Service Categories: Immigration-Citizenship-Legal

1/20 Under MPP, DHS officers have returned more than 59,000 asylum seekers and migrants to wait in
danger in Mexico. As of December 2019, DHS sent at least 26,000 individuals to Nuevo Laredo and
Matamoros in the notoriously dangerous state of Tamaulipas, which the U.S. State Department
designates as a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” the same threat assessment given to Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, and
Syria.

12/2/19 The internal watchdog for the Department of Homeland Security found that the Trump administration anticipated it would separate 26,000 children if the “zero tolerance”? policy of 2018 had been allowed to continue, and that the agency knew it lacked the technology to track and reunite children with their parents. Officials at Customs and Border Protection, the DHS agency responsible for separating families under the May-June 2018 policy, estimated in May of that year that it would separate more than 26,000 children by September”

12/9/19 Today, Judge Maxine Chesney of the Northern District of California issued a nationwide preliminary injunction barring USCIS from implementing changes that would limit access to citizenship for lawful permanent residents (green card holders). The ruling, issued from the bench, halts changes to the naturalization application process that would present significant barriers to citizenship for tens of thousands of non-wealthy applicants each year. The rule went into effect on December 2.
Judge Chesney ruled that Plaintiffs were likely to succeed in their claim that USCIS failed to properly engage in the notice-and-comment rulemaking required by the Administrative Procedure Act and that the agency’s new rules making it much harder for low-income residents to apply for fee waivers for naturalization and other immigration benefits are invalid as a result. Key Words: Citizenship, ETHICS

8/19 The Trump administration has weaponized provisions in federal law in the most abusive way to
demonize immigrants and tear families apart. Two of the most harmful, costly, and unnecessary provisions in federal immigration law are Sections 1325 and 1326 of Title 8 U.S.C., which make it a federal crime for someone to enter the U.S. somewhere other than an official port of entry. Illegal entry and re-entry are the most prosecuted federal crimes in the US..The explosion in the prosecution of immigration-related charges has led to ballooning costs for taxpayers,xxxii associated not just with the price tag of mass incarcerations but of appointed public defenders, judicial resources and administrative court costs estimated at millions of dollars per month.xxxiii Private companies are profiting, as new jails open to hold immigrant prosecuted for border crossings.

11/1/19 The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today announced a Federal Register notice extending the validity of TPS-related documentation for beneficiaries under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations for El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan through Jan. 4, 2021.
The notice automatically extends the validity of Employment Authorization Documents; Forms I-797, Notice of Action; and Forms I-94, Arrival/Departure Record (collectively, TPS-related documentation). Key Words: Immigration,

9/19 The United States’ reliance on immigrant detention is not a new phenomenon, nor did it emerge with President Donald Trump (though its growth under his administration is staggering). Over the last four decades, a series of emergency stopgaps and bipartisan deals has created a new multi-billion dollar industry built on the incarceration of immigrants. Key Words: Deportation, jail, deport

9/27/19 A federal judge in Los Angeles has blocked the Trump administration from activating new regulations that would have dramatically expanded its ability to detain migrant children with their parents for indefinite periods of time, dealing a blow to the president’s efforts to tamp down unauthorized border crossings.

7/3/19 Approximately 40 Cambodians, some of whom have never set foot in Cambodia, were deported on Monday following targeted raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to immigration advocates.
These deportations have become routine in Cambodian communities across the country, as the Trump administration has ramped up its immigration enforcement. In fiscal year 2018, a record 110 Cambodians were deported, compared to just 29 and 74 in the two previous fiscal years. Key Words: Asian, API

6/25/19 With ICE raids scheduled to take place in about two weeks if Republicans and Democrats fail to reach a consensus on how to manage the number of people at the U.S. southern border, tensions remain high among Asian immigrants.
“The immigration enforcement is not just about the Southern Border but also about the deep impact it’s having on Asian communities” Jo-Ann Yoo, executive director of the New York City-based social services nonprofit Asian American Federation (AAF), told HuffPost in an email. “We know the faces and stories of those who live under deportation orders, many who are working through the legal system to seek recourse from being separated from their families.” Key Words: Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, API,

7/22/19 July 22 – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Monday it will order more speedy deportations of immigrants who crossed illegally and are caught anywhere in the United States, expanding a program typically applied only along the southern border with Mexico.
The rule set to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday would apply “expedited removal” to any illegal crossers who cannot prove to immigration agents that they have been living in the country for two years.
Legal experts said it was a dramatic expansion of a program that cuts out review by an immigration judge. Previously, only those immigrants caught within 100 miles of the border who had been in the country two weeks or less could be quickly ordered
deported.

6/17/19 President Trump said in a tweet Monday night that U.S. immigration agents are planning to make mass arrests starting “next week” an apparent reference to a plan in preparation for months that aims to round up thousands of migrant parents and children in a blitz operation across major U.S. cities.
Trump and his senior immigration adviser, Stephen Miller, have been prodding Homeland Security officials to arrest and remove thousands of family members whose deportation orders were expedited by the Justice Department this year as part of a plan known as the “rocket docket.”

6/26/19 A union representing federal asylum officers said in a court filing Wednesday that the Trump administration’s policy forcing migrants to wait in Mexico while their asylum cases are decided risks violating international treaty obligations and “abandons our tradition of providing a safe haven to the persecuted.”
The union, which represents 2,500 Department of Homeland Security employees, including the asylum officers, said in its filing that the policy, the Migration Protection Protocols, puts migrants in danger because they could face persecution