Our Workforce Needs More Immigrants

Last week, among a flurry of other important Biden executive orders, the Department of Health and Human Services finalized a long-pending order on standards and staffing ratios in nursing homes. Along with other mandates, the order requires that all nursing homes that participate in Medicare or Medicaid "provide residents with a minimum total of 3.48 hours of nursing care per day, which includes at least 0.55 hours of care from a registered nurse per resident per day, and 2.45 hours of care from a nurse aide per resident per day," and that they "develop a staffing plan to maximize recruitment and retention." Also last week, Biden came under renewed pressure to extend work permits not just for the several hundred thousand asylum seekers clogging shelters in many cities, as he did earlier this month, but to the much larger number of undocumented migrants, estimated at around ten million, who are not permitted to work legally. The American Business Immigration Coalition, representing major associations that rely on immigrant workers, joined by UNITE HERE Local 1, issued a statement last Wednesday, calling on Biden to issue permits for all undocumented immigrants. Executive director Rebecca Shi said, "We are inspired by President Biden granting work permits to new migrants and ask that he extends the same dignity of a legal work permit to long term residents, including spouses of U.S. citizens." These two stories are, of course, linked. The vast majority of nursing home workers, especially nurse aides, are immigrants. There are already extreme shortages, causing some nursing homes to close, even without the new and long-overdue standards. Some of the shortages are due to the low pay, but even with better pay, nurse aides are in short supply. The same is true of the restaurant industry, where some restaurants have limited hours or have closed because they can’t find enough workers. A survey by the National Restaurant Association earlier this year found that 87 percent of restaurants say they are operating with insufficient staff. Here too, immigrants make up a high percentage of workers. The fact is that America needs more immigrants in our workforce, not fewer. Even with the enforcement crackdown, many immigrants work illegally, but they risk being deported. A more generous and comprehensive policy of work permits for immigrants would be a red flag to all the haters, who blame Biden for America’s porous Southern border. But that animus would be offset by support from business and immigrant communities. There are now more than 20 million foreign-born naturalized citizens in the U.S. legally, and they can vote. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that immigrants will increase GDP by seven trillion dollars over the next decade. Work permits for undocumented migrants would be very smart economics. It would provide more workers in occupations experiencing shortages, damp down inflationary pressures, and improve the quality of services. In human terms, it would be the right thing to do.

