Harris goes on offensive on immigration, comparing her record with Trump’s

Vice President Kamala Harris went on the offensive on immigration at her rally in Atlanta Tuesday, attempting to counter former President Donald Trump’s attacks on the issue. She touted her role as a California attorney general who prosecuted transnational gangs, drug cartels and human traffickers, then blamed Trump for “tanking” this year’s bipartisan border bill on Capitol Hill “because he thought it would help him win an election.” “Donald Trump does not care about border security, he only cares about himself,” Harris said, adding that she would work to pass the bill as president. “In this campaign, I will proudly put my record against his any day,” she said in a high-profile visit to Georgia that comes early in her bid and signals the campaign’s renewed push to put the state in play for Democrats. She also called on Trump to debate her, drawing loud cheers from the crowd when she said, “Because as the saying goes, if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face.” The Harris campaign earlier Tuesday previewed how it will be responding to Trump’s attacks falsely casting her as the administration’s “border czar” with a new 50-second campaign video. It paints Trump as unserious on border security and cites his decision to scuttle the bipartisan immigration deal that included some of the toughest border security measures in recent memory. “Kamala Harris supports increasing the number of Border Patrol agents. Donald Trump blocked a bill to increase the number of Border Patrol agents,” the voiceover in the video states, similarly citing Harris’ support for investing in new technology to block fentanyl from entering the US. “Kamala Harris prosecuted transnational gang members and got them sentenced to prison. Trump is trying to avoid being sentenced to prison,” it continues, concluding with: “There’s two choices in this election: The one who will fix our broken immigration system and the one who is trying to stop her.” The video will be shared on social media, though it’s unclear whether the campaign will put money behind it and blast it on airwaves. It doesn’t make mention of the Republican label “border czar.” The management of the US-Mexico border had been a political liability for President Joe Biden, and it is now following Harris as Trump seizes on her task to address the root causes of migration in Central America. Ad wars heat up between Trump and Harris The video comes on the heels of two Trump campaign ads taking direct aim at Harris’ immigration portfolio. Both Trump campaign ads, released this week, pull from a 2021 NBC interview where Harris was pressed about the fact that she hadn’t yet visited the US-Mexico border and she stumbled through a response by claiming she also hadn’t yet gone to Europe — an answer that perplexed administration officials at the time. While another shows a video of Harris dancing at an event, stating: “This is America’s border czar — and she’s failed us.” Both ads conclude by describing Harris as “failed. Weak. Dangerously liberal.” Harris’ root cause work dates to March 2021. During an influx of unaccompanied migrant children, Biden tasked the vice president with overseeing diplomatic efforts in Central America, but in the last three years, her assignment has been bundled with the administration’s larger migration issues. Biden administration officials have repeatedly maintained that Harris focused on long-term fixes, while the Department of Homeland Security remained responsible for overseeing border security. This story has been updated with additional remarks from Harris. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

USCIS Will Conduct Second Random Selection for Regular Cap from Previously Submitted FY 2025 H-1B Cap Registrations

In March, USCIS conducted an initial random selection on properly submitted electronic registrations for the fiscal year 2025 H-1B cap, including for beneficiaries eligible for the advanced degree exemption. Only those petitioners with selected registrations for FY 2025 are eligible to file H-1B cap-subject petitions during the filing period on their registration selection notice. The initial filing period for those with selected registrations for FY 2025 was from April 1 through June 30, 2024. We recently determined that we would need to select additional registrations for unique beneficiaries to reach the FY 2025 regular cap numerical allocation. Soon, we will select additional registrations for unique beneficiaries from previously submitted electronic registrations using a random selection process, and we will notify prospective petitioners with selected registrations from this second round of selection that they are eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition for the beneficiary named in the applicable selected registration. We will announce when we have completed this second process of selections and notifications. We will not be conducting a second selection for the advanced degree exemption (the master’s cap), as enough master’s cap registrations were already selected and sufficient petitions were received based on those registrations as projected to meet the FY 2025 masters cap numerical allocation. The second round of selection for the regular cap will include previously submitted registrations that indicated eligibility for the master’s cap along with those that indicated only eligibility for the regular cap. Those with selected registrations will have their USCIS online accounts updated to include a selection notice, which includes details of when and where to file.

Doe v. Garland - filed July 29, 2024

Immigration Law A district court erred in exercising jurisdiction over a detained alien’s habeas petition where he failed to name his immediate custodian as respondent and filed the petition outside the district of his confinement. Doe v. Garland - filed July 29, 2024 Cite as 2024 S.O.S. 23-15361 Full text click here >http://sos.metnews.com/sos.cgi?0724//23-15361.

USCIS to Begin Triennial Investment and Revenue Threshold Updates for International Entrepreneur Rule

Effective Oct. 1, 2024, we will increase the investment and revenue thresholds under the International Entrepreneur Rule, as required every three years. The application fee will not change, however. Background The International Entrepreneur Rule, published in 2017, provides a framework for the Department of Homeland Security to use its parole authority to grant a period of authorized stay, on a case-by-case basis, to noncitizen entrepreneurs who would provide a significant public benefit through their startup entity’s potential for rapid growth and job creation. If granted parole, the entrepreneur would be authorized to work for their startup entity incident to their parole, and their spouse, if also granted parole, would be eligible to apply for employment authorization to work in the United States. We recently updated our International Entrepreneur Rule FAQs, highlighting that we have no backlog, and we look forward to adjudicating new applications as quickly as possible. The final International Entrepreneur Rule required that USCIS adjust the investment and revenue thresholds in 8 CFR 212.19 for inflation every three years. The next automatic adjustment will take effect on Oct. 1, 2024. Key Changes As required by regulation, we will make the following dollar figure adjustments: For an initial application, entrepreneurs must demonstrate the startup entity’s substantial potential for rapid growth and job creation by showing at least $311,071 (currently $264,147) in qualified investments from qualifying investors, at least $124,429 (currently $105,659) in qualified government awards or grants, or, if only partially meeting the threshold investment or award criteria, alternative reliable and compelling evidence of the start-up entity’s substantial potential for rapid growth and job creation. For a second period of authorized stay under the International Entrepreneur Rule, the entrepreneur generally must demonstrate that the start-up entity has either: Received a qualified investment, qualified government grants or awards, or a combination of such funding, of at least $622,142 (currently $528,293); Created at least five qualified jobs; or Reached annual revenue in the United States of at least $622,142 (currently $528,293) and averaged at least 20% in annual revenue growth. The definition of a “qualified investor” requires the investor to have a history of substantial investment in successful startup entities. We generally consider such an individual or organization a qualified investor if, during the preceding five years, the following apply: The individual or organization made investments in startup entities of at least $746,571 (currently $633,952) in total, in exchange for equity, convertible debt, or other security convertible into equity commonly used in financing transactions within the startup entities’ respective industries; and After such investment by such individual or organization, at least two such startup entities each created at least five qualified jobs or generated at least $622,142 (currently $528,293) in revenue with average annualized revenue growth of at least 20%. DHS will publish the adjusted dollar amounts in a final rule on July 25, 2024. The final rule will be effective on Oct. 1, 2024. Again, the application fee will not change at this time.

USCIS to Begin Triennial Investment and Revenue Threshold Updates for International Entrepreneur Rule

Effective Oct. 1, 2024, we will increase the investment and revenue thresholds under the International Entrepreneur Rule, as required every three years. The application fee will not change, however. Background The International Entrepreneur Rule, published in 2017, provides a framework for the Department of Homeland Security to use its parole authority to grant a period of authorized stay, on a case-by-case basis, to noncitizen entrepreneurs who would provide a significant public benefit through their startup entity’s potential for rapid growth and job creation. If granted parole, the entrepreneur would be authorized to work for their startup entity incident to their parole, and their spouse, if also granted parole, would be eligible to apply for employment authorization to work in the United States. We recently updated our International Entrepreneur Rule FAQs, highlighting that we have no backlog, and we look forward to adjudicating new applications as quickly as possible. The final International Entrepreneur Rule required that USCIS adjust the investment and revenue thresholds in 8 CFR 212.19 for inflation every three years. The next automatic adjustment will take effect on Oct. 1, 2024. Key Changes As required by regulation, we will make the following dollar figure adjustments: For an initial application, entrepreneurs must demonstrate the startup entity’s substantial potential for rapid growth and job creation by showing at least $311,071 (currently $264,147) in qualified investments from qualifying investors, at least $124,429 (currently $105,659) in qualified government awards or grants, or, if only partially meeting the threshold investment or award criteria, alternative reliable and compelling evidence of the start-up entity’s substantial potential for rapid growth and job creation. For a second period of authorized stay under the International Entrepreneur Rule, the entrepreneur generally must demonstrate that the start-up entity has either: Received a qualified investment, qualified government grants or awards, or a combination of such funding, of at least $622,142 (currently $528,293); Created at least five qualified jobs; or Reached annual revenue in the United States of at least $622,142 (currently $528,293) and averaged at least 20% in annual revenue growth. The definition of a “qualified investor” requires the investor to have a history of substantial investment in successful startup entities. We generally consider such an individual or organization a qualified investor if, during the preceding five years, the following apply: The individual or organization made investments in startup entities of at least $746,571 (currently $633,952) in total, in exchange for equity, convertible debt, or other security convertible into equity commonly used in financing transactions within the startup entities’ respective industries; and After such investment by such individual or organization, at least two such startup entities each created at least five qualified jobs or generated at least $622,142 (currently $528,293) in revenue with average annualized revenue growth of at least 20%. DHS will publish the adjusted dollar amounts in a final rule on July 25, 2024. The final rule will be effective on Oct. 1, 2024. Again, the application fee will not change at this time.

