Legal Immigration – Page 16 – immigrationcourtside.com

🗽🇺🇸 SPEAKING UP FOR AFGHAN REFUGEES: Former Government Senior Officials (Including Me) Urge Biden Administration To Invoke Emergency Parole Authority To Save Lives!

Letter to Secretaries Mayorkas and Blinken – August 25, 2021

August 25, 2021

The Honorable Alejandro N. Mayorkas Secretary of Homeland Security
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Washington, DC 20528

The Honorable Antony Blinken Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretaries Mayorkas and Blinken:

We write as former senior officials with responsibilities for U.S. refugee and immigration programs at both the federal and state levels.

There is no question that the current situation in Afghanistan demands a significant, substantial, and generous U.S. humanitarian response, including through urgent action to evacuate Afghans who have been associated with the United States presence in Afghanistan as well as Afghans at serious and severe risk due to their participation and leadership in activities that were strongly supported and endorsed by the United States. Such activities have included promoting the rights of women and girls, leadership of civil society organizations and initiatives, involvement in journalism, and engagement in the arts, among others.

Under current exigent circumstances, we believe that the administration should use the broadest array of authorities to secure the rescue of Afghans and to provide resettlement in the United States and other countries, as part of an international responsibility-sharing effort.

In this respect, we want in particular to convey our support for use of the parole authority as one critical tool, especially to supplement authorities of the Refugee Act, which—while crucially important—may prove in some respects to be too limited and cumbersome to address fully the urgent and emergency situation.

As you know, 8 U.S.C. 1182(d)(5)(A), vests in the Secretary of DHS the discretionary authority to grant parole for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit to applicants for admission temporarily on a case-by- case basis. To be sure, in 8 U.S.C. 1182(d)(5)(B), Congress limited the parole authority by restricting its use with respect to those who are refugees, unless the Secretary determines that ‘‘compelling reasons in the public interest with respect to that particular alien require that the alien be paroled . . . rather than be admitted as a refugee.”

The current situation in Afghanistan surely constitutes such a compelling reason, in light of the life-threatening circumstances for would-be applicants and the inability of the U.S. Refugee Admissions program to quickly accommodate the requirements of rescue. Of course, parole is not an end in itself, but would permit further processing through available statutory or administrative mechanisms.

2

Moreover, whatever the respective requirements and benefits of both case-by-case decision- making and the establishment of regulations authorizing a particular program, it has long been acknowledged and accepted that administrations may identify particular groups of individuals who may be eligible for consideration of parole.

Thus, we believe it important to convey our support for your use of this authority, and our willingness to support you in any way possible in the challenging days, weeks, and months ahead.

Sincerely,

T. Alexander Aleinikoff

Former General Counsel and subsequently Executive Associate Commissioner for Programs, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) (1994–1997)

Mette Brogden

Former Wisconsin State Refugee Coordinator (2010–2016)

Bo Cooper

Former General Counsel, INS (1999–2003)

Paul Stein

Former Colorado State Refugee Coordinator (2005–2014)

Stephen H. Legomsky

Former Senior Counselor to Secretary of Homeland Security (2015)
Former Chief Counsel, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) (2011–2013)

Hiram Ruiz

Former Florida State Refugee Coordinator (2008–2015)

David A. Martin

Former Principal Deputy General Counsel, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2009–2010) Former General Counsel, INS (1995-1998)

Maria Otero

Former Undersecretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights (2009–2013)

Anne C. Richard

Former Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration (2012–2017)

Myrta (Chris) Sale

Former Acting Commissioner, INS (1997) Former Deputy Commissioner, INS (1997–1999)

Paul Wickham Schmidt

Former Chair, Board of Immigration Appeals (1995–2001)

Former Acting General Counsel, INS (1979–1981; 1986–1987)

Eric Schwartz

Former Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration (2009–2011) Former National Security Council Director for Human Rights, Refugees, and Humanitarian Affairs and subsequently Senior Director for Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs (1993–2001)

Samuel Witten

Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, U.S. Department of State (2007–2010)
Former Deputy Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State (2001–2007)

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Many thanks to Eric Schwartz and Alex Aleinikoff for spearheading this effort! I’m so proud and honored to be a member of this distinguished group and to speak up for the lives and safety of those in peril.

This, of course, supports the recent LA Times op-ed from our good friend Professor Karen Musalo of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at Hastings Law, which I recently republished:

🗽🇺🇸 NDPA SHINING SUPERSTAR 🌟 PROFESSOR KAREN MUSALO @ LA TIMES: It’s Not Rocket Science! 🚀 — The US Can & Must Take Afghan Refugees!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

08-25-21

🗽CUT THE RED TAPE, SAVE LIVES!

Thanks

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/commentary/story/2021-08-20/afghan-allies-treated-poorly

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Our allies were given a promise, and leaving them to die will be an unforgivable act of cowardice.

BY ODAY YOUSIF JR.

AUG. 20, 2021 4:54 PM PT

Yousif Jr., J.D., is a graduate of California Western School of Law and an American Constitution Society Next Generation Leader. He lives in Rancho San Diego.

Twenty years ago, the American military marched into Afghanistan with the declared intent of hunting down Osama bin Laden and ridding the country of Taliban extremists. Led by government leaders working in bad faith, thousands of civilians and soldiers were led to their deaths for a war now universally considered a failure. However, the most vulnerable population susceptible to death in Afghanistan are those Afghan allies who risked their lives to work for the foreign forces. They served as translators and services workers and any role that required the help of the local population. Now, with the Taliban back in power, they will be the first to face death.

When local Afghans agreed to work for coalition forces, they were made a promise: work for us and we will give you a visa to the U.S. They put their safety on the line working for the military forces but did so in order to give them and their families the chance for a better future outside Afghanistan. They worked anywhere service members went, from battlefields to bases. Often, they were the people who saved the lives of the soldiers they worked for. They were not just local Afghans but critical allies necessary for the ongoing mission in their country. At that point, we had nothing short of a deep-seated moral obligation to make sure they were protected.

