise of immigration reform that could lead to more pathways to citizenship for long-established undocumented immigrants, including many of his friends and acquaintances. But the Democrats “promised and they never delivered,” Garza Castillo said. “They didn’t normalize the status of the people who were already here, but instead they let in many migrants who didn’t come in the correct way.” He believes asylum-seekers should have to wait outside the country like he did. Denver Rallied Behind Arriving Immigrants. Now Its Homeless Population Feels Shortchanged. He said he began to turn away from the Democrats in September 2021, when nearly 20,000 mostly Haitian immigrants seeking asylum waded across the Rio Grande from Mexico and camped out under the city’s international bridge near Garza Castillo’s gas station. Federal authorities had instructed the immigrants to wait there to be processed; some remained there for weeks, sleeping under tarps and blankets with little access to water and food. Garza Castillo said he and other business owners lost money when the federal government shut down the international bridge, an economic engine for Del Rio. Some of the Haitian migrants were eventually deported; others were allowed into the U.S. to pursue asylum claims and given notices to appear in court in a backlogged immigration system that can take years to resolve a case. “That to me is offensive for those who have been living here for more than 10 years and haven’t been able to adjust their status,” Garza Castillo said. He hopes Trump seizes on the opportunity to expand support from Latino voters by creating a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who’ve been here for years. “If he does that,” he said, “I think the Republican Party will be strong here for a long time.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

USCIS Reaches Fiscal Year 2025 H-1B Cap

USCIS has received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap, for fiscal year (FY) 2025. We will send non-selection notices to registrants through their online accounts over the next few days. When we finish sending these non-selection notifications, the status for properly submitted registrations that we did not select for the FY 2025 H-1B numerical allocations will show: · Not Selected: Not selected – not eligible to file an H-1B cap petition based on this registration. We will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. Petitions filed for current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap, and who still retain their cap number, are exempt from the FY 2025 H-1B cap. We will continue to accept and process petitions filed to: · Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States; · Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers; · Allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and · Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in additional H-1B positions.

DACA recipients worry their protection from deportation won’t last another Trump term

Reyna Montoya was 10 when she and her family fled violence in Tijuana and illegally immigrated to the U.S. Growing up in Arizona, she worried even a minor traffic violation could lead to her deportation. She didn’t feel relief until 11 years later in 2012, when she received a letter confirming she had been accepted to a new program for immigrants who came to the country illegally as children. “All of the sudden, all these possibilities opened up,” Montoya said, fighting back tears. The Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program granted her and hundreds of thousands of others two-year, renewable permits to live and work in the U.S. legally. But as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, after an unsuccessful bid to end DACA in his first term, the roughly 535,000 current recipients are bracing yet again for a whirlwind of uncertainty. Meanwhile, a years-long challenge to DACA could ultimately render it illegal, leaving people like Montoya without a shield from deportation. Advertisement “I have to take his (Trump’s) words very seriously, that when they say ‘mass deportation,’ it also includes people like me,” said Montoya, who runs Aliento, an Arizona-based advocacy organization for immigrant rights. Related Stories Trump's return to White House sets stage for far-reaching immigration crackdown Trump's return to White House sets stage for far-reaching immigration crackdown Trump's deportation plans worry families with relatives in US illegally Trump's deportation plans worry families with relatives in US illegally Judge strikes down Biden administration program shielding immigrant spouses from deportation Judge strikes down Biden administration program shielding immigrant spouses from deportation Uncertainty is nothing new for DACA recipients. As many matured from school age to adulthood, they have witnessed a barrage of legal threats to the program. DACA hasn’t accepted new applicants since 2021, when a federal judge deemed it illegal and ordered that new applications not be processed, though current recipients could still renew their permits. The Biden administration appealed the ruling, and the case is currently pending. For those who secured and renewed DACA permits, the benefits have been life-changing. With DACA, Montoya for the first time was able to work legally, get health and dental care, and obtain a driver’s license. 