Vance’s selection solidifies Trump’s hold over the GOP

Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s selection as Donald Trump’s running mate has cemented the Republican Party’s reorientation away from the internationalist approach to the world that characterized it for the six decades before his rise. In his brief political career, Vance has embraced militantly isolationist, protectionist, and anti-immigration positions — the three critical elements of the defensive nationalism that Trump has stamped on the GOP. Trump’s pick reflects his confidence that he has subdued resistance in his party to his agenda for global affairs, which includes retreat from traditional alliances, soaring tariffs and severe measures against undocumented immigration, including mass deportations. “We don’t have any more mixed signals,” said Bill Kristol, a long-time conservative strategist turned Trump critic. “We now have Trump and a younger and more committed version of Trump. It’s just a decisive move toward America First on foreign policy.” Trump’s selection of Vance is one of the clearest barometers of the former president’s tightening hold over the GOP. In 2016, Trump felt compelled to choose as his vice president Mike Pence, who provided a bridge to an array of constituencies suspicious of the New York business executive at that point. Those included Christian conservatives, the business community, congressional insiders and traditional Republican foreign policy hawks shaped by Ronald Reagan’s vision of the US as the muscular leader of the free world. This time Trump felt impregnable enough inside the GOP to choose a running mate who doesn’t offer outreach to any of those groups (except, to some extent, social conservatives). Instead, with Vance, Trump chose an acolyte and potential successor who could deepen and extend the direction the former president has set for the party. While Trump in 2016 “needed to play the politician” in mollifying other Republican factions, “now Trump doesn’t need anyone in the party – he has conquered everyone,” said Geoffrey Kabaservice, director of political studies at the libertarian Niskanen Center and author of a history of moderate Republicans. “Even people who said terrible things about him have bent the knee. And he thinks anyone who has voted for any stripe of Republican has no choice but to go along with this new definition of what the Republican Party is.” The distance between that “new definition” and the GOP’s traditions before Trump may be the greatest in the intertwined issues revolving around America’s interactions with the world. Trump’s rise represents a kind of bookend to one of the most consequential moments in the GOP’s history. In the 1952 GOP primary, Dwight Eisenhower, who championed international alliances and close ties with Europe to contain the Soviet Union, defeated Sen. Robert Taft, who was skeptical of all those ideas. Eisenhower’s victory over Taft proved a turning point. As I’ve written, “Every Republican presidential nominee over the next six decades – a list that extended from Richard Nixon through Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney – identified more with the internationalist than isolationist wing of the party.” Isolationism reminiscent of Taft, joined with protectionism and nativism, first resurfaced as a force in the GOP with Patrick J. Buchanan’s two presidential campaigns in 1992 and 1996. But it wasn’t until Trump’s ascent in 2016 that a candidate who departed from the party’s internationalist consensus claimed the nomination. In office, Trump moved away from the GOP’s traditional free trade stance, imposing 25% tariffs on an array of foreign imports (not only from China but also Europe and even Canada) and renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement started under George H.W. Bush. He pursued hard-edged policies to restrict undocumented immigration (including building miles of border wall and separating migrant children from their parents at the border). And he expressed deep skepticism about the value of America’s traditional alliances in Europe and Asia: John Bolton, who served as his national security adviser at the time, has said publicly that he feared Trump was on the brink of quitting NATO at a 2018 meeting of the alliance. One senior national security official in Trump’s first term, who asked for anonymity to candidly describe direct conversations with him, told me that the ex-president fundamentally did not accept the dominant view in both parties since World War II that the US benefited from having friendly allies cooperating in a rules-based international system. “He wouldn’t see that keeping Europe safe and free is in our security interests, let alone our economic ones,” the official said. “He simply can’t get beyond the fact that many of our allies are not contributing their fair share to our collective security, whether it is in Europe or Asia.” While Trump faced relatively little internal resistance over his hardline policies on trade and immigration, his determination to retreat from international alliances was limited by opposition from many of his senior national security officials, who had roots in the party’s Reaganite internationalist traditions. Those included national security advisers Bolton and H.R. McMaster, Defense Secretaries James Mattis and Mark Esper, and Secretaries of State Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo. To many observers, Trump’s selection of Vance sent an unmistakable signal that the former president no longer feels compelled to defer to such voices. “If you had any hope that a second Trump administration might be persuaded to have a more balanced policy towards Europe, and particularly Ukraine, that hope was dashed by the pick of Vance,” said Ivo Daalder, CEO of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and US ambassador to NATO under President Barack Obama. The GOP’s internationalist wing is still substantial in the Senate, noted Richard Fontaine, the former foreign policy adviser to the late Republican Sen. John McCain and now the CEO of the Center for a New American Security, a centrist thinktank. But they would have very limited levers to compel Trump to play a more engaged international role, he said. While Congress can try to restrain a “maximalist” president pursuing an expansive foreign policy agenda, Fontaine said, there’s little it can do to force action from a president “closer to a minimalist” in his view about American commitments. With an eye on a possible second Trump presidency, Congress has passed legislation preventing a future president from formally quitting NATO without legislative approval. But if Trump simply refuses to dispatch US troops to repel a future Russian attack, “there is no one who can compel him to defend NATO allies,” said Fontaine, co-author of the new book, “Lost Decade: The US Pivot to Asia and the Rise of Chinese Power.” In Vance, Trump has picked a running mate and governing partner likely to nudge his boss further toward a retreat from the world. “Vance is the real deal: He is a mini-Trump and he will reinforce Trump’s instincts,” said Matthias Matthijs, a professor of international political economy at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies. “This is America alone, draw up the drawbridge.” Since entering politics, Vance has been a full-throated supporter of each element of Trump’s defensive nationalism. Vance’s first campaign ad in his 2022 Senate race highlighted his support for Trump’s border wall and forcefully rejected the idea that hostility to undocumented immigration was racist. In the Senate, Vance has backed trade restrictions and, in one of his first interviews after his nomination for vice president, the Ohio Republican unreservedly seconded Trump’s skepticism of traditional free trade agreements. “NAFTA destroyed the manufacturing economy in Pennsylvania and Michigan, a real estate developer from New York, Donald Trump was actually right about that issue,” Vance told Fox News. Vance has been most unequivocal in criticizing the internationalist approach to foreign policy centered on robust alliances. He has been among the most unbending Republican opponents of continued aid to Ukraine; although larger numbers of Republican senators opposed earlier versions of the aid, Vance was one of just 15 GOP senators who voted against the final $95 billion package of aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan this spring. “I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another,” Vance told Steve Bannon in an interview soon after Russia’s unprovoked invasion. “I’m sick of Joe Biden focusing on the border of a country I don’t care about while he lets the border of his own country become a total war zone.” Later in a debate on the Senate floor, Vance issued a sweeping denunciation of the nation’s internationalist tradition that linked America’s assistance to Ukraine to the nation’s frustrating interventions in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. “The bipartisan consensus in American foreign policy has led to effectively graveyard after graveyard after graveyard, [and] $34 trillion in debt,” Vance declared. “We have purchased on the backs of our children and grandchildren a number of graveyards all across the world.” To the beleaguered Republicans upholding the party’s internationalist banner, Vance’s selection was an ominous portent. “They are celebrating that choice both in Milwaukee tonight and in Moscow,” former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said after Trump announced the selection last week while Republicans were gathered in Wisconsin for the convention. Likewise, Bolton said of Vance and Trump: “The bottom line is these are candidates who do not fundamentally understand that a strong American presence in the world is good for us here at home.” But while the remaining Reaganite internationalists in the GOP were disappointed by Vance’s selection, they could not have been surprised. On each of the key elements of defensive nationalism, Trump has indicated that he intends to push much further in a second term than he did in a first. On immigration, beyond completing his border wall and requiring asylum seekers to “remain in Mexico” while their cases are adjudicated, Trump has pledged to deport an unprecedented number of undocumented immigrants already living in the US, complete with detention camps and use of the National Guard to round up deportees. On trade, Trump has moved far beyond his first-term actions to promise sweeping tariffs of 10% on all imports and additional levies of 60% or more on products from China. He’s openly mused that he might seek to fundamentally reorient the federal budget by raising tariffs high enough to replace the federal income tax – which budget experts point out is a mathematical impossibility. Trump’s skepticism of international alliances remains undiminished. In one of the campaign videos he’s used to sketch out a second term agenda, Trump says that if reelected, he would “finish the process we began under my administration of fundamentally reevaluating NATO’s purpose and NATO’s mission.” Policy analysts at the Center for Renewing America, a thinktank attempting to define a Trump second term agenda, have sketched plans for what they call a “Dormant NATO,” with the US technically still within the alliance but reduced to a minimal role. In an interview with Businessweek published last week, Trump even cast doubt on whether he would defend Taiwan from an invasion by China — a commitment that has been a deliberately ambiguous, but enduring, pillar of American foreign policy. (Biden on multiple occasions has explicitly pledged to defend the island.) Trump cited the logistical challenges involved (“Taiwan is 9,500 miles away,” he said. “It’s 68 miles away from China”), but also raised philosophical objections to defending Taiwan. After complaining that Taiwan “did take about 100%” of the US semiconductor business, Trump insisted, “I think, Taiwan should pay us for defense. You know, we’re no different than an insurance company.” Trump’s skepticism about defending Taiwan placed him even further on the isolationist spectrum than Vance. Like Taft and other GOP isolationists in the 1940s and 1950s, Vance has argued for reducing US involvement in Europe to free resources to confront China in Asia. Fontaine said all evidence suggests Trump doesn’t view China much differently than any other country, including long-standing allies, that he believes “have taken advantage of us for a long time.” Trump, though, does share his running mate’s desire to decouple from Europe. Beyond Trump’s general suspicion of NATO, that instinct will likely be felt most immediately in an effort to force Ukraine to reach a negotiated settlement that requires Kyiv to make significant territorial concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Vance has publicly called for such a deal on multiple occasions.) A reelected Trump would likely pressure Ukraine by threatening to cut off arms shipments if it doesn’t reach an agreement. But Daalder, like other experts, believes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would resist such pressure and fight on. The idea that a Trump administration could “deliver a peace that no one else can is a figment of their imagination,” Daalder said. “The reality is the Ukrainians will fight until the very, very bitter end in order to defend themselves, and they are not going to listen to Donald Trump or J.D. Vance about whether that continues.” Matthijs believes Putin might be equally resistant to a negotiated settlement. “I think he wants it all still,” Matthijs said. “He wants Trump eventually to say ‘I don’t care,’ and is betting on the fact that the Europeans will eventually fall apart over it.” A reelected Trump who denies or diminishes aid to Ukraine, but cannot force an end to the fighting, might expose himself to grave political risk, two right-leaning foreign policy analysts recently argued in an article for The Bulwark, an online publication published by conservatives critical of Trump. “The fall of Kabul and Afghanistan to the Taliban in the summer of 2021 was an ugly disaster for the Biden presidency, one for which it has been rightly excoriated,” wrote Aaron Friedberg and Gabriel Schoenfeld. “The fall of Kyiv and Ukraine to the Russians, if Trump and Vance have their way, has the potential to be far uglier. … Unlike in Afghanistan, the horror show will unfold on television in the heart of Europe.” That prospect is only one of the political risks Trump’s defensive nationalism could pose. Economic forecasters have projected that the combination of Trump’s sweeping tariffs and mass deportations could reignite inflation. And while polls show substantial support today for mass deportation, many are skeptical that would endure once Americans see images of mothers and children being rounded up, or held in detention camps. The more fundamental challenge is that Trump’s skepticism of US international commitment strains the central fault line between Republican-leaning voters with and without a college degree. A national survey by the Chicago Council last year found support for a robust US international role among Republicans has fallen to a nearly 50-year low; but support for engagement and alliances remained strongest among GOP-leaning voters with at least a four-year college degree. Those were the same white-collar suburban voters that provided the core of support in this year’s GOP primary for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who unreservedly articulated the Reagan-era view of American international leadership. Alone, differing views on America’s relations with the world may not be enough to peel many of those Haley-type voters away from Trump this fall. But their unease about abandoning Ukraine (and/or Taiwan), imposing prohibitive tariffs on imports and deporting millions of people, might provide Democrats openings among them, particularly when combined with their discomfort with Trump’s belligerent style, and the party’s overall shift right on social issues. With the selection of Vance, Trump has broadcast his belief that he has conclusively won the internal GOP debate over all aspects of US interactions with the world – foreign policy, immigration and trade. The remaining question is whether that internal victory is liberating Trump to pursue policies that will ultimately cost him with a broader audience of Americans, either in the campaign or a second presidential term. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Kamala Harris Was Never Biden’s ‘Border Czar.’ Here’s What She Really Did