. . . .

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Read the complete op-ed at the link.

Amen! It’s not rocket 🚀 science! But, it does require expertise, guts, and a sense of urgency!

🇺🇸DPF!

PWS

08-23-21

☹️PROGRESSIVE ADVOCATES SENT TO BACK OF THE BUS 🚌 AGAIN AS BIDEN HUMAN RIGHTS MISTAKES THEY WARNED AGAINST COST LIVES, PROMOTE CHAOS, DIMINISH AMERICA’S REPUTATION!☠️⚰️

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/refugee-visas-afghanistan-withdrawal_n_61202499e4b029c152b4ff01

Kevin Robillard and Rowaida Abdelaziz report for HuffPost:

. . . .

There are currently more than 17,000 Afghan nationals — as well as an estimated 53,000 of their family members — awaiting visa approval through the Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) program. The U.S. brought over approximately 2,300 Afghans as part of the program from January to July, and another 2,000 over the last week.

The White House says it has cut the time necessary to approve SIV visas in half, and has issued more than 5,500 between April and July. But advocates say it needs to move faster.

“They seem to be afraid. They seem to be operating out of fear that being a bit bolder on issues with refugees, asylees and migrants will somehow cost them politically,” said former Housing Secretary Julian Castro, who made improving the country’s refugee system a central part of his 2020 presidential campaign. “This is an area where there’s growing disappointment and impatience ― and the stirrings of real anger ― towards the administration.”

. . . .

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Read the full article at the link.

Julian Castro should have been given a major role by the Biden Administration on cleaning house and straightening out the human rights disaster and dysfunction left behind by Trump and Miller. But, at this point, would he really want the job?

🇺🇸DPF!

PWS

08-23-21

🗽UR JADDOU R U LISTENING? — “The Asylumist” Jason Dzubow Has Ten Practical Suggestions For Putting The “Service” Back In USCIS, Now!

https://www.asylumist.com/2021/08/11/ten-suggestions-for-the-new-uscis-director-ur-jaddou/

USCIS has a new Director. Ur Mendoza Jaddou is the daughter of a Mexican immigrant and an Iraqi immigrant. She started her career on Capitol Hill working for pro-immigrant Congresswoman (and former immigration attorney) Zoe Lofgren, and later served in the Department of Homeland Security during the Obama Administration. Ms. Jaddou spent her Trump-Administration exile as a law professor at American University. Earlier this year, President Biden nominated her to direct USCIS. The Senate confirmed her nomination on July 30, 2021 and she assumed the directorship last week.

In her first news release, Director Jaddou states–

As a proud American and a daughter of immigrants, I am deeply humbled and honored to return to USCIS as director. I look forward to leading a team of dedicated public servants committed to honoring the aspirations of people like my parents and millions of others who are proud to choose this country as their own. USCIS embodies America’s welcoming spirit as a land of opportunity for all and a place where possibilities are realized.

Since January, USCIS has taken immediate steps to reduce barriers to legal immigration, increase accessibility for immigration benefits, and reinvigorate the size and scope of humanitarian relief. As USCIS director, I will work each and every day to ensure our nation’s legal immigration system is managed in a way that honors our heritage as a nation of welcome and as a beacon of hope to the world; reducing unnecessary barriers and supporting our agency’s modernization.

As we look to the future, I am excited for the work ahead and ready to roll up my sleeves to implement Secretary Mayorkas’ goals and the priorities of the Biden-Harris Administration to ensure that the work of USCIS lives up to our nation’s highest values.

I do not know Director Jaddou personally, but I have heard good things about her for several years now, and so her appointment is a cause for optimism. That said, she has her work cut out for her. From my perspective as an asylum attorney, USCIS is a disaster. There are so many problems that need fixing, it is difficult to know where to begin. Luckily, I am here to offer some suggestions. These will focus on asylum and “asylum adjacent” issues. Without further ado, here are ten great ideas for Director Jaddou–

The new USCIS Director, Ur Jaddou, reveals her plan for the agency.

Say Goodbye to LIFO and Hello to FIFO: I’ve written extensively about the unfair and unpredictable nature of the “Last In, First Out” system for affirmative asylum interviews. Due to LIFO, asylum applicants who filed years ago have still not received an interview and have little hope of ever seeing their cases resolved. Living in these uncertain circumstances, often separated from family members, is psychologically traumatizing. We need a system that is fair and predictable, so applicants and their attorneys know when to expect an interview and have time to prepare in advance. FIFO (“First In, First Out”) and the Asylum Office Scheduling Bulletin provides more predictability and more notice to asylum seekers. While we’re discussing asylum interviews, we also need rules about expediting asylum cases, so those with the most compelling needs are able to schedule their interviews more quickly.

Reasonable Security Background Checks: Security background checks at the Asylum Office often cause significant delays. Sometimes, these delays stretch on for years, with no real explanation. The worst affected people seem to be men from Muslim countries, but others suffer from these delays as well. We never see such delays in Immigration Court. Why? According to a former Asylum Division Director, it’s because there are different systems at the Asylum Office and in court. These systems should be harmonized so that background checks for asylum cases are completed in the same timely manner as background checks in court.

Overhaul the Texas Service Center: The TSC is a nightmare. Processing times are through the roof (for example, the processing time for an I-485 is up to 62.5 months or 5+ years! Contrast that to the processing time for the same form at the NSC, which is “only” 17 months). The TSC also routinely rejects cases for nonsensical or incorrect reasons. They sometimes “disappear” cases, and Valhalla help you if you ever want to add a dependent to an existing asylum case. These problems and others have been ongoing for years. It’s time–in fact, long past time–for a top to bottom re-do of the TSC.