0:00 / 58 AP correspondent Jennifer King reports on DACA recipients who grew up in the United States, but are worried about being left without a shield from deportation. AP correspondent Jennifer King reports. Advertisement Many recipients had hoped Vice President Kamala Harris would win the presidency and continue fighting for them. But the reelection of Trump, who has repeatedly accused immigrants of fueling violent crime and “poisoning the blood” of the United States, has heightened their fears that DACA could end and they could face deportation. Out of caution, some are rushing to renew their permits, according to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, which has been providing free legal aid to help them through the extensive process. Others are preparing for potential family separations. Phoenix native and DACA recipient Pedro Gonzalez-Aboyte said he and his immigrant parents, along with his two U.S.-born brothers, recently discussed the possibility of being split. Gonzalez-Aboyte recalled his parents, who immigrated from Mexico, saying that even if they were unable to stay in the country, “as long as the three of you are here and you’re OK, then that’s what we want.” “That was a very real conversation we had,” Gonzalez-Aboyte said. Officials for the Trump transition team did not respond to emailed requests for comment. Advertisement While it is unclear how Trump could impact DACA this time, he has suggested scaling back other programs that offer temporary protection for immigrants and is staffing his incoming administration with immigration hardliners, including Stephen Miller and Thomas Homan. 0:00 / 18 In an AP interview, Reyna Montoya says a years-long challenge to DACA protection could ultimately render the program illegal. During his first term, Trump tried to rescind DACA. But in 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded his administration ended the program improperly, though it didn’t rule on the program’s legality. But DACA’s fate won’t be immediately left up to Trump, if at all. A three-judge panel on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — regarded as the country’s most conservative appeals court — heard arguments in October concerning the legality of DACA. The case, initially filed by Texas and other Republican-led states in 2018, now focuses on a Biden administration rule intended to preserve and fortify DACA. Attorneys for DACA opponents argued that immigrants in the country illegally are a financial burden on states. Meanwhile, the Biden administration, along with intervenors, contend that Texas has not shown the costs it cites are traceable to the policy and, therefore, lacks standing. Advertisement The panel doesn’t have a deadline to issue a ruling. Regardless, its ruling will likely be appealed, potentially elevating the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law practice at Cornell University, said the most likely scenario is the panel affirming that DACA is illegal and that the case goes before the Supreme Court. He doesn’t anticipate Trump immediately trying to end DACA but didn’t rule out the possibility. “I don’t know that they could actually terminate the program any faster than the current ligation is going,” he said. “They could still do it, but they’ve got an awful lot of immigration policy matters on their plate.” Advertisement Yale-Loehr said the Biden administration is limited in how it could help DACA recipients at this stage, but it could enable recipients to renew their permits early and process them as quickly as possible. Greisa Martinez Rosas is a DACA recipient and executive director of United We Dream, a youth-led advocacy network for immigrants that boasts more than a million members nationwide. She said the immigrant rights movement has grown so much since Trump’s first term, and it’s been preparing for this moment for years, “building a nimble and responsive infrastructure so that we will make shifts as threats emerge.” She said they’re calling on Americans to offer immigrants sanctuary, preparing to ensure people’s physical and psychological safety in case of mass deportations, planning demonstrations and asking for help from the current administration. “We still have a couple of months for the Biden administration to use every single tool at its disposal to protect and defend as many people as possible,” Martinez Rosas said at a recent press briefing. “We’re expecting for them to do that now more than ever.” ___ For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

How Trump’s mass deportation plan can use AI to extend immigration crackdown

A signature campaign promise of President-elect Donald Trump is to initiate mass deportations of undocumented residents of the United States. At a Sept. 12 campaign stop in Tucson, Arizona, Trump promised to “begin the largest mass deportation mission in the history of our country.” Trump’s selection of Thomas Homan as “border czar” and Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff for policy, two officials seen as hard-liners on immigration, suggest that the administration’s approach to a crackdown will attempt to make good on that promise and be aggressive, though details have not been provided by the Trump transition team. Trump has said he will start mass deportation efforts with criminals, but he has also vowed to repeal Temporary Protected Status for individuals. He said in a brief post-election interview with NBC News that he has “no choice” but to pursue mass deportation after the election results, and that there is “no price tag.” Homan, former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said earlier this year that “No one’s off the table. If you’re here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder,” and he vowed to “run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen.” Carrying