n her first foreign trip as Vice President in June 2021, Kamala Harris was tasked with delivering a blunt message in Guatemala City. "I want to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: Do not come," she said at a press conference, pausing for effect. "Do not come." Three years later, that sound bite may come to haunt Harris' nascent presidential campaign. Despite her warning, border crossings reached historic highs during the Biden Administration. Republican critics cast the episode as a symbol of Harris’s ineffective tenure as President Biden's "border czar," a misleading label they applied after she was charged with helming diplomatic efforts to address the root causes of migration from Central America to the U.S. “Kamala had one job,” Nikki Haley told the crowd at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week. “One job. And that was to fix the border. Now imagine her in charge of the entire country.” Read More: How Trump Plans To Run Against Harris. BRANDED CONTENT New Murabba: The Ideal Place to Live, Work, and Visit BY NEW MURABBA In fact, Harris was never put in charge of the border or immigration policy. Nor was she involved in overseeing law-enforcement efforts or guiding the federal response to the crisis. Her mandate was much narrower: to focus on examining and improving the underlying conditions in the Northern Triangle of Central America—El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—which has been racked by decades of poverty, war, chronic violence, and political instability. The strategy relied on allocating billions for economic programs and stimulating private-sector investment in the region in hopes that these programs would ultimately lead fewer migrants to make the dangerous journey north. It was the first high-profile assignment in Harris' tenure as Vice President, and it was an especially thankless one. At best, addressing the “push factors” that spur migration would lead to incremental improvements and take a generation to yield results. At worst, it would make Harris the face of the border crisis, one of the Biden administration's biggest political vulnerabilities. "To the extent that this was a useful assignment, she did reasonably well in getting the private sector to invest in Central America," says Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. "But it was an assignment that could not produce results anytime soon." The so-called "root causes strategy" focused on improving economic and security conditions by creating jobs, combating corruption, improving human and labor rights, and reducing violence. Harris allocated funds for humanitarian relief from natural disasters, and directed more than 10 million COVID-19 vaccines to the Northern Triangle countries. She held bilateral meetings with the region's leaders, as well as meetings with NGOs, business executives and human rights advocates. She worked with the U.S. Justice Department to launch an Anti-Corruption task force focused on prosecuting corruption cases with ties to the region, as well as Anti-Migrant Smuggling task forces in Mexico and Guatemala. Read More: A Guide to Kamala Harris's Views. Most importantly, Harris spearheaded a public-private partnership that, as of March 2024, had secured commitments from major U.S. and multi-national companies to invest more than $5 billion in the region. The Vice President "put her name on the line with very serious senior CEOs and kind of created a brand appeal for Central America that didn't exist," says Ricardo Zúniga, who until recently served as the U.S. special envoy to Central America. Harris also spent time in Washington communicating with regional leaders. One tangible result, according to two former U.S. officials, was that it gave the U.S. the standing and relationships to help prevent Guatemalan prosecutors from overturning the results of last year’s presidential election, which was won by anti-corruption outsider Bernardo Arévalo. While delayed, the ultimately peaceful transition of power avoided the political instability that Biden Administration officials feared could cause a spike in migration. The U.S. applied public pressure through sanctions and visa restrictions on officials they accused of undermining the democratic process, as well as behind the scenes. Harris's team was directly involved, especially her national security adviser Philip Gordon, who traveled to the region to push for a peaceful democratic transfer of power, according to the two former U.S. officials. But the narrow mandate given to Harris ignored shifting migration patterns, experts say. The slow process of addressing the "push factors," or reasons that migrants leave their countries, says Chisthi, can't compete with the "pull factors"—the economic and safety incentives that draw people to the U.S. When Biden assumed office, officials thought Central America would continue to be the epicenter of migration pressure. "We were wrong," says Zuniga. After the initial surge, migration from the Northern Triangle largely stabilized. By December 2023, 54% of encounters at the southern border involved citizens of countries other than Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. Vice President Kamala Harris tours the El Paso U.S. Customs and Border Protection Central Processing Center, on June 25, 2021. Vice President Kamala Harris tours the El Paso U.S. Customs and Border Protection Central Processing Center, on June 25, 2021.Patrick T. Fallon—AFP/Getty Images Much of Harris’s work failed to break through back home. Instead, she became the target of Republican broadsides about the border crisis and was repeatedly criticized for not visiting the U.S.-Mexico border. "She's dealing with a narrative problem," says Zuniga. With immigration topping the list of Americans’ concerns, according to recent Gallup polls, an ongoing humanitarian crisis at the border, and political deadlock on immigration reform and funding, Harris emerged as the most visible scapegoat. Read More: Who Could Be Kamala Harris' Running Mate? As they shift their focus from Biden to Harris, it’s clear that Republicans plan to attack Harris’s role on immigration issues. "The border crisis is a Kamala Harris crisis,” former President Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, declared at a July 22 rally. A recent National Republican Senatorial Committee memo outlining talking points calls her "the architect of [Biden's] biggest failure." In a post on Truth Social on July 23, Trump said her "incompetence gave us the WORST and MOST DANGEROUS Border anywhere in the World." Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said if Harris is elected, he will "need to triple the border wall, razor wire barriers and National Guard on the border.” Harris has a broader record on immigration, including backing a bipartisan border-security deal aimed at reducing border crossings earlier this year. As a Senator, she was an outspoken advocate of legal protections for DACA recipients, made headlines for aggressively questioning Trump immigration officials, and derided the then-President's border wall as a "medieval vanity project.” But it’s clear the “border czar” label has become a political liability. Some Harris allies have expressed frustration with Biden for putting her in this position. In doing so, he was repeating a familiar pattern—it was a portfolio Biden himself was given as Vice President. In 2014, when a surge in children and families from Central America overwhelmed the U.S. immigration system, then-President Barack Obama tasked him with leading the international response to the crisis. "The solution to this problem is to address the root causes of this immigration in the first place," Biden said on a trip to Guatemala City that summer. "Especially poverty, insecurity and the lack of the rule of law.” Seven years later, little had changed when Harris gave the same speech, in the same place. Politically, "the problem is that no one cares about the root causes," says Chisthi. "It's too abstract. And frankly, very little can be done about them in the short run, while the public is focused on what is happening with the border today." For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Harris’ immigration work comes under scrutiny as campaign takes shape