Reform the Forms: USCIS forms are inconsistent with each other, confusing, too long, and culturally insensitive. I’ve written more extensively about this problem, but the short answer is that the forms need a major overhaul. While we’re at it, maybe we can make all forms available for online filing.

Asylum Office Websites: Speaking of online, it’s high time that the Asylum Offices had functional, informative websites that actually help asylum seekers understand the process and navigate the system. In fact, a few years ago, I offered a re-design of the Asylum Office website. Now would be a terrific time to implement my ideas!

Extend the Validity of the Refugee Travel Document: The RTD is valid for only one year. If you want to renew this document before your current RTD expires, you have to mail in the original (unexpired) RTD. As a result, asylees (and lawful permanent residents who received status through asylum) are left with long periods of time when they are either prevented from traveling or are forced to use their home country passport, which could have negative implications for their status. Why not make the RTD valid for five or 10 years? That would give asylees and refugees the ability to safely travel and return to the United States.

Make Advance Parole Easier: For most applicants with an asylum case pending, the only way to travel outside the U.S. and return is with Advance Parole. Unfortunately, AP is difficult to get because an applicant must show a “humanitarian” need for the travel, and USCIS can be strict on this point. Also, the AP document is valid for unpredictable periods of time. There was a time, during the salad days of the Obama Administration, when USCIS basically accepted any “humanitarian” reason as valid for travel. We should return to that system. Also, the AP document should be issued for a longer period of time and for multiple trips. AP would be less necessary if asylum cases took months. But they take years. And asylum seekers often have very valid and important reasons for travel, even if those reasons do not always meet USCIS’s definition of “humanitarian.”

Make EADs Easier: Last summer, the Trump Administration made it more difficult for asylum applicants to get their EADs. The change has been partly blocked by a court, but it is still significantly more work for an asylum applicant to get an EAD today, and some applications are being rejected. Also, the processing time for EADs keeps getting longer, and so many people are left with gaps in work eligibility when they try to renew their work permits. USCIS should return to the pre-Trump system for obtaining an EAD while asylum is pending. Also, because processing times are so long, applicants should be permitted to apply earlier for their initial EAD and their renewals. Better yet, USCIS should just send an EAD to every asylum applicant automatically and this EAD should be valid for the duration of the asylum case (dare to dream!).

Automatic Green Cards for Asylees: It should not take years for an asylee to obtain a Green Card. All asylees have undergone extensive investigation and background checks. Also, many asylees have already spent years waiting to obtain asylum. USCIS should be able to quickly process Green Card applications for such people. Even better, USCIS should automatically issue the Green Card after one year with asylum (and an updated background check).

Prioritize Follow-to-Join Asylee Petitions: Many people who receive asylum have been separated from close family members for years. Often times, those family members are living in unsafe conditions. Currently, the I-730 process is very slow (processing times range from 15 to 28 months + additional time for consular processing). These cases should be given a higher priority by USCIS, so asylee families can be re-united as quickly as possible.

So there you have it. If you have additional ideas, please leave them in the comments below. You never know who might see them. And to Director Jaddou, if you are reading this, I am sorry to give you so much homework! And thank you in advance.

**********************

As we know, the “Trump/Miller Era” Directors of USCIS, Cissna & Rogue (Non)Director “Cooch Cooch the Illegal” worked diligently to eradicate all vestiges of “customer service” from the USCIS “mission.” They turned it into an incompetent and highly inefficient adjunct of ICE Enforcement, even while squandering resources to such an amazing extent that what once had been a self-supporting service agency, one of the few in Government, became a bankrupt “budget black hole.”

Of course, focusing USCIS primarily on enforcement was also a direct contradiction of the Congressional intent in placing immigration enforcement and immigration benefits in separate agencies when dismembering the “Legacy INS” and establishing DHS!

Many of the best suggestions for achievable fixes and improvements to the Federal immigration bureaucracy come from practitioners who deal with its “mission failure” on a daily basis. Sadly, these practical suggestions all too often are pushed aside in favor of preconceived bureaucratic assumptions, ideological agendas (see, Trump kakistocracy), political goals often largely unrelated to immigration, and unrealistic “blueprints” that have little relation to either reality or practicality.

I hope that Ur will listen to “practical experts” like Jason and others and make the very achievable changes necessary to restore customer service and some semblance of order and lawfulness to our legal immigration system at USCIS.

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

08-13-21

⚖️🗽PROFESSOR JILL FAMILY IN YALE JOURNAL ON REGULATION — Puncturing The Sovereignty Myth — “The failure to provide fair process affects more than just the noncitizen; in fact, it degrades our democracy and affects us all.”

https://www.yalejreg.com/nc/we-have-nothing-to-fear-but-sovereignty-fear-itself/

. . . .

Additionally, the status quo does not guarantee that no one will be present in the United States without permission. In fact, with the plenary power doctrine in place, there are approximately 10 million individuals living in the United States without permission. (And most of them crossed the border legally, entering the territory with legal authorization for some period that expired.) Despite this, the United States continues to exist. Noncitizens, however, are denied more independent adjudicators under the false idea that by denying them we somehow protect the nation’s sovereignty. These are complex lives interwoven with our communities, businesses, schools, and the lives of US citizens. The failure to provide fair process affects more than just the noncitizen; in fact, it degrades our democracy and affects us all.

Perhaps the sovereignty fear is shorthand for something else? Is it an objection to multiculturalism? The reflection of a desire to give the president power to thwart statutory immigration law? Or perhaps courts and policymakers have been invoking the phrase “plenary power” for so long that it has become an out of date, knee-jerk reaction.

Sovereignty and foreign policy will remain intact even with more independent immigration adjudication. The sovereignty fear is a distraction from what really needs our attention; we should not let it stop us from providing fair process.