Border Patrol Agents Joked About Killing Migrant Children, Records Show

U.S. Border Patrol agents freely used the derogatory slur “tonk” to describe unauthorized migrants on government computers, at times while joking about killing or beating them, according to emails and text messages disclosed to HuffPost under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents, from 2017 to 2020, reveal yet another instance of the Border Patrol’s use of a slang term that officials in Washington have condemned but have struggled to stamp out. This is the second disclosure that Border Patrol personnel used the word in internal communications since HuffPost first requested a global search of its use among Border Patrol agents four years ago. ADVERTISEMENT The origin of the term is uncertain, but most insiders believe it comes from the sound made by bashing an arrested migrant’s head with a government-issued flashlight. Some of the records reference that origin story, with one agent writing: “ah, savor the sound.” A U.S. Border Patrol agent watches on Jan. 7 as migrants prepare to board a bus after crossing the border at Eagle Pass, Texas. Documents obtained by HuffPost reveal that Border Patrol agents who used a slur for migrants also at times gloated about migrants’ misfortunes or hinted at beating them. Agents also joked about killing migrant children in their custody. A U.S. Border Patrol agent watches on Jan. 7 as migrants prepare to board a bus after crossing the border at Eagle Pass, Texas. Documents obtained by HuffPost reveal that Border Patrol agents who used a slur for migrants also at times gloated about migrants’ misfortunes or hinted at beating them. Agents also joked about killing migrant children in their custody. JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES Use of the term remained surprisingly common among both rank-and-file agents and those in leadership positions, the records show. Many agents appeared to use the term as a synonym for unauthorized migrants, with little apparent derogatory intent. “Make sure to change the country of citizenship to match your tonk, (i.e. Honduras) ...” one agent wrote in a May 21, 2019, email explaining a new data collection tool. ADVERTISEMENT But the slur often appeared alongside expressions of raw contempt for the people whom Border Patrol officers police, which disproportionately included Central Americans attempting to gain entry to the United States on humanitarian grounds. Many agents wrote the term in all caps to highlight it. Several described COVID-19 as “Tonk flu,” with one agent telling a colleague, “Hope you’re wearing a mask, don’t let those dirty TONKS get you sick.” Border Patrol agents who used the slur at times gloated about migrants’ misfortunes or made references to beating them. In one instance, agents joked about killing migrant children in their custody. The El Paso Sector watch commander forwarded a request on March 4, 2019, for donations of clothing and toys for unauthorized migrant children and families traveling together. An unidentified official in the email chain noted that some agents “have performed some of these kind gestures” in the past. “I donated a car seat that expired shortly thereafter in the hopes that it would alleviate our processing number by exactly one,” one Border Patrol agent responded. “That count?” ADVERTISEMENT “We’ll leave that one out, along with the Rice Krispy Treats that [redacted] brought in one day that may have been laced with cyanide,” another agent wrote. “You call it cyanide, he calls it tonk seasoning ...” an agent responded. “The use of any derogatory language toward or in reference to others is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson wrote to HuffPost in an email. “CBP takes all allegations of misconduct seriously, whether it occurs on or off duty. All known allegations of misconduct are immediately referred to CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility, and employees must fully cooperate with any criminal or administrative investigations that may result. CBP leadership takes these allegations seriously and will determine on a case-by-case basis the appropriate actions to address the misconduct.” One agent shared a story in an email about Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arresting an unauthorized migrant in front of his daughter. The subject line on the email was “I can read these all day, they make me happy.” “Adios Tonk,” the recipient responded. “I donated a car seat that expired shortly thereafter in the hopes that it would alleviate our processing number by exactly one. That count?” - U.S. Border Patrol agent responding to call for donations of clothes and toys for migrant families Some agents described themselves as “tonk smasher” or “tonk stomper.” One agent goaded a colleague to go “smash some tonks.” When an agent complained that there were “tonks everywhere” and that officers were getting rocks thrown at them almost daily, another wrote: “Ugh, would rather crack skulls down south than be there bro.” One aging agent lamented that his “tonk arresting days might be over,” forcing him into “some office puke job.” ADVERTISEMENT Several agents appeared to reject U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s condemnation of the slur as a sign of political correctness, with many of their comments striking a right-wing political tone. In one email chain, an agent mocked another for using the word “migrants.” “Now you’re leaning left and sounding like a snowflake,” the agent wrote. “Do you know how hard it is for me not to drop ‘F’ bombs and say tonk??” the other agent responded. “I know... embrace your disability, let those F-bombs drop with wanton disregard for the innocent ears you will forever rape with your vitriolic symphony of pooty laced verbiage,” the original agent responded. In another exchange, an agent shared a story from the right-wing news website The Blaze describing how a New York City housing discrimination policy could lead to fines of $250,000 for calling people “illegal immigrants.” “I wonder what ‘Tonk’ would have cost someone,” an agent responded. Few outside the U.S. Border Patrol were familiar with the slur “tonk” until former President Donald Trump took office. His controversial first pick to head U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Thomas Homan, got his start in the Border Patrol and used the slur in Washington. Democratic senators weighing his confirmation sharply condemned Homan’s use of the term after HuffPost first disclosed it in a 2018 profile. Homan resigned two months later and never appeared for a confirmation hearing. The prosecution of Border Patrol Agent Matthew Bowen for striking a Guatemalan migrant with a government truck also cast a spotlight on the term. Bowen referred to unauthorized migrants as “tonks,” “Guats” and “disgusting subhuman shit unworthy of being kindling for a fire” in text messages that appeared in court filings. (Bowen ultimately pleaded guilty in August 2019 to a single misdemeanor civil rights violation and avoided trial.) ADVERTISEMENT Despite publicly discouraging use of the slur, the emails indicate that in some areas, leadership remained aware of its widespread use and only reluctantly tried to tamp it down after the news media brought greater attention to it. “As per upper management, we have been told to remove all coins that have the word ‘TONK’ on it,” one agent wrote in an email sent Aug. 7, 2019, describing plans for a luncheon and Christmas party. “They have expressed that with all of the recent media attention our agency has been undergoing, the last thing they want is for someone to get in trouble.” One official showed contrition for his past use of the term. In June 2020, as protests over the police murder of a Black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis spread across the country, an assistant chief of the Border Patrol in Washington, D.C., emailed a colleague looking for a “sanity check” on notes he had prepared to raise concerns about racism in law enforcement. The assistant chief planned to ask whether then-Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott would be willing to say “Black lives matter” without adding “All lives matter” or “Blue lives matter.” “Racism is not just a police problem, but we as law enforcement have power and authority,” the assistant chief planned to say. “And that means we have a duty to call it out and not just say something but do something.” ADVERTISEMENT He also planned to ask whether his colleagues had seen the comments made on “that dishonorable Border Patrol Facebook Page.” “I did, but I didn’t say anything,” the assistant chief wrote in the email to his colleague. “Some time ago, I recall hearing agents say Tonk in Headquarters,” the notes say. “Again, I didn’t say anything. And I remember saying it as a younger agent. Shame on me.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