out these pledges, though, is logistically daunting. Artificial intelligence may help. While AI wasn’t widely used during the first Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, the technology has become more accessible and widely deployed across many systems and government agencies, and President Biden’s administration began devoting DHS budget and organizational focus to it. In April, the Department of Homeland Security created the Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board to help establish perimeters and protocols for the technology’s use. The 2025 DHS budget includes $5 million to open an AI Office in the DHS Office of the Chief Information Officer. According to the DHS budget memo, the office is responsible for advancing and accelerating the “responsible use” of AI by establishing standards, policies, and oversight to support the growing adoption of AI across DHS. “AI is a transformative technology that can unprecedentedly advance our national interests. At the same time, it presents real risks we can mitigate by adopting best practices and taking other studied concrete actions,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said when inaugurating the new board. Now there is concern among experts that DHS’s mission will pivot towards deportation and use untested AI to help. Security experts close to DHS worry about how an emboldened and reoriented DHS might wield AI. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman wouldn’t speculate on how AI might be used in Trump’s administration. The Trump transition and Homan did not respond to requests for comment. Secretary Mayorkas: Adoption of newly unveiled AI guidelines could ward off stifling regulationwatch now VIDEO07:19 Secretary Mayorkas: Adoption of newly unveiled AI guidelines could ward off stifling regulation Petra Molnar, a lawyer and anthropologist specializing in the impacts of migration technologies on people crossing borders and the author of “The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,” has studied the use of technology along the border, which includes drones and robodogs, as faculty associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. She has been critical of AI’s use at the border under Democratic Party administrations, but does think that the weaponization of AI will grow under Trump’s administration. “Knowing the Trump administration has signaled they want to conduct the largest mass deportation in U.S. history and the fact that they have these tools at their disposal, it creates a surveillance dragnet not just at the border but inland that could capture communities all over the U.S.,” Molnar said, adding that an entire ecosystem of industry has been created to police borders and immigration. “There’s been a huge influence of the private sector in the growth of the border-industrial problem,” Molnar said, adding that private companies have led the way in introducing robodogs (with benign names like Snoopy and Sniffer), drones, and AI-infused towers. “Much of the surveillance technology has been expanded under Democratic administrations, but there has been a signaling of the incoming administration that tech will be a tool to assist them in accomplishing their goals,” Molnar said. An AI immigration dragnet vs. AI deregulation and growth Remaya Campbell, acting commissioner for Homeland Security for the District of Columbia, said that AI could automate immigration-related decision-making, bypassing traditional processes. “AI could be used to identify individuals for deportation broadly. With little regard for privacy or due process,” Campbell said, adding that AI decision-making systems operate with the values their users impart. “And in the Trump administration, that could certainly mean reinforcing intersectional biases to align with political priorities,” she said. “At a minimum, we could expect AI to be leveraged not as a tool for efficiency, fairness, and safety in immigration-related decision-making, but as an instrument of systemic bias and authoritarian rule,” Campbell added. Neil Sahota, an AI advisor to the United Nations AI for Good Initiative, said he shares those concerns given that AI already has a muscular presence in managing the vast, challenging-to-monitor U.S. borders, and that usage will expand under Trump. DHS’s Customs and Border Protection already has employed AI-powered drones with machine-learning capabilities to identify unusual patterns that could signal illegal crossings, drones that can distinguish between people, animals, and vehicles, and help to minimize false alarms, Sahota said. Sensor towers equipped with AI provide 24/7 monitoring, allowing faster response times and freeing up human resources. “Expectations are that a Trump administration would push for even more AI surveillance, potentially introducing autonomous patrols and expanding biometric screening,” Sahota said. While this could improve border security, it could also spark concerns around privacy, particularly for those living near borders. And Sahota added that the Trump administration’s use of AI could expand beyond security and aid in deportation. “AI surveillance systems would be a cornerstone of Trump’s deportation strategy,” Sahotra said. “Enhanced AI could fast-track deportations,” Sahota added, which would come with the potential for rights violations and racial profiling. These systems use facial recognition and behavior analysis capabilities to identify people suspected of being in the country illegally, but he cautioned that these systems don’t always get it right. “How do we handle situations where AI makes