*******************

The threat to our democracy hardly comes from those seeking legal refuge to save their lives or to find meaningful work to support their families and contribute to society. A more robust and fair legal immigration system would assist in identifying the relatively small percentage of migrants who seek to do us harm.

No, the bigger threat comes from GOP neo-fascist insurrectionists and their spineless political enablers who actively seek to undermine our democracy with lies and White Nationalist racism.

In a more functional system, Professor Family and those like her who understand and are committed to the “big picture” of American democracy and equal justice for all would be the Appellate Immigration Judges and Article III Judges — jurists ready and willing to stand up to Executive abuses of authority! The Immigration Courts should be the “starting place” for restoring and reinforcing American democracy. Does the Biden Administration have the vision and guts to make it happen?

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

08-06-21

⚖️TAL @ SF CHRON GETS ACTION ON SEXUAL HARASSMENT @ EOIR & REST OF DOJ! — Report on Problems In Immigration Courts Finally Spurs Positive Response! — But Biden Continues To Flail Around Unnecessarily On Restoring Asylum & The Rule Of Law At Our Borders! — Where Is The Enlightened Progressive Leadership We Need?

Tal Kopan
Washington Reporter, SF Chronicle

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Justice-Department-to-overhaul-its-sexual-16352255.php

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice will examine its sexual harassment policies for potential reform, a move that comes after The Chronicle’s reporting on inappropriate behavior in the immigration courts, according to an announcement obtained by the newspaper.

The announcement went out to all department staff Thursday in an email seen by The Chronicle. In it, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco wrote it was “critical to our duty as principled defenders of the law to combat sexual harassment and misconduct in our own workplace and hold offenders accountable for their actions.”

Monaco said she is forming a committee to review all sexual harassment policies of the many sub-agencies of the Justice Department and assess where they may need to be changed, as well as evaluate current training and education. Two senior officials from her office will chair the effort and include members from across the department, and she said she wanted results of the review in six months.

. . . .

***********************

Thanks, and congrats, Tal! Those with access can read the rest of Tal’s report at the link.

How very timely! I just got done posting an article about the need for better Immigration Judges. https://immigrationcourtside.com/2021/07/30/%e2%9a%96%ef%b8%8f%f0%9f%a7%91%f0%9f%8f%bd%e2%80%8d%e2%9a%96%ef%b8%8f-why-better-immigration-judges-matter-new-study-shows-that-who-your-judge-is-where-he-or-she-is-located-what-administ/

Not surprisingly, according to the research, the fairest Immigration Judges for asylum applicants and other migrants “profile” as female, with immigration experience, in the 9th Circuit, in a Dem Administration. Not exactly the Sessions, Barr, Garland (to date) judicial profile. That could have something to do with these festering problems at EOIR that haven’t been dealt with despite numerous warning signs and “alerts.”

Also, the Garland DOJ would do well to investigate and correct the effects of the virulent misogyny directed at female refugees of color by Sessions, Barr, and their toadies and furthered by EOIR policies, procedures, and precedents over the past four years. Endemic problems don’t happen by chance!

According to the Ryo-Peacock study I posted, the “difference” that better Immigration Judges could make is over 200,000 lives potentially saved or altered for the better. That’s not exactly “chump change,” particularly when the interests of family members, employers, communities, our larger justice system, and our overall society are considered.

It also calls into question the apparent lack of seriousness with which “Team Garland” has taken Immigration Judge appointments to date. Throwing dozens of “not the best qualified available” IJs — without any concerted recruitment or diversification efforts — into an already broken, biased, and reeling system that deals with human lives in a cavalier manner is NOT GOOD POLICY! Particularly when the chronic problems of bad judging at EOIR had been clearly and articulately identified and many viable action plans and reform programs had been set forth by private sector experts even before the 2020 election.

EOIR needs new progressive leadership, a new progressive expert BIA that will truly be the “Supreme Court” of immigration and human rights, and better qualified and more diverse Immigration Judges who finally will implement the noble and correct vision of “through teamwork and innovation, being the world’s best tribunals guaranteeing fairness and due process for all!” That would include treating all individuals coming before the courts, staff, and colleagues with dignity, respect, and fairness.

Sadly, the Biden Administration’s immigration policies, whatever they are on any particular day and place, seem to be mired in confusion, questionable competence, and a barrage of largely meaningless and confusing bureaucratic doublespeak. Meanwhile, in reality, it appears that Central Americans, Haitians, and others are being returned to danger zones without any process in place to insure fair treatment. Certainly, “Title 42” is the equivalent of no process whatsoever. While “expedited removal” might have the potential to be used fairly, there is little reason to believe that it is now being fairly and professionally administered by anyone committed to fundamental fairness over expedient enforcement.

Yes, Garland has sued racist moron Gov. Greg Abbott on his illegal Trumpist grandstanding (like Texas doesn’t have real problems to solve?). Stunts like Abbott’s were entirely predictable. However, if the Biden Administration had “hit the ground running” on asylum, the issue might well have been put to bed by now, and Abbott might have to focus instead on his normal job of mis-governing Texas, rather than focusing attention elsewhere.

The Administration could and should have had a robust refugee system up and running in the Northern Triangle that would reduce border pressure, a functioning asylum system that would encourage asylum applicants to apply at ports of entry rather than seeking irregular entry, a professional screening program in place at DHS, and a relatively “backlog free” Immigration Court, led by a progressive BIA, providing positive guidance on cases that could be granted. They would also have resettlement agreements and programs in place with NGOs and legal service groups to appropriately represent and resettle those granted asylum and those in the process to the locations where they could best reside.

Fair, expert, courageous leadership, leadership with a humane, positive, practical vision of immigration and an unswerving commitment to fairly granting asylum, is critical to success on immigration, human rights, and racial justice issues. So far, nobody in the Biden Administration appears to fit the bill! That’s probably why the Administration’s confused and ever-vacillating policies are being blasted by both progressives and reactionaries — the worst of all political worlds, as I have observed before!