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during an event with NCAA athletes on the South Lawn of the White House on July 22, 2024. CNN — As a border crisis unfolded only months into Joe Biden’s presidency, he looked to his vice president to help solve an intractable issue: migration. It seemed like a no-win political assignment. Vice President Kamala Harris and her staff quickly sought to make one thing clear: She wasn’t charged with managing the southern border. Three years later, that task looms over Harris’ unprecedented campaign for the White House, becoming a central line of attack from Republicans. “As a result of her dangerously extreme immigration policies, the largest invasion in history is now taking place at our southern border, and it’s getting worse, not better,” former President Donald Trump said in a rare call with reporters Tuesday, falsely claiming Harris had been appointed Biden’s “border czar.” The management of the US-Mexico border has been a political liability for Biden, and it will now follow Harris as Trump makes it a cornerstone of his campaign. Over the last three years, an unprecedented number of border crossings have come to define the administration’s immigration record — recently resulting in the White House taking an aggressive measure to dramatically clamp down on asylum at the US southern border. How the House GOP campaign arm is pivoting to target Harris: Border, fracking and protests As the vice president’s campaign takes shape and as immigration remains a top issue for voters, her team is forced to contend with an assignment that, sources say, has showed early success in Central America as a result of major private-sector investment but that’s been bundled with the administration’s larger migration issues. In the first rally of her 2024 presidential campaign Tuesday, Harris didn’t mention border security. The issue has generally not been featured prominently at campaign rallies over the last year, but both Harris and Biden have recently cited the bipartisan immigration deal that was scuttled by Trump to make the case that Republicans aren’t serious about border security. The House GOP campaign arm is also encouraging lawmakers to focus on what it describes as Harris’ failed border policies, according to a memo obtained by CNN. In a statement, Kevin Munoz, a spokesperson for Harris’ presidential campaign, cast Trump’s immigration policies as “xenophobic” and blamed Trump for dysfunction at the border. “The only ‘plan’ Donald Trump has to secure our border is ripping mothers from their children and a few xenophobic placards at the Republican National Convention,” Munoz said. “He tanked the toughest bipartisan border security deal in a generation because for Donald Trump, this has never been about actually securing the border – it’s always about himself. He can make up whatever lies he wants but the fact is there’s only one candidate in this race who will fight for real solutions to help secure our nation’s border, and that’s Vice President Harris.” Harris’ root cause work dates to March 2021. During an influx of unaccompanied migrant children, Biden tasked the vice president with overseeing diplomatic efforts in Central America, seeing the assignment as a sign of respect, having done the same job himself under former President Barack Obama. While Harris focused on long-term fixes, the Department of Homeland Security remained responsible for overseeing border security. At the time, most minors apprehended at the US southern border were from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — a region that was hard-hit by major hurricanes and the Covid-19 pandemic and that had been a main source of migration over the last decade. As the vice president’s team began strategizing, the problem facing the administration grew. Seven months later, it was migrants arriving from even farther away in South America — outside of Harris’ assigned portfolio — who were overwhelming the Biden administration. Border crossings surged, and Republicans pointed their fingers at the vice president, dubbing Harris the “border czar,” a title the White House rejected, arguing that her focus was on the region and not on border security. And in 2022, as an affront to Harris, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, began busing migrants to her residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC. Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar of California on Tuesday called efforts by House Republicans to paint Harris as a border czar “laughable and unserious.” “Let’s be very clear, there was no ‘border czar.’ Kamala Harris’ role was to engage in multilateral discussion with our Latin American countries,” the House Democratic Caucus chair told reporters. Harris makes first trip to battleground Wisconsin since launching presidential campaign Harris has only occasionally talked about her efforts as the situation along the US-Mexico border became a political vulnerability for Biden. And it’s the comments she made early on that will likely be used by Republicans in the months to come. In an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt in June 2021, roughly five months after taking office, Harris was pressed about the fact that she hadn’t yet visited the US-Mexico border. “At some point, you know, we are going to the border,” the vice president said. “We’ve been to the border. So this whole … thing about the border. We’ve been to the border. We’ve been to the border.” Holt responded: “You haven’t been to the border.” “And I haven’t been to Europe. And I mean, I don’t — I don’t understand the point that you’re making,” Harris said with a laugh. She added: “I’m not discounting the importance of the border.” Later that month, Harris visited the border. Harris navigates one of the most politically fraught issues White House officials quickly worked to get Harris up to speed after she was assigned to tackle the root causes of migration. Officials pulled together a series of memos examining what Biden had done when he was vice president and held a similar role, analyzing what worked and what could be done better, according to a former senior administration official. In some ways, the region had already been familiar territory for Harris, dating to her days as California’s attorney general. “In terms of the root causes piece as VP, there’s a through line in her work as AG starting to build relationships in Mexico and Central America,” said Daniel Suvor, former chief of policy to then-Attorney General Harris and now partner at O’Melveny & Myers, arguing that her work has often focused on concrete, measurable outcomes. Officials met daily, briefing the vice president along the way, with another former senior administration official describing the process as “intense” amid a worsening crisis at the border. “She ultimately studied that and put her own stamp on it, which was the private-sector component,” one of the former senior administration officials said, noting that was an area they concluded Biden, as vice president, didn’t have time to fully develop. Analysis: Harris gets a dream start, but the task ahead is monumental Harris pulled together the Partnership for Central America, which has acted as a liaison between companies and the US government. Her team and the partnership are closely coordinating on initiatives that have led to job creation in the region. Harris has also engaged directly with foreign leaders in the region. Earlier this year, Harris met with President Bernardo Arévalo of Guatemala to strengthen the US-Guatemala bilateral relationship and discuss good governance, economic opportunity, security and migration management, according to a White House readout. Around 56 companies are collaborating across financial services, textiles and apparel, agriculture, technology, telecommunications, and nonprofit sectors to bolster the region’s economy. Together, they’ve invested more than $5 billion. Experts credit Harris’ ability to secure private-sector investments as her most visible action in the region to date but have cautioned about the long-term durability of those investments. Honduran Minister of Investment Miguel Medina argued that having the White House behind the initiative has been instrumental in bringing big companies and private-sector money into the region. “The difference with the partnership is that the facilitating that they’ve been doing, and they continue to do, that facilitating is not something that is accessible to a normal company in Honduras,” he said, citing, for example, work with Nespresso to purchase and sell coffee beans. “If it wasn’t for this being moved from the White House, there’s … no way we could have had the success that it’s had,” Medina added. While it’s difficult to measure the direct impact on migration, US Customs and Border Protection has seen a considerable drop in migrants arriving at the southern border from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, according to federal data. “For the long term, she certainly can claim credit for having started off efforts to improve people’s lives in Central America,” said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

ew Policy Guidance on Noncompliance with EB-5 Regional Center Program

We are issuing policy guidance on new provisions in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that cover consequences for noncompliance with the EB-5 Regional Center program. The guidance interprets the provisions related to sanctions, including terminations, debarments, and suspensions, for noncompliant regional centers, new commercial enterprises, job-creating entities, investors, and others. The guidance also explains what may be considered threats to the national interest, fraud, intentional material misrepresentation, deceit, and criminal misuse in the context of discretionary determinations that require us to take adverse action on certain EB-5 petitions, applications, and benefits. It also outlines special considerations for good-faith pre-RIA investors a to retain eligibility under INA sec. 203(b)(5)(M) after we terminate or debar their regional center, new commercial enterprise, or job-creating entity due to noncompliance. This guidance updates Part G, Investors, in Volume 6 of the Policy Manual, to incorporate statutory reforms included in the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, and is effective immediately.

Reminders on the Process to Promote the Unity and Stability of Families

On June 18, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced actions to promote family unity in the immigration process. This announcement is consistent with the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to keep families together. DHS is establishing a process to consider, on a case-by-case basis, requests for parole in place from certain noncitizen spouses of U.S. citizens who have been in the U.S. for at least a decade. If parole is granted, noncitizens who are eligible to apply for lawful permanent residence based on their marriage to a U.S. citizen will be able to do so without having to leave the United States. USCIS is not currently accepting applications under this process. We will begin accepting applications on Aug. 19. If you apply before Aug. 19, we will reject your application. More information about eligibility and the application process will be published in a forthcoming Federal Register notice. Eligibility To be considered for a discretionary grant of parole, on a case-by-case basis, under this process, you must:    · Be present in the United States without admission or parole; · Have been continuously present in the United States for at least 10 years as of June 17, 2024; · Have a legally valid marriage to a U.S. citizen as of June 17, 2024; · Not have any disqualifying criminal history or otherwise constitute a threat to national security or public safety; and · Otherwise merit a favorable exercise of discretion. More information about these eligibility criteria will be available in the forthcoming Federal Register notice. We may also consider certain noncitizen children of requestors under this process if, as of June 17, 2024, they were physically present in the United States without admission or parole, and have a qualifying stepchild relationship to a U.S. citizen. Timeline You cannot apply for this process yet. We will publish a Federal Register notice that will further explain eligibility and the application process, including the form to use, and the associated filing fees. If you apply before the implementation date in the Federal Register notice, we will reject your application. We will provide additional information on the Process to Promote the Unity and Stability of Families webpage as it becomes available. What You Can Do Now Although we are not currently accepting applications, you can begin to prepare to file a parole application by gathering evidence of your eligibility, such as: · Evidence of a legally valid marriage to a U.S. citizen as of June 17, 2024, such as a marriage certificate; · Documentation of proof of identity, including expired documents may include: · Valid state or country driver’s license or identification; · Birth certificate with photo identification; · Valid passport; or · Any government issued document bearing the requestor’s name, date of birth, and photo. · Evidence of your spouse’s U.S. citizenship, such as a passport, birth certificate or Certificate of Naturalization; · Documentation to establish your continued presence in the United States for at least 10 years, as of June 17, 2024. While more information will be made available in the forthcoming Federal Register Notice and subsequent FAQs, examples of documentation could include copies of: · Rent receipts or utility bills; · School records (letters, report cards, etc.); · Hospital or medical records; · Attestations to your residence by religious entities, unions, or other organizations, identifying you by name; · Official records from a religious entity confirming participation in a religious ceremony; · Money order receipts for money sent into or out of the United States; · Birth certificates of children born in the United States; · Dated bank transactions; · Automobile license receipts, title, or registration; · Deeds, mortgages, or rental agreement contracts; · Insurance policies; or · Tax returns or tax receipts. For noncitizen children of requestors, evidence of eligibility could include: · Evidence of the child’s relationship to the noncitizen parent, such as a birth certificate or adoption decree; · Evidence of the noncitizen parent’s legally valid marriage to a U.S. citizen as of June 17, 2024, such as a marriage certificate; and · Evidence of the child’s presence in the United States as of June 17, 2024.