errors in identifying people’s immigration status? What if the system mistakenly flags a legal resident or citizen for deportation? The consequences are devastating for families and our community,” Sahota said. Laura MacCleery, senior policy director of Unidos U.S., the nation’s largest Hispanic advocacy group, said AI accuracy problems are well known, with systems making inaccurate conclusions, and data on people of color tending to be less accurate. DMV records, utility bills, and facial recognition technology at the border and the airports will all be tools that could be enhanced with AI to pursue deportation. “These technologies could be changed and altered and have different guardrails in a different administration. The concern about mass deportations is the enhanced use of AI by immigration enforcement and to superpower the ability to monitor public data, MacCleery said. It is inevitable, she said, that AI will sweep up U.S. citizens. “Because there are U.S. citizens that live with people of different immigration status and those people will get swept up and the due process rights of people who are here legally could be violated and that is super problematic and an inevitable consequence of the overuse of these kinds of technologies,” MacCleery said. But Marina Shepelsky, CEO, co-founder, and immigration attorney at New York-based Shepelsky Law Group, said she is not thinking about AI policy in the Trump administration as a dystopian technology to fear. “He is a businessman, he will see value in allowing AI to progress and grow to make the lives of lawyers like myself, doctors, scientists, etc., easier,” Shepelsky said. She thinks AI will blossom and be deregulated in a Trump administration. “Hopefully, with Elon Musk at his side, President Trump would push for more foreign tech AI experts to come to the U.S. quicker and with less red tape to improve AI and reduce its current awkwardness,” Shepelsky said. “I am not an alarmist and not tearing out my hair about Trump being our next president. I may not like all his policies, but with AI – I do think he will push for its growth, and for laws and regulations to be more flexible to allow AI to grow.” Related Police departments across U.S. are starting to use AI to write crime reports "It's not just 'the robots are coming' and we need to hunker down and prepare for it. The choices we make along the way will determine the impacts," Department of Labor Acting Secretary Julie Su said about AI and workers at the CNBC Work Summit. Recent data shows AI job losses are rising, but the numbers don’t tell the full story Voters fill out their ballots for the presidential election during early voting ahead of the polls closing November 5 at the Detroit Elections Office in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. October 28, 2024. Nate Silver: Don’t trust the Trump swing in 2024 presidential election polls, betting markets data For more inforrmation, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Immigration battle between Trump team and Democratic strongholds heats up

For now, these are just threats, but they paint a turbulent picture of the future. “More than us having Denver Police stationed at the county line to keep them out, you would have 50,000 Denverites there. It’s like the Tiananmen Square moment with the rose and the gun,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston declared defiantly in a recent interview with a local outlet. He was referring to the possibility of the incoming Donald Trump administration deploying federal agents or National Guard troops from other states to conduct immigration raids in Colorado’s capital. As a designated “sanctuary city,” Denver does not cooperate with the federal government on immigration enforcement. “We’re not going to sell out those values to anyone,” Johnston added. “We’re not going to be bullied into changing them.” The response from Tom Homan, a hardliner Trump appointed as his “border czar” after winning the election, came on Monday. Appearing alongside Texas Governor Greg Abbott — a staunch ally of Trumpism — on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, Homan warned that he would not let Johnston hinder his plans. “Me and the Denver mayor, we agree on one thing; he’s willing to go to jail. I’m willing to put him in jail,” he said. “It’s a felony if you knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien from immigration authorities. It’s also a felony to impede a federal law enforcement officer. So if he don’t help, that’s fine. He can get the hell out of the way, but we’re going to go do the job.” This standoff is the latest chapter in an escalating battle. Since Trump’s election victory less than a month ago, Democratic governors and mayors nationwide have vowed to resist cooperating with his immigration agenda. Meanwhile, Trump, Homan, and other members of the president-elect’s circle have issued stark warnings to the officials who have spoken out against the Republican’s plan to carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history.” Threats include imprisonment, as suggested by Homan in Johnston’s case; severe cuts to federal funding for defiant states and cities, which could cripple local budgets; and the deployment of thousands of federal agents to enforce immigration laws directly in noncompliant communities. When contacted by EL PAÍS, Mayor Johnston reiterated his stance in a more measured statement. “In Denver, we respect the law and enforce it without fear or favor across every inch of our city. If Donald Trump tries to break the law and abuse his power, he will get no help from