There are experts out here in the private sector with the vision and leadership ability to solve these problems while putting White Nationalist restrictionists like Abbott in their place. Even though it’s late, the Biden Administration still needs to get a better team in place and let them solve the problems with knowledge, competence, and compassion, not more “knee-jerk reactions” and continuations of the cruel, inhumane, counterproductive, and often illegal policies and practices of the Trump regime.

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

07-31-21

⚖️🗽THE DEVIL 👹 IS IN THE DETAILS! — Biden’s New Plan For Asylum Seekers: Long On Bureaucratese, Short On Specific Details — Questions Human Rights Advocates Should Be Asking!

I found the White House “Fact Sheet” to be largely a mix of bureaucratic doublespeak, shame, blame, and few details about how it’s actually going to work. Also, not much about who is going to be responsible (and accountable) for making it work!

Here it is, so you can judge for yourself:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/07/27/fact-sheet-the-biden-administration-blueprint-for-a-fair-orderly-and-humane-immigration-system/

Here are some of my questions:

Will those whose cases are denied by an Asylum Officer still have a right to IJ/BIA/Judicial Review?
How will they set up dedicated dockets without pushing back cases already on the docket?
What steps will be taken to insure that Judges assigned to these dockets aren’t members of the “90% Denial Club?”
How will they screen asylum cases with Title 42 still in effect?
What will be the role of detention? If detention is used, how will reasonable access to counsel be be guaranteed in detention centers?
Who will be training the CBP Agents, Asylum Offices, and Immigration Judges to recognize asylum claims, even those that might not be well-articulated by migrants or that might involve novel applications of protection laws?
What advance coordination will take place with legal services groups to maximize representation.
How will positive asylum guidance be issued (given that the BIA has issued almost none in the past four years, and a number of negative precedents have been vacated by the AG or rejected by various Circuits)?
How will the success of this program be measured, particularly with respect to insuring full due process and fundamental fairness to all asylum applicants?
What type of resettlement opportunities or assistance will be made available for successful asylum, seekers and who will provide and fund it?
Will there be any role for the UNHCR? If so, what?
How will DHS and EOIR solve the “effective notice problems” that have plagued the Immigration Court system for years and resulted in far too many “bogus in absentia removal orders.”
Who will insure the accuracy of statistics and that “gamed” or manipulated statistics are not used (as the Trump regime did) to create false narratives about “success” by the Administration or to promote unfair and inaccurate “myths” about asylum seekers.

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

07-29-21

🇺🇸👍🏼🏆NEWS FROM MAINE: US OLYMPIC TEAM’S SNEAKERS MADE IN MAINE BY IMMIGRANT CRAFTSPERSONS WITH ALL-AMERICAN PRODUCTS!

Polo Ralph Lauren, Team USA’s sponsor, commissioned Rancourt & Co. in Lewiston to make the team’s sneaker for the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony.

https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/sports/olympics/team-usas-olympic-opening-ceremony-sneakers-made-by-lewiston-maine-shoemaker/97-fab1e868-9ab6-45bb-93c4-f43a11b4e616

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The folks saving this Maine industry and making America proud are mostly asylees from Africa. Something to remember and reflect upon the next time you hear GOP “magamorons” and White Nationalist racist nativists claim that legal asylum seekers are a “problem,” rather than a key part of the solution! Indeed, the “problem” appears to be with the GOP White Nationalist restrictionists and nativists!

I’ve personally seen how immigrants of all kinds from all places have rejuvenated Maine with their hard work, culture, adaptability, and energy. Whether it’s the checkout person at the local grocery store, the folks who run the best carry-out in town with the brilliant daughter, or the helpful associate at L.L. Bean, immigrants are a key part of what makes Maine a great place to visit or live.

Go USA! Go Immigrants!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

07-29-21

☠️🤮🏴‍☠️TRUMP REGIME’S MINDLESS CRUELTY, XENOPHOBIA, MALICIOUS INCOMPETENCE, SHAFTED 60,000 MIGRANTS!

Dan Kowalski reports on LexisNexis Immigration Community:

https://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/immigration/b/insidenews/posts/district-court-approves-settlement-in-lawsuit-challenging-immigration-agency-s-unlawful-rejection-of-over-sixty-thousand-humanitarian-applications

District Court Approves Settlement in Lawsuit Challenging Immigration Agency’s Unlawful Rejection of Over Sixty Thousand Humanitarian Applications

NILA, NWIRP, July 20, 2021

“Today, a federal district court judge in Oakland, California, approved a final settlement in the case of Vangala v. USCIS, providing relief to over sixty thousand applicants for humanitarian immigration benefits. The lawsuit, filed on November 19, 2020, against U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), challenged an agency policy adopted under the Trump administration specifically targeting humanitarian benefits for survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking and asylum seekers. Under the policy, USCIS rejected applications that left any question in the application unanswered, even where the question was not applicable—for example where the applicant failed to include a response for middle name because they have no middle name. Additionally, USCIS rejected applications where the applicant wrote “none” or “not applicable” instead of “N/A.”

The lawsuit was filed by Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), the National Immigration Litigation Alliance (NILA), and the Van Der Hout law firm, on behalf of three applicants who sought to represent a nationwide class of individuals whose applications were rejected under the policy. They alleged that the policy was nothing more than a pretextual basis for denying applicants the opportunity to obtain humanitarian benefits provided by Congress.

On December 22, 2020, the agency agreed to suspend the policy, and the parties then entered settlement discussions to address the tens of thousands of applications that USCIS previously rejected. The U.S. district court adopted and approved the final settlement agreement on July 20, 2021.