USCIS Issues Policy Guidance on Children’s Acquisition of Citizenship

USCIS is updating guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual regarding provisions for children’s acquisition of citizenship. We are updating guidance relating to children’s acquisition of citizenship in response to public feedback. We are also updating guidance based on the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Sessions v. Morales-Santana, 582 U.S. 47 (2017), and clarifying other provisions related to acquisition of citizenship. The guidance: Affirms that applicants who already filed an application for a Certificate of Citizenship and were denied, but become eligible following a change in USCIS policy, may file a motion to reopen the prior USCIS denial of their application. Clarifies that a U.S. citizen parent may meet the requirement of physical presence in the United States (or outlying possession) before the child’s birth while in any immigration status, or no status. Clarifies that in cases where a child is born out of wedlock to two U.S. citizen parents and cannot acquire U.S. citizenship from the father, the mother meets the requirement by demonstrating 1 year of continuous physical presence in the United States or one of its outlying possessions before the child’s birth. Affirms that, for purposes of acquiring citizenship at birth, USCIS requires that a parent must be recognized as a legal parent of the child by the relevant jurisdiction at the time of the child’s birth. Clarifies that a child acquires citizenship under statutes requiring all conditions to be met while the child is under 18 years of age if the last condition was satisfied on the day of the child’s 18th birthday. Similarly, a child is eligible to obtain citizenship under INA 322 if USCIS approves the application and the child takes the oath (if required) on the day of the child’s 18th birthday. Confirms that USCIS accepts a valid and unexpired U.S. passport or a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA) as evidence of U.S. citizenship. However, USCIS also determines whether the applicant properly acquired U.S. citizenship and if necessary, may request that the Department of State revoke the U.S. passport or cancel the CRBA before USCIS adjudicates an application for a Certificate of Citizenship. Clarifies processes when USCIS, in addition to an applicant’s claim of U.S. citizenship, adjudicates claims to U.S. citizenship for an applicant’s parents or grandparents (sometimes called “nested claims of U.S. citizenship”). When adjudicating applications for a Certificate of Citizenship, if an applicant’s parent or parents’ U.S. citizenship is unknown or unclear, the officer must determine the applicant’s parents’ (and, if necessary, grandparents’) U.S. citizenship status before adjudicating the applicant’s citizenship claim. Clarifies that for purposes of an application for naturalization filed under the provision for children of a U.S. citizen who subjected them to battery or extreme cruelty, a stepchild’s relationship with the U.S. citizen stepparent does not need to continue to exist at the time of the application for naturalization. The update also includes various changes to nationality charts in the Policy Manual. This guidance, contained in Volume 12 of the Policy Manual, is effective immediately, and applies to applications that are pending or filed on or after the date of publication.

Tools Outage

USCIS will conduct system maintenance to the Contact Relationship Interface System (CRIS) on Wednesday, July 24, 2024 at 11:50 p.m. through Thursday, July 25, 2024 at 2:00 a.m. Eastern. During this time frame, users may experience technical difficulties with one or more of the following online tools: Check My Case Status e-Request Change of Address online Check Case Processing Times Civil Surgeon Locator Office Locator File Online myUSCIS online account Service Request Management Tool (SRMT)

Sridej v. Blinken - filed July 23, 2024

Immigration Law A declaration by an attorney adviser at the Office of the Legal Adviser for the Department of State was sufficient to establish that the secretary had complied with his obligation to consider whether it was more likely than not the petitioner would face a risk of torture if extradited to Thailand, as required under the Convention Against Torture’s implementing regulations; there is no requirement the declaration be signed by the secretary or a senior official properly designated by the secretary; the declaration need not include a case-specific explanation for the extradition decision because the doctrine of separation of powers and the doctrine of non-inquiry blocked any inquiry into the substance of the declaration. Sridej v. Blinken - filed July 23, 2024 Cite as 2024 S.O.S. 23-16021 Full text click here >http://sos.metnews.com/sos.cgi?0724//23-16021.

Rep. Garcia introduces bill to fund immigration court lawyers

A House California Democrat is proposing a bill to fund legal defense services for people in immigration court, where only about a third of processed immigrants have legal representation. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) is introducing the Shield Act to provide $100 million in grants aimed at expanding the legal workforce defending immigration cases. Garcia said the bill is modeled after a fund he established as mayor of Long Beach, Calif., to find legal support and representation for undocumented people facing deportation. “That was something that was [my] initiative when I was mayor, and coming to Congress, this need is still very much real across the country, especially at moments that we’re in now where there’s so many attacks on immigrants, and so this is a great opportunity to expand something that has been very successful in my home city,” Garcia told The Hill. According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a government data tracker housed at Syracuse University, the immigration court backlog is far outgrowing representation. ADVERTISING At the end of 2019, 660,366 immigrants had representation in immigration court, and 363,401 didn’t, according to TRAC. By the end of 2023, 987,770 immigrants found representation, but backlogs grew so much that 2,299,288 people did not have representation. A rule implemented in November 2022 making it somewhat simpler for attorneys to provide limited advice in immigration cases has had some success, resulting in legal aid reaching immigrants 23,516 times as of the end of May. And legal representation is a game changer in immigration court. In June, 25,064 cases without representation ended in an order of removal, while just 3,506 cases with representation led to an order of removal. Conversely, 3,925 cases with representation led judges to grant relief, while only 229 cases without representation came to that end. Still, bills like Garcia’s are unlikely to see the light of day in a Republican-controlled House that’s looking in the other direction on immigration. On Wednesday, the House passed the Save Act, which aims to increase voter registration requirements to prevent noncitizen voting, already a rare occurrence. “We couldn’t be farther apart. I mean, first of all, that bill is worthless, because we know that people that are undocumented can’t vote in this country, and just attacking immigrants and people that are in the citizenship process or undocumented is just inhumane, and it’s sad,” said Garcia. The Save Act will likely not see the light of day in the Senate, and the White House announced President Biden would veto it if it came to his desk. Garcia’s Shield Act is extremely unlikely to get consideration this Congress, but the first-term representative, himself an immigrant who came from Peru at age 5, said introducing it is a step forward. “Any bill that that we introduce, our intention is to get it passed. And even if this current Speaker and current majority aren’t going to be supportive, we have introduced it,” Garcia said of the measure, which had input from organizations including the Vera Institute of Justice and the National Partnership for New Americans. “We’ve worked with the groups around the language, we’re going to get sponsors and co-sponsors and we’re going to push really hard. And so when we win the majority back, and I hope that’s obviously soon, we will be in a strong position to get this bill heard and debated and across the finish line. I think that is our intention for this bill.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Here's What the GOP's 2024 Platform Says About Immigration

The Republican National Committee (RNC) appeared to fully back Donald Trump's views on immigration in its official 2024 platform revealed this week, including a call for a mass deportation program targeting the millions of migrants already in the country illegally. The platform, published Sunday, is set to be formally adopted during the Republican National Convention when it kicks off in Milwaukee on Monday. In listing its priorities, the GOP placed immigration at numbers 1 and 2, stating that the party plans to secure the border following November's election, assuming Trump is the winner. "Republicans offer an aggressive plan to stop the open-border policies that have opened the floodgates to a tidal wave of illegal Aliens, deadly drugs, and Migrant Crime," the platform reads. "We will end the Invasion at the Southern Border, restore Law and Order, protect American Sovereignty, and deliver a Safe and Prosperous Future for all Americans." For more information visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Immigration policy, from the border to the White House

This week on Scripps News Reports, we explain the facts and the laws that govern immigration to the U.S., investigate what life is like along the border and hear from everyday voters about their immigration concerns. We learn more about Texas' Operation Lone Star, the state's own border security effort. What are the objectives and costs of those policy choices? How does the effort affect the local ecosystem, or the sustainability of local businesses? We hear from immigrants about the routes they take to America, the processes they go through when they meet the U.S. Border Patrol and the long journey that still awaits them once they make it to the U.S. And we analyze the immigration policies of the two leading presidential candidates: President Biden has supported a pathway to citizenship for migrants, expanded health care benefits to DACA recipients and made it easier for immigrants married to citizens to get their own citizenship. Former President Trump supports mass deportations, has tried to end the DACA program and has called for an end to automatic citizenship for children of immigrant parents who are born in the U.S. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