us. Denver is proud to be a welcoming city, and we will do everything in our power to protect those who live here. We are considering a number of options to strengthen protections for all our residents, and we continue to provide education about the rights of our immigrant community so they can best protect themselves from any unlawful actions,” the statement said. A spokesperson for the mayor added that Denver would withhold further comment on a federal policy that has yet to be detailed. Denver, Colorado Migrant families in Denver, Colorado, on May 7, 2024. Hyoung Chang (Getty Images) The capital of Colorado has been a prominent target of xenophobic rhetoric from the president-elect and his inner circle since before the election. Aurora, a suburb of Denver, has particularly drawn attention. A few months ago, the town went viral due to allegation that the Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua was operating in the area. Trump capitalized on this narrative by naming his strategy to deport undocumented immigrants involved in criminal groups Operation Aurora. However, Denver is far from the only city resisting the Republican’s plans. Last week, Los Angeles officially declared itself a “sanctuary city.” Although California’s largest city has operated under sanctuary policies for decades, this legal codification strengthens its stance by explicitly prohibiting both direct and indirect sharing of data with federal immigration authorities. This move by Los Angeles sparked a strong response from Homan. “If I’ve got to send twice as many officers to L.A. because we’re not getting any assistance, then that’s what we’re going to do,” he said. “We’ve got a mandate, President Trump’s serious about this, I’m serious about this. This is going to happen with or without you.” Similar tensions were seen on the other side of the country. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, herself the daughter of immigrants, has vowed to fight the mass deportation effort. “We are not cooperating with those efforts that actually threaten the safety of everyone by causing widespread fear and having large-scale economic impact,” she said. Massachusetts’s largest city has reinforced its commitment through the Trust Act, which prohibits police from stopping or arresting individuals solely for immigration enforcement purposes. Homan, in keeping with his and Trump’s combative tone, lashed out at Wu during an interview on Newsmax, describing her as “not very smart” and reiterating that harboring undocumented immigrants is a federal crime. “Either she helps us [or] she gets the hell out of the way because we’re going to do it,” Homan said. “To those people who say they’re going to stop us from what they’re doing, they will not [...] You’re not going to stop us. But let me give you a word of advice. If you impede us, there’s going to be consequences.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Schools are bracing for upheaval over fear of mass deportations

Word spread that immigration agents were going to try to enter schools. There was no truth to it, but school staff members had to find students who were avoiding school and coax them back to class. “People just started ducking and hiding,” Balderas said. Educators around the country are bracing for upheaval, whether or not the president-elect follows through on his pledge to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally. Even if he only talks about it, children of immigrants will suffer, educators and legal observers said. If “you constantly threaten people with the possibility of mass deportation, it really inhibits peoples’ ability to function in society and for their kids to get an education,” said Hiroshi Motomura, a professor at UCLA School of Law. Advertisement The video player is currently playing an ad. That fear already has started for many. “The kids are still coming to school, but they’re scared,” said Almudena Abeyta, superintendent of Chelsea Public Schools, a Boston suburb that’s long been a first stop for Central American immigrants coming to Massachusetts. Now Haitians are making the city home and sending their kids to school there. “They’re asking: ‘Are we going to be deported?’” said Abeyta. Many parents in her district grew up in countries where the federal government ran schools and may think it’s the same here. The day after the election, Abeyta sent a letter home assuring parents their children are welcome and safe, no matter who is president. Immigration officials have avoided arresting parents or students at schools. Since 2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has operated under a policy that immigration agents should not arrest or conduct other enforcement actions near “sensitive locations,” including schools, hospitals and places of worship. Doing so might curb access to essential services, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas wrote in a 2021 policy update. The Heritage Foundation's policy roadmap for Trump’s second term, Project 2025, calls for rescinding the guidance on “sensitive places.” Trump tried to distance himself from the proposals during the campaign, but he has nominated many who worked on the plan for his new administration, including Tom Homan for “border czar.” If immigration agents were to arrest a parent dropping off children at school, it could set off mass panic, said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles. “If something happens at one school, it spreads like wildfire and kids stop coming to school,” she said. Balderas, now the superintendent in Beaverton, a different Portland suburb, told