Under the settlement agreement, USCIS will accept the original submission date of the more than sixty thousand applications it has identified as having been rejected under the policy. USCIS will send notices to these applicants explaining the steps they can take to ensure that their applications for humanitarian benefits are recorded as having been filed as of the date they were originally submitted. Without this relief, these applicants not only would suffer the delays caused by USCIS’ rejection of their applications, but many applicants or their family members would be rendered ineligible because they were unable to file the required forms by timelines specified in the statute.

In addition, the settlement agreement prevents the agency from adopting a similar rejection policy with respect to other immigration forms unless authorized by statute or lawfully implemented through regulations.

“It was an outrageous policy clearly aimed to impede individuals from obtaining the humanitarian benefits that Congress has provided,” said Matt Adams, Legal Director for NWIRP. “It aptly demonstrates the Trump administrations’ utter disregard of the law.”

“USCIS’ rejection policy served no legitimate purpose,” said Mary Kenney, Deputy Director for NILA. “Tens of thousands of applicants will now, finally, be able to move forward with applications that the agency should have accepted in 2020.”

The settlement agreement is here and order approving the settlement agreement can be found here.

#####

Media contacts:

Trina Realmuto, National Immigration Litigation Alliance

(617) 819-4447; trina@immigrationlitigation.org

Matt Adams, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project

(206) 957-8611; matt@nwirp.org”

****************

Cruelty, stupidity, illegality, wasting Government resources! So, what else is new about the Trump kakistocracy’s immigration policies and procedures? Wonder why all immigration agencies are running out of control backlogs? Don’t blame the victims — the migrants exercising their legal rights!

In direct contravention of the intent of Congress in structuring DHS so that the “customer services” to migrants and their families would be separate, and no longer subordinate to, immigration enforcement, the Trump kakistocracy turned USCIS into a semi-useless branch of their corrupt, yet inept, White Nationalist enforcement agenda. So incompetent and inappropriate were Trump’s actions that his lackeys managed to “repurpose” USCIS, once one of the few self-sustaining independently funded agencies within Government, into a deficit promoting, bankrupt, money pit.

And, it was a cesspool that failed miserably in its primary mission of serving those seeking legal immigration status, their families, and their employers. A primary reason why the Biden Administration is having difficulties with immigration and human rights is the illegal eradication by the Trump regime of the U.S. legal immigration system, particularly our refugee and asylum systems.

That leaves those suffering from persecution and torture in need of legal protection with no choice but to use the “extralegal system.” Far from their stunningly false claim to have “enhanced” immigration enforcement, the GOP nativists have also destroyed rational, practical, targeted enforcement with their nonsense. Don’t let them get away with blaming the Biden Administration and the victims of their cruel and often illegal behavior which produced the results that many of us predicted!

The next time you hear Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, or some other GOP nativist restrictionist disingenuously blabbering on about “rewarding lawbreakers” or “doing it the right way,” remember that largely because of them and the Trump regime, America has no functional immigration system for refugees, asylees, or any other type of legal immigrants, nor do we have a functioning Immigration Court system!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

07-23-21

🇺🇸AMERICA NEEDS MORE LEGAL IMMIGRATION, NOT MORE WALLS & JAILS! — Rampell Gets It Right @ WashPost!

Catherine Rampell
Opinion Columnist
Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/15/worried-about-illegal-immigration-create-more-legal-immigrants/

If Republicans are truly worried about the supposed scourge of undocumented immigrants, they should start building that “big, beautiful door” on our borders that Donald Trump always talked about.

The solution to concerns about “illegal immigration” is creating more legal pathways to immigrate here.

Immigration reform has stalled for decades, despite widespread agreement that the existing system is broken, and occasional bipartisan attempts to fix it. The latest sweeping reform bill, backed by President Biden, has gone nowhere, unlikely to secure enough Republican votes to avoid a filibuster.

So now Senate Democrats are attempting a workaround. They’ve signaled that they’ll include a narrow subset of immigration issues in their forthcoming reconciliation bill, which could be passed with only Democratic votes.

Exact details are still being hashed out, but the bill is expected to contain a pathway to citizenship for certain categories of undocumented immigrants, including “dreamers” (unauthorized immigrants who came to the United States as children), those with temporary protected status (people from countries facing emergencies such as armed conflict or natural disaster), essential workers and farm laborers.

A majority of both Democratic and Republican voters support earned legalization of these groups, according to recent polls.

This legislative strategy is by no means a slam-dunk. Moderate Democratic lawmakers need to get on board, since passing the bill through the reconciliation process would require all 50 Senate Democrats’ votes. The biggest wild card, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), has already indicated his support, which seems promising.

The bigger hurdle involves legislative rules: The Senate parliamentarian must determine that these immigration measures are sufficiently budget-related to include in the reconciliation process. Legalizing millions of undocumented migrants would have some effect on federal budgets — for example, through more immigration application fees and taxes on legalized immigrants’ earnings. Activists also point to a 2005 reconciliation bill that included different immigration-related provisions. Even so, the parliamentarian may nix these particular measures.

None of this has stopped Republicans from preemptive scaremongering about the “illegal alien” hordes supposedly rushing our “open borders” to seize their “amnesty.”

“Democrats are trying to sneak mass amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants through Congress under the cover of their budget scheme,” warned Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.).

“The Democrats want to include a massive amnesty in that legislation,” echoed his colleague Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). “That will simply act as a bigger magnet for more illegal immigration into this country.”

This is nonsense. First and foremost, the population eligible for legalization would likely be restricted to people who’ve already been here for some minimum period of time, rather than those contemplating coming, say, tomorrow. This is how that broader, Biden-backed bill works, and how previous legalization proposals have been structured.

More importantly, though, if these restrictionists are really so concerned about all the immigrants slipping in through the back door, the best solution is a more accessible, clearly monitored front door.

. . . .

***********************

Well and clearly said, Catherine! You can read her complete op-Ed at the above link.

The solution to border “surges” has little or nothing to do with walls, jails, and more agents. The prerequisites are reopening the ports of entry, restoring the legal asylum system, staffing it with experts, and expanding other legal immigration opportunities as Catherine cogently suggests!