As immigrants arrive in the South, border politics come with them

PENSACOLA, Florida ‒ In a wooded suburb of this southern city by the beach, Grace Resendez McCaffery steeled herself for an immigration battle. She was exhausted from distributing 5,500 copies of her Spanish-language newspaper to newsstands in northwest Florida. But on a Monday morning in June, she drove over the bay to plead with a five-man county commission to reject a resolution saying the county “doesn’t welcome illegal aliens.” As Republicans get ready to hold their convention in Milwaukee on Monday, the consequences of the party's hardline immigration politics are playing out on stages big and small across the country. In this rural county in northwest Florida, the five Republican commissioners faced a dilemma: to choose their principles of governance or the politics of their party. Grace Resendez McCaffery speaks to a television reporter following a June 24, 2024, Santa Rosa County commission meeting. “Though we’re growing and thriving, progress takes a step backwards when political stunts use immigration – or rather immigrants – as a platform,” Resendez McCaffery told them, flanked at a lectern by four Latina women. Resendez McCaffery isn't an immigrant. She was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. But since moving to Pensacola 30 years ago, the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants has become a spokesperson for the small-but-growing immigrant community here. These sort of resolutions targeting "illegal" immigrants inevitably fall on the shoulders of all Hispanics, she said. The United States is reaching its highest level of immigration in a century, and nowhere has the change been greater than in the historical South, where the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow once kept immigration at bay. Today, even anti-immigrant sentiment and legislation in southern states can’t overpower the magnet of the region's growing economy. Since 2010, the foreign-born population in the South has jumped by nearly 50%, compared to increases of 29% in the Midwest, 19% in the Northeast, and 13% in the West, according to Steven Camarota, director of research for the right-leaning Center for Immigration Studies. This immigration-fueled demographic shift in southern states has altered the country's political landscape. Not because immigrants are voting in large numbers, but because their arrival convinced many Southerners they needed to worry about the U.S. border, said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank. David J. Bier is the director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute. "Before the 1960s the South had very, very little immigration," Bier said. "You could go back 100 years and you couldn’t find a place where the South had more than 5% foreign-born. It’s really the South that is experiencing immigration at scale for the first time in a unique way that the rest of the country has taken for granted." Along the way, Republican immigration politics have trickled down from the federal level to state and big-city governments, and now threaten to upend races even at the most local levels. In a wood-paneled board room in Santa Rosa County, the commissioners set aside residents' concerns about poor storm water drainage and neighborhood flooding to discuss the recent appearance at a local truck stop of a bus carrying migrant workers. Peering over her reading glasses, Resendez McCaffery reminded the commissioners that she knows something about what anti-immigrant rhetoric can inspire. “Violence against Latinos isn’t uncommon – especially when provoked by fear and hatred,” she said. “I’m haunted” – she paused, swallowing sudden tears – “by the 2019 mass shooting at a Walmart store in my neighborhood in Texas. I plead with you to not complicate an already difficult situation.” James Calkins, the author of the resolution, wore a red tie and an American flag on his lapel. "Illegal immigration is a serious problem in Santa Rosa County and the United States of America," he said, and then he read off a social media message he received claiming there were "approximately 120 men, what looked like illegal aliens, military-aged men without families." "We have a major problem in this country right now with illegal immigration," he said. Southern bona fides in north Florida Florida may be well-known for its vibrant Latino and immigrant communities in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando and elsewhere. But those cities are a world apart from Pensacola and its rural surroundings, where people like to affirm their Southern bona fides by saying, "the farther north you go in Florida, the farther South you get." The Pensacola metropolitan area stretches across two counties, Escambia and Santa Rosa, with a combined population of roughly 511,000 people, according to the U.S. Census 2022 American Community Survey. Though the immigrant population of the two-county region has more than tripled since 1990, foreign-born persons made up just 5% of the population. Escambia County was almost exclusively white and Black until 2014, when people identifying as Hispanic or Latino on the Census first topped 5% of the population. There were the Mexican workers who were drawn to the city after Hurricane Ivan in 2004. More diversity came beginning in 2013 with a massive relocation by the Navy Federal Credit Union from its Mid-Atlantic and Northeast operations. A diaspora of Puerto Ricans, who are born U.S. citizens, arrived after Hurricane Maria hit the island in 2017. More recently, and especially since the pandemic, immigrants from Venezuela, Chile, Peru, Honduras and El Salvador have come searching for opportunities away from more crowded parts of Florida. At the same time, the city and its suburbs have become more Republican. In 2020, 44% of voters were registered Republican in Escambia County compared with 37% in 1995. The percentage of voters registered as Democrat dropped 25 points over the same period, to 33%. “The magnitude of political change in the South in the last 30 years is monumental,” Bier said. “It wasn’t until 2010 that state legislatures all flipped to be Republican." Republicans moved into the South as their stronghold, Bier said, where they could "focus on culture issues which have more salience in the South, because the cultural change in the South is much more apparent and noticeable than in the North.” "I've got two in my house" At the county podium, Esmeralda Aguilar Quiroz stepped forward. She had moved to Pensacola from Houston with her Mexican husband, who came to the U.S. illegally as a child, she said. Their attempts to get him right with the law led them to be scammed out of $25,000, before President Joe Biden's latest executive order opened a path to residency. "What would I do if the resolution passes? Would they see us differently or would they treat us differently?" she asked. "Would we be able to speak Spanish without somebody saying, ‘Get out of our country. You’re not welcome.’?” Young, white men have repeatedly told Caridad Galán-Rios just that, when she walks to the road to get the mail or put out the trash. The daughter of Puerto Rican parents said the men drive by in pick-ups "with a certain flag that we all know." Lucía Trejo, who was brought to the U.S. illegally as a child and later received legal status, spoke next. Then Alma McKnight who once was undocumented and later served in the U.S. Navy. Their plea to the commissioners was the same: Vote down the resolution. Santa Rosa County commissioners debate a resolution stating the county doesn't welcome unlawful immigrants on June 24, 2024. Three of the commissioners, all self-described conservative Republicans, took Calkins to task. He was trying to play national politics in an election year, they said, instead of administrating county business. But Calkins' proposal had clearly wedged them between a rock and a hard place politically: If they voted yes, they'd be going against their principles of focusing on county governance; if they voted no, they'd most certainly see campaign mailers claiming they supported illegal immigration. "If you don't vote against illegal aliens, you vote for illegal aliens," Calkins said. "We're about one vote away from this board having a liberal majority." That drew a laugh from the crowd and the commissioners, who couldn't be confused for liberals in any other room. Commissioner Colten Wright apologized to the public, warning it was going to be a long meeting. "This is politics, James, and I'm sick of it," Wright said to Calkins. "As someone who comes from Irish heritage and knows what the Irish people dealt with in this country and the discrimination that happened, that's a problem." Jose Garcia runs Joe's Caribe restaurant in Pensacola, Florida. Wright didn’t like Biden’s border policies any more than the next Republican but he also didn’t believe the county commission ought to play any role in immigration, other than to fund the local sheriff's office to handle local crimes. Ray Eddington, with white hair and a white mustache, spoke with the country accent of his native Chattanooga, Tennessee, and told his fellow commissioners about the immigrant women who care for his disabled grandson. "I'm not against these people coming in, long as they come in legal," he said. "Matter of fact, I've got two in my house every day, taking care of my grandson. They're doing the right thing, applying for American citizenship." He'd vote no, he said, because "you don't know. They might be here illegal, but they might be trying to get citizenship. We don't know, James. We really don't know." Choosing to stay Many Latinos and immigrants say they have stayed in the Pensacola area for job opportunities, the white-sand beaches, and slower pace of life – despite running into the darker legacies of the Deep South. When José Perez arrived in 2013 alongside his then-wife Jessica Perez as part of the Navy Federal credit union relocation, "it was a culture shock," he said. He set up a food truck and eventually opened Joe's Caribe restaurant in Pensacola. "I felt like I went in a time warp when I came here," he said about the often separate white and Black societies and the racism his family encountered. "I thought it was only in the history books. But to experience it hands-on was something to take in." Immigration has helped nurture a reckoning in Pensacola, as the city confronted its segregated past in the wake of George Floyd's 2021 killing by police, said Teniadé Broughton, a city councilwoman who has promoted local Black history and storytelling. There was the revelation, weeks after Floyd's murder, that the city’s history museum, visited annually by Pensacola public school children, was named for a local leader of the Ku Klux Klan. Broughton said she sees in anti-immigrant rhetoric a similar prejudice that her Black community experienced. "When are we collectively going to put aside this perceived threat?" Broughton said, referring to the immigration debate. Jessica Perez said she and José Perez "had some experiences that were hard to deal with and may have caused some drama for my kids," she said. "I will say the good people outnumber the bad people," she added. "I’ve just tried to teach my kids, ‘Be proud of who you are.’" Two weekends before the county commission meeting, a Puerto Rican mother-son duo organized the first Fiesta Latina in downtown, with food from the island, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru and Honduras and a foam party for the kids. Children play at a foam party during the Fiesta Latina in Pensacola, Florida, in June 2024. A week later, thousands turned out for a Latin Salsa Festival organized by Jessica Perez, where bands played salsa music on a soundstage behind the museum that once bore the KKK leader’s name. Now it's called the Pensacola History Museum. "There were times that you do feel awkward or you don’t feel included in certain rooms," she said. "It’s about how you attack those challenges. I don’t see the Latin celebrations I want to see, ok so how can I change that? Now I can bring my music, my culture, to this area and let me tell you: People want it." Taking to task, focusing on what's important Visibly frustrated, Santa Rosa County Commissioner Kerry Smith took the floor and took Calkins to task for multiple interruptions, and for proposing symbolic resolutions that weren't the stuff of governance. "You have no clue how to govern anything," Smith said to Calkins. "You don't even know what your job is, sir." The busload of migrant workers? Smith got the concerned calls, too, he said. He made his own inquiry. The workers all held H-2A temporary agricultural visas and were headed to South Florida to pick crops, he said. They had stopped to use the restroom and then moved on. The debate dragged on for more than an hour, until the crowd started heckling and shouting "Take a vote!" And they did: The resolution failed 3-2, with commission Chairman Sam Parker siding with Calkins. Resendez McCaffery and the other Latina women walked out of the hall after the vote, relieved but unsettled. Was the battle really over? She wondered: Could this be the beginning of being able to have real conversations about immigration? The commissioners voted down the resolution, but they suggested preparing a joint letter to Biden stating their discontent with illegal immigration at the border. "I did feel like they were talking as if we weren't in the room," she said. "Demonizing immigrants is where the line should be drawn," she said. "They're trying to rile up their constituencies and that's where it starts to get ugly." Lauren Villagran can be reached at lvillagran@usatoday.com. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Senate candidate Ruben Gallego could save Biden in Arizona, poll reveals