US, Mexico to clamp down on illegal immigration, leaders say

WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY, April 29 (Reuters) - The United States and Mexico plan to clamp down on illegal immigration at their shared border, leaders from both countries said on Monday, vowing to disrupt irregular crossings that have reached record levels in recent years. In a phone conversation on Sunday, U.S. President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said their administrations would soon take steps to decrease illegal crossings while also addressing the economic and security problems that cause people to migrate. Advertisement · Scroll to continue Report this ad "In the short term, the two leaders ordered their national security teams to work together to immediately implement concrete measures to significantly reduce irregular border crossings while protecting human rights," the leaders said in a joint statement Biden, a Democrat seeking another four-year term in the Nov. 5 election, has toughened his approach to border security in recent months as immigration has emerged as a top concern among voting-age Americans. Advertisement · Scroll to continue Report this ad Republicans, including Biden's opponent, former President Donald Trump, have criticized the president for rolling back restrictive Trump-era border policies and failing to stem higher levels of illegal crossings. The White House has considered utilizing Biden's executive authority to block migrants at the border, Reuters has reported, but such a move could trigger legal challenges and backlash from some Democrats. 00:20 At least 25 dead in Peru after bus crashes in ravine White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week that the Biden administration still supports the bill but that "we're always going to look at our options." Mexico will hold a presidential election on June 2 although immigration is not a top voter concern, opens new tab, according to public opinion polls. Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, Lopez Obrador's successor in the leftist National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), remains the frontrunner to win the election. Lopez Obrador told reporters on Monday he had spoken with Biden about keeping the countries' border open to legal immigration "but not allowing irregular migration." The U.S. Border Patrol caught, opens new tab a monthly record of 250,000 migrants crossing illegally in December, but numbers have dropped significantly since then, with 137,000 arrests in March. Lopez Obrador attributed the reduced arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border in part to social programs Mexico has backed in other Latin American countries from where migrants originate. U.S. and Mexican officials have cited increased enforcement by Mexico as a factor contributing to the decrease in crossings. The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here. Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington, Raul Cortes and Kylie Madry in Mexico City; Editing by Brendan O'Boyle, Mica Rosenberg, Nick Macfie and Jonathan Oatis For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

USCIS Forms Update Notice

Good afternoon, We recently updated the following USCIS form(s): Form G-1055, Fee Schedule 04/26/2024 03:13 PM EDT Edition Date: 04/26/24. You can find the edition date at the bottom of the page of Form G-1055, Fee Schedule. For more information, please visit our Forms Updates page.