PWS

07-16-21

⚠️🚸V.P. HARRIS IS GOING TO THE BORDER: SHE SHOULD TALK WITH THE REAL VICTIMS OF HER GOVERNMENT’S, ILLEGAL, WRONG-HEADED, IMMORAL, AND INEFFECTIVE BORDER DETERRENCE POLICIES — Avoid The CBP “Dog & Pony Show,” & The GOP’s Cowardly “Gunboat Cruz” — Cross Over The Border, View The Human Rights Catastrophe We Have Created, Understand People Have A Right To Seek Legal Refuge, & Fix The Legal Asylum System At Ports Of Entry & Immigration Courts With Humane, Practical Experts! — “The vice president seems to have bought into the… I can’t use another word, but the nativist party line, that somehow these immigrants are the cause of the problem when, in fact, they’re the victims of multiple problems in many cases.” — Stop Blaming, Shaming, & Dehumanizing The Victims & Start Fixing Our Asylum System & Solving The Problems That Force Them To Migrate!

“Floaters” — “Sadly, over the last two decades the US has been unable to get beyond this vision of ‘deterrence’ of legal asylum seekers.“ — Floaters — “How The World’s Richest Country Responds To Asylum Seekers”
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – The bodies of Salvadoran migrant Oscar Alberto Mart??nez Ram??rez and his nearly 2-year-old daughter Valeria lie on the bank of the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico, Monday, June 24, 2019, after they drowned trying to cross the river to Brownsville, Texas. Martinez’ wife, Tania told Mexican authorities she watched her husband and child disappear in the strong current. (AP Photo/Julia Le Duc)

https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2021/06/17/vice-president-kamala-harris-us-mexico-border-immigration-unaccompanied

J.D. Long-Garcia writes in America Magazine:

Last week, Ms. Harris traveled to Guatemala to meet with President Alejandro Giammattei and expressed the Biden administration’s goal to “help Guatelmalans find hope at home.” During a press conference on June 7, she told Guatemalans thinking of making the journey north to the United States: “Do not come. Do not come.”

“O.K., that’s like saying, ‘Stay home and die,’” according to the Rev. Pat Murphy, a Scalabrini priest who runs the Casa del Migrante shelter in Tijuana, Baja California. “That message is falling on deaf ears.”

If Ms. Harris does travel to the border, Father Murphy said, she should be sure to make a visit to the Mexican side. “If she just stays on her side, she’s not going to find much,” he said.

In Tijuana, Ms. Harris would see a camp of 2,000 asylum seekers near the port of entry, Father Murphy said. “If she looked a little further, she would see the people who are victims of violence in Tijuana and Mexicali and other places,” he said. Migrants may be eager to escape bad situations in their home countries, Father Murphy said, but they often do not understand how difficult conditions at the border are “until they’re stuck in the middle of [a border city] with no place to go.”

“You can’t understand [border realities] by talking to government officials. You have to talk to the people who are working with migrants and hear about the suffering.”

At diminished capacity because of the pandemic, migrant shelters are full. The United States has started to accept some vulnerable people, like families with children with an illness or those being persecuted because of their sexual orientation, Father Murphy said. But there are also hundreds deported every day.

He believes if the vice president did decide to visit the border, it would be worth her while. “You can’t understand [border realities] by talking to government officials,” Father Murphy said. “You have to talk to the people who are working with migrants and hear about the suffering.”

. . . .

Donald M. Kerwin
Executive Director
Center for Migration Studies

Donald Kerwin, the executive director of the Center for Migration Studies in New York, also noted that people have a right not to migrate—to stay in their home country. He sees immigration policy as an arena for a fruitful convergence of Catholic social teaching, international law and contemporary human rights principles.

The Biden administration’s recognition of the forces that drive migration should be applauded, but it can address root causes while re-establishing humane asylum policies at the border.

“States are responsible for ensuring that people can flourish at home,” he said. “But it’s an empty right at this point in many communities in the Northern Triangle countries. They’re facing impossible conditions, caused by natural disasters, climate change, gang violence and extraordinary poverty. So people have a right to flee those impossible conditions and seek lives that are worthy of human dignity. In some cases, that means leaving their countries.”

When they do leave their home countries, people have the right to seek protection wherever they can find it, Mr. Kerwin said. “The vice president seems to have bought into the… I can’t use another word, but the nativist party line, that somehow these immigrants are the cause of the problem when, in fact, they’re the victims of multiple problems in many cases.”

The United States needs a functioning refugee resettlement system, an asylum system and robust humanitarian programs to address the conditions in Central America that are driving people to migrate, he said. “They’re not in place right now,” Mr. Kerwin said, “and until they are in place, people will reluctantly, at a terrible cost…continue to migrate.”

If Ms. Harris visits the border, Mr. Kerwin suggested she speak with migrants that have entered the United States, starting with the children. “Find out why they’ve come, what drove them to the United States and also see what their situation is currently, in often overcrowded facilities,” he said. “At that point, it would be clear as day that these folks are not a problem. These folks fled terrible problems, but they themselves are not the problem.”

Earlier this month, more than 20 bishops, Vatican representatives and leaders of Catholic organizations met for an emergency immigration meeting at Mundelein Seminary, outside of Chicago. Mr. Kerwin, who attended the meeting, said organizers displayed notes written by immigrant children, often addressed to God.

“It’s clear from reading these notes that these are lovely children, who miss their parents and worry about them and are in difficult situations that are not of their own making. And that the United States should do right by them,” he said. “And the right thing is to protect them and reunify them with family members.”

Chloe Gunther, America intern, contributed to this story.

***********************

Read the full article at the link.

Politicians of both parties are averse to the truth. They don’t have the courage and backbone for it! But the truth is quite simple, if somewhat “inconvenient.”