After a dismal debate performance that has thrown the viability of Joe Biden’s candidacy into question, Democrats worry he will drag other candidates on the ballot down with him. But in Arizona, there is hope that the strength of the US Senate candidate Ruben Gallego will have the opposite effect, boosting Biden. Equis Research, a Democratic group started by Obama administration alumni, privately released a poll in May that showed Gallego, who is facing the former TV anchor and Trump acolyte Kari Lake in the Senate race, had the highest support among Democrats running for Senate in six key states compared with the president, outperforming Biden by 13 points among Latinos. The previously unreported poll, shared with the Guardian by a source who was briefed, showed Biden’s Latino support at 54%, lagging his 2020 showing of 63%. Donald Trump, who has made no secret of his plans to deport millions should he lead the country in 2025, has continued to see a rise with Hispanics that began in 2020, and was up by about 10 points since then, the poll found. symbol 00:02 03:12 Read More The poll of 2,339 registered voters covering 12 battleground states, with 250 respondents in Arizona, offered similar findings to a poll of Latino voters released in June by Voto Latino. It surveyed 2,000 swing state Hispanics, including 400 in Arizona. It found one in five Latino voters were considering a third-party candidate, and similar to previous Equis polling, it showed that Robert Kennedy Jr could harm Biden’s path in battleground states. In Arizona, Biden was at 45% support with Latinos, compared with 33% for Trump, and 13% for Kennedy. Biden has sought to turn the page and stabilize his candidacy in the wake of the debate, receiving support on Monday from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair, Representative Nanette Díaz Barragán, and deputy caucus chair, Adriano Espaillat. While Equis found Gallego, a US representative first elected in 2014, well-liked among Latino voters in terms of favorability, it also found that Lake had the lowest net rating among GOP Senate candidates polled. Voto Latino similarly found her viewed poorly by Hispanics, with her net favorability at -32 points. This dynamic in the state leads some to believe that it could be Gallego that lifts Biden’s boat. “Gallego is going to drag Biden across the line in Arizona, I’ve been saying that for a while,” said Mike Madrid, a longtime Republican consultant and author of The Latino Century. “Where Blacks in South Carolina saved Biden’s fortunes in 2020, Arizona Latinos could save his presidency in 2024.” A new Democratic group is coming to Arizona to aid those efforts, bringing with it a data-focused approach. Mi Vecino announced its $1m campaign exclusively to the Guardian, a push it says will not duplicate what other groups are doing, but is instead a surgical strike in four counties that aims to boost Biden and Gallego. While Biden won Arizona by fewer than 11,000 votes, turning the state blue for the first time since Bill Clinton in 1996, Mi Vecino aims to target a universe of 194,000 Latino voters in some rural and harder to reach counties. Asked how Biden and Gallego’s fortunes are linked, Alex Berrios, one of the group’s co-founders, argued that it was not only possible but “essential” that Gallego’s popularity helps Biden in the state. “What is likely to happen as we move closer to the election is the gap between Gallego and Biden is likely to close,” Berrios said. “The work we do will help determine whether Biden brings Gallego down or Gallego brings Biden up.” In its target counties, the group is eyeing 41,000 Latinos in Yuma, 14,000 in Cochise, 121,000 in Pima, and 18,000 in Santa Cruz. Rural Yuma, for example, was nearly two-thirds Hispanic in the 2020 US census, serving not only as Arizona’s largest majority-Latino county, but also the eighth-largest majority-Hispanic county in the nation by population. Gallego, who once touted progressive bona fides, has this cycle sought to remake his image, leaning into his biography in television ads Democrats and Republicans see as effective. The former US marine and Iraq combat veteran who was raised by a single mother is asking voters to see him as an Arizonan first, one who fights for issues they care about – not for Biden and his mixed record. On the trail, Gallego has been highlighting affordability on everything from housing to drug prices, as well as “water security” in a state affected by the receding Colorado River. While the Gallego campaign declined to discuss the polls, it stressed that from abortion to defending democracy and election security, its message is that Gallego defended those freedoms in Iraq, and Lake wants to take those rights away. Lake’s campaign declined to comment, but it is planning ads attacking Gallego over Biden’s health, the Washington Post reported. Gallego, who is of Colombian and Mexican descent, has leaned into his Hispanic background and military service, believing his values resonate with Latino voters who are looking to achieve their American Dream. Berrios, a Puerto Rican and Cuban former boxer, who has spoken to Gallego about the state of the race, said Mi Vecino believes it can mobilize 13,000 new Latino voters for Gallego in Yuma alone. woman holds mic on stage in bar-sized venue View image in fullscreen Kari Lake hosts a Latinos for Lake campaign rally in Tucson on 26 June. Photograph: Rebecca Noble/Reuters “Gallego is overperforming the president right now, while President Biden is struggling with Latinos,” he said. “We’re seeing slippage in Yuma county; the specific concern is men.” skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to The Stakes — US Election Edition Free newsletter The Guardian guides you through the chaos of a hugely consequential presidential election Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion Democrats have eyed erosion of support from Hispanic men for years, but this cycle was the first time the Democratic party acknowledged its issue with them. Between the Arizona Senate election and the presidential race, a furious push to reach Hispanic men through sports and prizefighting is well under way. Gallego marked Cinco de Mayo with a watch party for the Canelo Alvarez fight against Jaime Munguía, with big-screen TVs and a truck serving birria tacos. Lake held a Latinos for Lake event on 26 June featuring the former UFC champion Tito Ortiz at a town hall in Tucson. The former president, who recently launched “Latino Americans for Trump”, has targeted young men and men of color in public and under-the-radar efforts that Democrats worry they haven’t effectively countered. Days after being found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in his hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels, Trump attended a UFC fight in New Jersey, drawing cheers from the crowd and a shoutout in the ring from the fighter Sean Strickland, who posed for a selfie with him. “President Trump, you’re the man, bro,” he said. “It’s a damn travesty what they’re doing to you.” Devon Murphy-Anderson, a Mi Vecino co-founder, says Trump “is using the type of strategy with men that Democrats cannot compete with because Democrats are not in the same places Trump is. They’re being very strategic and very innovative in how they’re connecting with male voters.” With an eye towards Latino men, the Biden team began an early commitment to paid media campaigns airing alongside NFL Sunday Night Football on Telemundo and Liga MX soccer on Univision in Spanish and “Spanglish” across seven critical battleground states last fall. It unveiled a seven-figure ad blitz around the popular soccer tournament Copa América, which includes watch parties, Biden jerseys and other swag. Biden campaign leadership in Arizona said what separates the campaign in the state is the resources being brought to bear in the community. Among the eight field offices, one is in the heavily Latino Maryvale area of Phoenix and another is in Nogales, a more rural community. Future offices will be in South Phoenix and Yuma. The campaign, which said it had identified more than 30,000 Arizona voters who prefer to be engaged in Spanish, said it had been using the Reach app since late last year, allowing supporters and volunteers to reach out to their friends and family to boost Biden. Sean McEnerney, the Biden Arizona state campaign manager, said the president was fighting to lower the cost of housing, groceries and gas. “Latinos want a strong leader creating jobs and fighting for safer communities, not a white-collar criminal like Donald Trump who has sold out working people his entire life,” he said. Mi Vecino will try to add to existing infrastructure, such as the well-respected community group Lucha Arizona, which fought the state’s anti-immigration bill SB 1070 a decade ago. Lucha told the Guardian it had been in the field since March, with a $1.5m digital program and plans to knock on 1m doors. “If there is concern about Latinos and Biden and Arizona being part of the path to 270 [electoral votes],” said Alejandra Gomez, Lucha’s executive director, “we need to see the investment in Arizona.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Republicans test run a new argument: Immigration can cause inflation

Republicans are trying out a new argument this week that spans three top issues of the 2024 campaign: immigration, inflation, and the high cost of housing. The emerging case is that a Donald Trump-led crackdown on immigration in 2025 may help with the fight against high prices, at least when it comes to finding an affordable home. It's a case that will likely be received skeptically by many economists, but it's a line of reasoning that was memorialized in the newly unveiled GOP platform ahead of next week's convention in Milwaukee. As that document puts it, the next president should seal the southern border and deport millions already in the country in part because illegal immigration has "driven up the cost of housing, education, and healthcare for American families." It's a message at odds with a chorus of economists, as well as Democrats, who have released studies that say Trump's proposals — from tariffs to tax cuts to that immigration crackdown — could cause inflation to spike anew. Read more: Inflation fever breaking? Price hikes on everyday expenses finally ease up. FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally, June 22, 2024, in Philadelphia. Trump is seeking to distance himself from a plan for a massive overhaul of the federal government drafted by some of his administration officials. Some of these men are expected to take high-level roles if the Republican presumptive nominee is elected back into the White House. Trump is saying on Truth Social that he Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Philadelphia in June. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola) (ASSOCIATED PRESS) But it's an argument gaining steam in GOP circles. EJ Antoni of the conservative Heritage Foundation has been fielding questions from congressional aides on the topic in recent weeks. His group's case is that there is a 2-to-1 ratio at play: an influx that increases an area's population by 5% translates, he said, into rents going up by 10%. "It clearly has an impact now," he noted in an interview, citing communities along the southern border as well as major cities where new migrants are traveling as the most impacted. Jerome Powell's take on the issue The new message was tested on Capitol Hill this week during a Senate hearing featuring testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Sen. J.D. Vance, a Republican from Ohio and one of the leading contenders to be Donald Trump's vice president, brought up the topic when he had an opportunity to question the Fed chair on Tuesday, saying it was a subject "I imagine most of my colleagues are not asking [about]." Powell sounded skeptical. "There's no clear answer, but my sense is that in the long run, immigration is kind of neutral on inflation; in the short run [it] may actually have helped because the labor market got looser," Powell responded. Read more: How does the labor market affect inflation? But he did acknowledge that there could be regional effects, with some communities potentially seeing higher housing costs if faced with a wave of new residents. Others have echoed Powell's point and focused on the benefits to the labor market. Barbara Doran of BD8 Capital Partners noted on Yahoo Finance this week of Trump that "if he really gets elected and deports millions of immigrants, those are the ones who have been taking the jobs that help keep wage pressures down." Vance pushed back on that notion during his time with Powell on Tuesday, noting that it's another way of saying lower wages for Americans. "Why do we see it as a good thing?" he asked. "Why not try to boost wages in a way that brings some of those workers off the sidelines?” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Lawmakers' New Plan to Bring Back Deported Migrants Separated From Families