the school committee there this month it was time to prepare for a more determined Trump administration. In case schools are targeted, Beaverton will train staff not to allow immigration agents inside. “All bets are off with Trump,” said Balderas, who is also president of ASSA, The School Superintendents Association. “If something happens, I feel like it will happen a lot quicker than last time.” Recent Stories from ABC News symbol 00:00 02:24 Read More Many school officials are reluctant to talk about their plans or concerns, some out of fear of drawing attention to their immigrant students. One school administrator serving many children of Mexican and Central American immigrants in the Midwest said their school has invited immigration attorneys to help parents formalize any plans for their children’s care in case they are deported. The administrator spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Speaking up on behalf of immigrant families also can put superintendents at odds with school board members. “This is a very delicate issue,” said Viridiana Carrizales, chief executive officer of ImmSchools, a nonprofit that trains schools on supporting immigrant students. She’s received 30 requests for help since the election, including two from Texas superintendents who don’t think their conservative school boards would approve of publicly affirming immigrant students’ right to attend school or district plans to turn away immigration agents. More than two dozen superintendents and district communications representatives contacted by The Associated Press either ignored or declined requests for comment. Recent Stories from ABC News symbol 00:00 02:24 Read More “This is so speculative that we would prefer not to comment on the topic,” wrote Scott Pribble, a spokesperson for Denver Public Schools. The city of Denver has helped more than 40,000 migrants in the last two years with shelter or a bus ticket elsewhere. It’s also next door to Aurora, one of two cities where Trump has said he would start his mass deportations. When pressed further, Pribble responded, “Denver Public Schools is monitoring the situation while we continue to serve, support, and protect all of our students as we always have.” Like a number of big-city districts, Denver’s school board during the first Trump administration passed a resolution promising to protect its students from immigration authorities pursuing them or their information. According to the 2017 resolution, Denver will not “grant access to our students” unless federal agents can provide a valid search warrant. The rationale has been that students cannot learn if they fear immigration agents will take them or their parents away while they’re on campus. School districts also say these policies reaffirm their students’ constitutional right to a free, public education, regardless of immigration status. ___ For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Presidents have used immigration ‘parole’ since the 1950s. Now it could disappear under Trump

Image By GISELA SALOMON Updated 6:46 AM PST, November 26, 2024 Share MIAMI (AP) — Cuba’s at one of its lowest points since the 1959 revolution, with nationwide scarcity fueling massive emigration, occasional protests and government crackdowns. Gangs control the streets of Haiti’s capital, firing on arriving jets and forcing delays in elections to replace slain President Jovenel Moïse. Nicaragua’s president has imprisoned protesters, opposition members and Catholic leaders. Severe shortages and one of the world’s highest inflation rates have helped drive nearly 8 million Venezuelans from the petrostate of 28 million people. Image FILE - Cuba’s at one of its lowest points since the 1959 revolution, with nationwide scarcity fueling massive emigration and nationwide blackouts that forced people to cook soup over an open fire in Havana after the failure of a major power plant, on Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File) Image FILE - Gangs control the streets of Haiti’s capital, clashing in street violence that leaves burned cars as sources of parts at a mechanic's shop where people scavenged in the capital, Port-au-Prince, on March 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph, File) Image FILE - Venezuelan migrant Alvaro Calderini carries his niece across a river near Bajo Chiquito, Panama, after walking across the Darien Gap from Colombia on their way north to the United States, on Nov. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File) Half a million Cubans, Haitian, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans were welcomed by President Joe Biden using a legal tool known as humanitarian parole, granted for seven decades by Republican and Democratic administrations to people unable to use standard immigration routes because of time pressure or their government’s poor relations with the U.S. Advertisement President-elect Donald Trump appears certain to dismantle this legal tool, saying during his campaign that he would end the “outrageous abuse of parole.” Trump made anti-immigration rhetoric a key part of his campaign, warning that he would kick out hundreds of thousands of migrants who entered the country under Biden programs. Related Stories 1 million migrants in the US rely on temporary protections that Trump could target 1 million migrants in the US rely on temporary protections that Trump could target Trump's return to White House sets stage for far-reaching immigration crackdown Trump's return to White House sets stage for far-reaching immigration crackdown Trump victory spurs worry among migrants abroad, but it's