USCIS Reminds Certain Employment-Based Petitioners to Submit the Correct Required Fees

We are updating our Frequently Asked Questions on the USCIS Fee Rule to help certain employment-based petitioners understand how to submit the correct required fees. New FAQ: Q. How can I make sure that my filing is not rejected at intake for incorrect fees? A. At intake, we determine whether the payment you submitted matches the correct fees due. If you do not submit the correct fee, we must reject your form, even if you have submitted an overpayment. Please see our Filing Fees page for more details. If you are submitting one of the following forms, the required fees depend on how you answer the form’s questions about your status as a nonprofit or small employer. Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker: Part 1, Question 6 asks “Are you a nonprofit organized as tax exempt or a governmental research organization?” If you answer “Yes,” then you must submit the proper payment for a nonprofit, and not for a small employer. To determine whether you qualify as a nonprofit, please refer to page 7 of the Form I-129 Instructions. Part 5, Question 15 asks “Do you currently employ a total of 25 or fewer full-time equivalent employees in the United States, including all affiliates or subsidiaries of this company/organization?” If you answer “Yes,” then you must submit the proper payment for a small employer (unless you checked “Yes” in Part 1, Question 6 for nonprofits, as described above). In addition, Part 5, Question 14 asks for your “Current Number of Employees in the United States.” If you check “Yes” to Part 5, Question 15, and you answer Question 14 with a number greater than 25, then your supporting documentation should demonstrate how you calculated the number of full-time equivalent employees as 25 or fewer. If we cannot determine the number of full-time equivalent employees, we may reject your petition. Form I-129CW, Petition for a CNMI-Only Nonimmigrant Transitional Worker: Part 1, Question 8 asks “Are you a nonprofit organized as tax exempt or a governmental research organization?” If you answer “Yes,” then you must submit the proper payment for a nonprofit, and not for a small employer. To determine whether you qualify as a nonprofit, please refer to page 3 of the Form I-129CW Instructions. Part 5, Question 14 asks “Do you currently employ a total of 25 or fewer full-time equivalent employees in the United States, including all affiliates or subsidiaries of this company/organization?” If you answer “Yes,” then you must submit the proper payment for a small employer (unless you checked “Yes” in Part 1, Question 8 for nonprofits, as described above). In addition, Part 5, Question 13 asks for your “Current Number of Employees in the United States.” If you check “Yes” to Part 5, Question 14, and you answer Question 13 with a number greater than 25, then your supporting documentation should demonstrate how you calculated the number of full-time equivalent employees as 25 or fewer. If we cannot determine the number of full-time equivalent employees, we may reject your petition. Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers: Part 1, Question 5 asks “Are you a nonprofit organized as tax exempt or a governmental research organization?” If you answer “Yes,” then you must submit the proper payment for a nonprofit, and not for a small employer. To determine whether you qualify as a nonprofit, please refer to page 3 of the Form I-140 Instructions. Part 1, Question 6 asks “Do you currently employ a total of 25 or fewer full-time equivalent employees in the United States, including all affiliates or subsidiaries of this company/organization?” If you answer “Yes,” then you must submit the proper payment for a small employer (unless you checked “Yes” in Part 1, Question 5 for nonprofits, as described above). In addition, Part 5, Question 4 asks for your “Current Number of U.S. Employees.” If you check “Yes” to Part 1, Question 6, and you answer Part 5, Question 4 with a number greater than 25, then your supporting documentation should demonstrate how you calculated the number of full-time equivalent employees as 25 or fewer. If we cannot determine the number of full-time equivalent employees, we may reject your petition. Existing FAQs: For your convenience, we are also highlighting the below existing FAQs. Q. What is the Asylum Program Fee and who pays it? A. The Asylum Program Fee ($600) is a new fee paid by employers who file either Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker; Form I-129CW, Petition for a CNMI-Only Nonimmigrant Transitional Worker; or Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker. This fee helps fund the asylum program. The fee rule includes special discounts for nonprofits and small employers, as described further below. All the work at USCIS is connected—when we have a more fully funded corps of asylum officers, our non-asylum officers can concentrate more exclusively on adjudicating cases from employers and other filers, bringing down processing times for everyone. Q. How do I pay the Asylum Program Fee? Is there a separate form or paperwork? A. Payment of the Asylum Program Fee does not require a separate form or paperwork. If you pay by check or money order, you should submit the Asylum Program Fee separately. If you pay online by credit card, you may use one credit card form for all fees, including the Asylum Program fee. Q. If separate fees are required when I file multiple forms together, may I pay with one check? A. No. We are transitioning to electronically processing immigration benefit requests, which requires us to use multiple systems to process multi-form submissions. We may reject your entire package if