Lawmakers are fighting to bring back migrants and their children who have been unfairly deported, with a new resolution which would see them return to the U.S. Newsweek can reveal that congressmen plan to introduce a resolution, known as Chance to Come Home, that would help migrants return despite not necessarily having legal status. SPONSORED CONTENT Better Travel Days By T-Mobile More than a million migrants have been turned back since 2021, and congressmen are concerned that some have been deprived of the right to live in a place they consider their home. Newsweek has spoken to two deportees who consider themselves Americans, but were deported to their parents' home countries with no way back to their families. Ad Choices SPONSORED CONTENT Last month's Invesco QQQ ETF fund performance By Invesco QQQ "I've been away from my family and my kids for seven years now," Tina Hamdi, who was sent to Morocco seven years ago, told Newsweek. "You wouldn't think that a country you grew up in would just up and turn its back on you for just one thing and not have an understanding of what led up to the situation, either," Tina added, explaining that she was deported after becoming caught up in an abusive relationship. Sign up for Newsletter NEWSLETTER The Bulletin Your Morning Starts Here Begin your day with a curated outlook of top news around the world and why it matters. Enter your email address I want to receive special offers and promotions from Newsweek By clicking on SIGN ME UP, you agree to Newsweek's Terms of Use & Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. Chance to Come Home - Tina Paul Tina Hamdi, 31 (left), with her two children and Paul Pierrilus, 43, both say they were deported unfairly to countries they did not know. Four Congressmen are trying to change the system. FAMILY HANDOUTS/NIJC The resolution is set to be presented in both chambers of Congress in the coming weeks, promoted by Representatives Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) and David Trone (D-MD), along with Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ). Exclusively Available to Subscribers Try it now for $1 "We are calling for a mechanism to reunite families," Rep. Cleaver told Newsweek. READ MORE Immigration Border Patrol Rescues Migrants Trapped in Train in 100 Degree Heat Missing New Mexico Teenager Reappears Allegedly Trafficking Migrants Near Border U.S.-Mexico Border 'Chaos' Described by Sheriff Map Shows Countries Around The World With Open Borders "I don't want to pretend that it will be easy, because I think many Americans have been poisoned by the language that is used when the subject of immigration arises." A mother separated from her children Tina Hamdi was 3-years-old when her parents brought her and her sister to the U.S. from Morocco, and the family put roots down in Ohio. Tina Hamdi - deportee NIJC Tina Hamdi, 31, was deported from the U.S. to Morocco in 2017. She has spent the past seven years building a life there while trying to get back to her two children. FAMILY HANDOUT Her parents worked for years to gain citizenship, while Tina and her sister managed to gain legal status through DACA – the system designed to give some children of migrants legal status. Tina Hamdi children - deportee NIJC Tina Hamdi's two children have been without their mother at home since 2017. She was deported to Morocco unable to return to Ohio. FAMILY HANDOUT "My parents never let us feel the difference between us and the other kids, so that's why this situation hurts so much because I never considered myself anything other than an American," she said. Hamdi, 31, told Newsweek that when she grew up, she got involved in a relationship which became abusive and coercive. In 2017, she was deported after being forced to take prescription drugs into a prison facility for her now ex-husband. "There is a lot more that goes into this situation," she said. "If it was up to me, I wouldn't have ever done it on my own, or thought to do such things. "Given the situation I was in with my ex-husband, it was extremely stressful and hard to deal with, so I felt obligated to do what he asked of me." DACA status can be removed or denied for felony offences, however. Tina Hamdi - deportee NIJC facetime Tina Hamdi has not seen her children since 2017 and must resort to Face Time to stay in touch with them. FAMILY HANDOUT Hamdi has not been able to see her children, aged 11 and 10, since, describing the seven years without them as painful. "The last time I saw them, it was the morning I was going away, I had a nine-month sentence, so I turned myself in for the nine months," Hamdi added. "On that day, I thought I was going to kiss them goodbye and be able to come back home, but instead immigration took over and didn't allow that." Hamdi was forced instead to make a life for herself in the home country she never imagined going back to. She now works as an English teacher in a kindergarten, but is desperate to get back to Ohio. "There are certain specific things you should be there for, and I am not there for them," Hamdi said, adding that she had only been able to see her parents once since leaving the U.S. Ad Choices SPONSORED CONTENT R&D investments can help quantify innovation By Invesco QQQ Her hope is that the Chance to Come Home resolution, backed by the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), will allow a more nuanced approach to deportation cases, meaning that surrounding circumstances are taken into account. Immigration organization says its time for 'basic due process' The NIJC told Newsweek that it has been working for several years to get to the point where Congress takes notice of families which have been torn apart by a system which, it says, leaves no room for admitting mistakes. "These are folks who were deported in exceptionally unjust ways," NIJC attorney Nayna Gupta told Newsweek, explaining that some were targeted under the Trump administration for being from African countries. "[Others] were targeted for exercising their First Amendment rights and speaking out against abuse in immigration detention facilities," Gupta added. "These are people who have strong reasons to present a case for return, but under the current system are unable to meaningfully do so." The NIJC believes the number of those unfairly deported is in the low-thousands, but said it is hard to truly know due to a lack of data from the Department of Homeland Security. Representative Emanuel Cleaver Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) during a House Rules Committee meeting on emergency measures regarding the recent attack on Israel by Iran on April 15, 2024 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. The Congressman is... More ANNA ROSE LAYDEN/GETTY IMAGES The group wants the Chance to Come Home resolution to bring about change to the immigration system that it argues doesn't take personal circumstances into account. Congressman Cleaver told Newsweek that attitudes need to change around the fear of migrants as part of this resolution. "We are hesitant, in many cases, to separate puppies from their mothers, but we are seemingly developing inhumane practices with people," Rep. Cleaver said. "When I think about my own four children and that someone would have snatched one of my babies out of the arms of their mother and put them out in a strange country with people they don't know, it just causes me to boil over with frustration and even anger." A pardoned New Yorker stuck in Haiti Ad Choices SPONSORED CONTENT Last month's Invesco QQQ ETF fund performance By Invesco QQQ Another deportee trying to get back to the U.S. is Paul Pierrilus, 43, who was deported from New York to Haiti, his parents' home country, in 2021. He was convicted in 2003 for the Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree, which sparked immigration proceedings, but he was released from detention in 2006 and worked for around 13 years as a financial consultant in New York. Pierrilus told Newsweek that while his immigration proceedings were underway, multiple agencies said he could not be deported to Haiti, as he did not hold citizenship there. "Why I was sent to Haiti is beyond me," he said. "Me being sent to Haiti, I think, was unjust." Pierrilus has been stuck in a country the U.S. says is too unsafe to travel to since 2021 and told Newsweek that he fears for his life there, saying that the dangers covered in the news are far greater. "On two random occasions, on the highway, I was shot at," he explained. "My home was burnt, I know three people that were kidnapped, since my deportation I know seven people who have died." Paul Pierrilus - deportee NIJC Paul Pierrilus, 43, was deported in 2021, despite having served time for the offense he was deported for around 15 years prior. He has been living in Haiti in fear for his life. FAMILY HANDOUT Pierrilus also became sick during the lockdown in Haiti and said the lack of access to medical care was a real concern. New York Governor Kathy Hochul pardoned Pierrilus in May 2024, but he is still not able to return home to his family. He told Newsweek that his parents, who are Christian, have faith that he will return home someday and that he has adopted this mindset, hoping to get back home to help his aging parents. The plan put forward by the congressmen has bolstered his hope, saying it is a clear pathway to being heard. "A lot of people probably look at this as just numbers," Pierrilus said. "They have removed more than 2 million in the past ten years. "That is more than seven times that of Rockland County [NY]. That's a lot of people that have families who could be fathers, brothers, sisters, mothers," he added. "So it's a lot of people whose life is in limbo." NIJC argues system can be fixed In 2021, the Biden administration introduced a program to bring veterans who had been deported back to the U.S. US Citzenship Deported Veterans Deported veterans Leonel Contreras, center, and Mauricio Hernandez Mata, left, are sworn in as U.S. citizens at a special naturalization ceremony Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023, in San Diego. The two U.S. Army veterans who were... More AP PHOTO/GREGORY BULL The scheme involved examining cases of vets who had been deported, to check for errors and rectify those, which the NIJC believes proves it can be done. "It's a proof of concept, it shows that they know how to do this," Gupta said. "They have done it for veterans, they can do it for single mothers separated from their kids, they can do it for long-standing members of our community who were targeted by the Trump administration." Since that scheme was introduced, around 100 veterans have been brought back to the U.S., which the NIJC argues shows that a "floodgate" would not be opened. Rep. Cleaver said his hope is that the Chance to Come Home resolution could form part of a larger piece of legislation to reform the immigration system. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.