not expected to halt migration Trump victory spurs worry among migrants abroad, but it's not expected to halt migration “Get ready to leave because you’re going to be going out real fast,” Trump said. A giant group of people with tenuous legal status formed under Biden and many now expect their protections to vanish with a stroke of a pen. Those protections include Biden’s parole efforts; his support for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program; parole for people who entered the country on a border appointment app called CBP One and his expanded use of a law to shield people from deportation — known as Temporary Protected Status. Advertisement What’s the purpose of parole? The U.S. has a thicket of complicated immigration laws that drive many to enter the country illegally but parole allows the president to admit people “for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.” Since 1952 it has been ordered 126 times by every president, except for Trump, according to the pro-immigration Cato Institute. The Trump administration could revoke parole for everyone who has it, said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. Image FILE - Women take cover during a gun battle between police and gang members in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph, File) Going back is not an option “All immigrants are fearful,” said Manuel Castaño, a 39-year-old human rights activist from Nicaragua whose parole expires in March 2025 and has requested asylum, a process that can take years. Castaño, who works in building maintenance in South Florida, applied for parole in February 2023 after his uncle sponsored him, a requirement under the law. Less than a month later, he arrived at Miami with his wife and their 13-year-old daughter. Image Manuel Castaño, a 39-year-old human rights activist from Nicaragua who works in building maintenance in South Florida, and his daughter Emily, 13, pose for a photo on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, at their home in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee) He said he was threatened in his country and feared for his and his family in their homeland. “Going back to Nicaragua is not an option,” he said. Advertisement A focus on Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans More than a million people have been granted parole under Biden, including tens of thousands of Afghans and Ukrainians. Biden introduced parole for Venezuelans in October 2022 and expanded it in early 2023 to include Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans. These countries refuse to take back most citizens deported from the U.S. Under an aspect of parole known as CHNV, up to 30,000 people from the four countries are accepted monthly. They can obtain work authorization for two years and apply online. The goal of the tool is dissuading migrants from crossing the border illegally. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, more than 110,240 Cubans, 211,010 Haitians, 93,070 Nicaraguans, and 117,310 Venezuelans were granted parole through the end of October. Image FILE - Residents walk past a burnt car blocking the street as they evacuate the Delmas 22 neighborhood to escape gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File) The team reshaping the policies under Trump is expected to include former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Tom Homan, as “border czar;” immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff for policy; and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as head of the Department of Homeland Security. All have been outspoken opponents of Biden’s immigration policies. Kyle Varner, a 39-year-old doctor and real-estate investor from Spokane, Washington, says he has spent $150,000 on plane tickets, housing and other costs for 47 Venezuelans he’s sponsored over the last two years. Now he is desperately saving as much money as possible to pay immigration attorneys that could figure out a way for the Venezuelans to stay after Trump takes office. “I am very alarmed,” Varner said. Advertisement Legal challenges are certain Mass termination of migrants’ two-year parole terms would be subject to legal challenge but the Trump administration could simply halt new admissions and just wait until beneficiaries’ status expired, Reichlin-Melnick said. Another possibility, said Charles Kuck, a former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, is that the Trump administration could find a relatively easy way to deport people granted parole because there are official records of them and their sponsors. “Those are the easiest people to be in rounding up because the government knows where they live,” said Kuck. Image FILE - Migrants from Cuba and Venezuela line up at a Mexican immigration checkpoint as they make their way across the border for appointments to legally apply for asylum in the United States, on Nov. 5, 2024, in Tijuana, Mexico. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File) Leaving the U.S. before you’re expelled That is why Venezuelan Ireswa Lopez is already thinking of leaving the U.S. when her parole expires in March 2025. Lopez, 48, was having a hard time working at a family butcher shop in Venezuela, where food is scarce and water often contaminated. She learned that there was a program to come to the United States legally, and with a cousin’s sponsorship she flew to Miami in January 2023. Although she has found a job at an Atlanta children’s day care, she says, “I am leaving.” “Staying illegally is not in my plans,” she said. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.