you submit a single, combined payment for multiple forms. Q. If I file forms online such as an H-1B petition (Form I-129) on or after April 1, 2024, may I submit one credit card form that includes the total filing fee amount (Form I-129 fee, anti-fraud fee, American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act fee, Asylum Program Fee, and premium processing filing fee if applicable)? A. Yes. You may submit one credit card form for the entire fee amount, including the form fee and additional fees. Q. How does the Asylum Program Fee apply when submitting multiple petitions due to the limit of 25 named beneficiaries on each petition? A. The petitioning employer must pay the appropriate Asylum Program Fee for each Form I-129 filed, unless they qualify for the nonprofit exemption discussed further below. Q. What are the fee discounts for small employers? A. The fee rule defines small employer petitioners as those with 25 or fewer full-time equivalent employees. Such petitioners will pay $300 rather than the full $600 for the Asylum Program Fee. In addition, for the fees for Form I-129 and Form I-129CW, small employers will pay a discounted fee of up to 50% off. For the precise discounted fees, please see the full fee schedule, Form G-1055. Q. What is a “full-time equivalent employee” in determining whether a petitioner qualifies for the small-employer discounts to the Form I-129 fee and Asylum Program Fee? A. Generally, the number of full-time equivalent employees equals the number of full-time employees plus the number of part-time employees aggregated to full-time equivalents at the time of filing. The IRS defines an employee as an individual who receives “wages,” with applicable taxes deducted, along with Social Security and unemployment deductions, and who receives a W-2 reporting their income. Q. Do noncitizen workers count toward the number of full-time equivalent employees? A. You should count all current workers you employ at the time of filing, regardless of immigration status. Q. Do seasonal workers count as full-time equivalent employees? A. Full-time equivalent employees include seasonal nonimmigrant workers if they are paid as employees, not contractors. You should count all seasonal workers you employ at the time of filing. Q. Do the beneficiaries on the petition count as full-time equivalent employees? A. The beneficiary of a petition does not count as an employee unless they are currently working for the petitioner as an employee at the time of filing. Q. Should a petitioner count only those full-time equivalent employees listed under the petitioner’s Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN)? What about employees listed under affiliated FEINs (for example, affiliated offices in different regions)? A. Petitioners should include all the petitioner’s full-time equivalent employees in the United States, including its affiliates and subsidiaries. The petitioner should not, however, include additional employees from the petitioning employer’s parent company or the parents of any affiliates. In other words, in an organizational chart that begins with the petitioner, count down and horizontally, including the petitioning employer’s affiliates and subsidiaries, but do not count upward toward the petitioner’s parent or its affiliates’ parents. Q. What proof is needed to show the number of full-time equivalent employees? A. The instructions for Forms I-129 and I-140 state that possible evidence includes a copy of the petitioner’s most recent IRS Form 941, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Return; or IRS Form 943, Employer’ Annual Tax Return for Agricultural Workers. However, petitioners may submit any relevant evidence that shows the number of full-time equivalent employees by a preponderance of the evidence. Q. Because the IRS Form 941 includes salary information, can petitioners redact this information for privacy reasons? A. Yes. Such redaction is permissible when the evidence is only to support eligibility for a reduced fee and the redacted information is not otherwise relevant to the adjudication. Q. What additional information or evidence should a petitioner submit if they employ fewer full-time equivalent employees than the number of employees listed on IRS Form 941 or 943? A. Petitioning employers may submit any relevant evidence to show their actual number of full-time equivalent employees and must establish that number by a preponderance of the evidence. The petitioning employer should explain why the actual number of full-time equivalent employees differs from the number on their Form 941 or Form 943. Q. For H-2A petitions filed by a U.S. agricultural producer association that is named as a joint employer on the temporary labor certification, would each joint employer have to submit evidence of their number of full-time equivalent employees with the Form I-129? Or just the association? A. The fee reduction for small employers is based on the number of full-time equivalent employees of the petitioning employer. This employee count does not involve joint employers listed on the temporary labor certification unless they are affiliates or subsidiaries of the petitioner. Q. Will petitioning employers that use a professional employer organization (PEO) still be subject to the full Asylum Program Fee even if the petitioning company has 25 or fewer employees? A. Petitioning employers who outsource certain functions through a PEO should not count the PEO’s full-time equivalent employees in determining whether the petitioner qualifies as a small employer. However, in the absence of a Form 941, the petitioner must submit alternate documentation to confirm how many full-time equivalent employees they currently employ.

USCIS Strengthens T Nonimmigrant Visa Program and Protections for Trafficking Victims

WASHINGTON—The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced a final rule to strengthen the integrity of the T nonimmigrant status (T visa) and ensure eligible victims of human trafficking can access protections and stabilizing benefits on a timely manner. T nonimmigrant status enables certain victims of human trafficking to remain in the United States for an initial period of up to four years. “We are dedicated to protecting victims of human trafficking and minimizing any potential barriers to assistance,” said USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou. “This final rule has been many years in the making, and I am thrilled the T visa program now has a firm regulatory framework to support it. Ultimately, this makes our approach more victim-centered and strengthens the integrity of the T visa application process so the program better protects victims, as Congress intended.” Human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons, is a crime in which traffickers use force, fraud, or coercion to compel individuals to provide labor or services, including commercial sex. Traffickers often take advantage of vulnerable individuals, including those lacking lawful immigration status. In some cases, people who are smuggled into the United States may become victims of human trafficking or exploitation during their journeys or upon reaching their destination. DHS is committed to protecting communities from an increased threat of human trafficking through strong border enforcement and enhanced consequences for those who do not avail themselves to the many expanded lawful pathways. T nonimmigrant status offers protection to victims and strengthens the ability of law enforcement agencies to detect, investigate, and prosecute human trafficking. This final rule clarifies T nonimmigrant status eligibility and application requirements and includes provisions to reduce potential barriers to victims and enable USCIS officers to adjudicate victims’ applications more efficiently. The final rule also improves the program’s integrity by clarifying the reporting and evidentiary requirements for victims of trafficking, which will better help law enforcement act on reports of trafficking. Key elements of the final rule include: Updating and clarifying definitions – including serious harm, abuse, and law enforcement agency – to ensure consistency and standards as described in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, as amended; Improving program efficiency by clarifying reporting and evidentiary requirements on the outset to decrease requests for additional evidence; Streamlining law enforcement agencies’ ability to act on reports of trafficking by requiring victims to report instances of trafficking to the correct law enforcement of jurisdiction; and Simplifying the bona fide determination and adjudication process, while continuing to uphold fraud prevention measures. In 2016, DHS published an interim rule to respond to public feedback on the T visa program, clarify requirements based on statutory changes, formalize the experience gained from operating the program for more than 14 years, and amend provisions as required by intervening legislation. In July 2021, DHS reopened the public comment period for this interim rule for 30 days and subsequently extended the deadline for comments. This final rule adopts the changes in effect from the 2016 interim rule, clarifies the existing regulatory framework, and substantively addresses the public comments received. DHS is on the frontlines of combating human trafficking, protecting the country and collaborating with our partners to stop these crimes. Launched in 2020, the DHS Center for Countering Human Trafficking coordinates the efforts of 16 DHS offices and components to combat human trafficking through law enforcement operations, victim protection and support, intelligence and analysis, and public education and training programs. Through the Blue Campaign, the DHS Center for Countering Human Trafficking leads the Department’s national public awareness effort to combat human trafficking. DHS’s ongoing efforts to address online child sexual exploitation and abuse comes after the Department’s Quadrennial Homeland Security Review added combating crimes of exploitation and protecting victims as a sixth mission area in April 2023. Learn more about recent DHS efforts to combat child exploitation and abuse. For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit uscis.gov or follow USCIS on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Ballooning immigrant detention enrages advocates

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

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

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

Immigration advocates see work permits as Biden’s best option

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

Ballooning immigrant detention enrages advocates

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

What Immigrants Bring To America

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

Without Expanded DACA Protections, Undocumented Students Are Being Left Behind

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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