Unless and until we can solve the problems driving refugees to flee the Northern Triangle, we will have to take more of them. We should welcome them through an orderly legal system, including a robust, properly staffed, and honestly administered legal refugee and asylum system.

Alternatively, we could continue our current policies of immorally and illegally killing some on the journey, “snuffing” some in the desert (where their bodies might never be found and “counted”), and enriching smugglers and cartels who will eventually get many determined survivors into the interior.

There, they will join our highly exploitable, yet politically expedient for both parties (for differing reasons), “extralegal population.” A limited number will be “in the wrong place at the wrong time” and be arbitrarily removed by ICE, usually at costs that far exceed any demonstrable benefits. Even fewer will commit misconduct leading to their arrest and removal.

But the bulk of them will blend in somehow and do what’s necessary for themselves and their families to survive, as has been happening for decades and generations. They will also enrich and improve our nation in ways both predictable and unpredictable. Some will eventually find it possible and advantageous to return to their nations of origin, most won’t.

It would be far better for both the migrants and our nation, not to mention humanity as a whole, if we included the bulk of those forced to come here in our legal immigration system. But, whether we are enlightened enough “to do it the right way” or not, they will come as long as the alternatives are starvation, death, unspeakable abuse, and unending despair.

Migration is both our oldest and most persistent human phenomenon and an essential survival skill for humanity. It’s going to take more than inane walls, cruel and illegal imprisonment in American Gulags, unworkable laws, mindless, yet expensive, enforcement, nativist rhetoric, bad judges, and cowardly politicians sending “don’t come” messages to make them “die in place.” Our politicians might be not be bright or brave enough to face reality — but, I guarantee that the forced migrants we like to dehumanize and look down upon are much smarter, braver, more aware, and far more creative, adaptable, and capable than we think!

🇺🇸🗽⚖️Due Process Forever!

PWS

06-24-21

💡NOLAN RAPPAPORT @ THE HILL SAYS BIDEN DIDN’T GO FAR ENOUGH WITH HIS CENTRAL AMERICAN MINORS’ (“CAM”) PROGRAM — He’s Right!

Biden’s program for migrant children doesn’t go far enough

By Nolan Rappaport

Former President Barack Obama established the Central American Minors (CAM) Program in December 2014 to provide in-country refugee processing for children in the Northern Triangle Countries (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) as a safe, legal, and orderly alternative to them making the dangerous journey to the United States to apply for asylum.

But Obama only made the program available to Northern Triangle children who had a parent who was already physically present in the United States and had lawful status.

The Trump administration phased out the CAM program in fiscal 2018 because “the vast majority of individuals accessing the program were not eligible for refugee resettlement.”

On March 10, 2021, the Biden administration announced that it had restarted the CAM program to reunite children from the Northern Triangle countries with parents who are lawfully present in the United States. Biden also wants to save Northern Triangle children from having to make the dangerous journey to the United States in the hands of smugglers.

That’s a noble intent: The trip across the border is incredibly dangerous.

On June 15, 2021, Biden announced an expansion of the CAM program which specified that parents and legal guardians lawfully present in the United States may apply on behalf of the children — this now includes parents or legal guardians in the following legal status categories: Permanent Resident Status; Temporary Protected Status; Parole; Deferred Action; Deferred Enforced Departure; and Withholding of Removal.

According to David Bier, a research fellow at the Cato Institute, this is a great improvement over requiring children to come to the United States in the hands of smugglers; however, it remains to be seen whether it will dissuade families from sending their children here with smugglers.

Biden’s CAM program may be more generous than the Obama administration’s CAM program, but I think Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) was right when he observed that illegal crossings were not reduced when the Obama administration tried this program years ago, and there’s no reason to think it will have that effect now.

Moreover, Biden should know that his revised CAM program is not going to be an effective alternative to making the dangerous journey with smugglers. His administration has acknowledged that only 40 percent of the children from the Northern Triangle who were apprehended at the border this year had a parent in the United States.

I don’t understand why he didn’t make it available to all Northern Triangle children who have a persecution claim. He didn’t have to limit the program to children who have parents or guardians in the United States.

Read more at https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/559334-bidens-program-for-northern-triangle-children-doesnt-go-far-enough

Published originally on The Hill.

Nolan Rappaport was detailed to the House Judiciary Committee as an Executive Branch Immigration Law Expert for three years. He subsequently served as an immigration counsel for the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims for four years. Prior to working on the Judiciary Committee, he wrote decisions for the Board of Immigration Appeals for 20 years. Follow him at https://nolanrappaport.blogspot.com

*******************

Thanks, Nolan! Go on over to The Hill and read Nolan’s complete article.

Nolan’s proposal sure seems like good government and common sense to me. This expanded policy should be relatively non-controversial. Like Nolan, I don’t understand why the Biden Administration is “missing the obvious here.” Every step helps in better and more humanely managing Central American asylum applications. I’ll bet there are even qualified retired immigration officials from USCIS and Immigration Judges and BIA staff from DOJ who would be willing to return as “rehirees” and travel to Central America to work on a program like Nolan proposes.

Gotta “pick the low hanging fruit,” as Nolan suggests!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

06-21-21

👍🏼UNHCR welcomes US decision to restore protections from gang and domestic violence

UNHCR welcomes US decision to restore protections from gang and domestic violence

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, welcomes the U.S. government’s decision announced 16 June to reverse legal rulings introduced several years ago that effectively made people forced to flee life-threatening domestic and gang violence in their home countries ineligible from being able to seek safety in the United States.

“These rulings have put the lives of vulnerable people at risk,” said Matthew Reynolds, UNHCR Representative to the United States and the Caribbean, after the U.S. Justice Department announced that the legal rulings known as Matter of A-B- and Matter of L-E-A- had been vacated in their entirety.

“Today’s decisions will give survivors fleeing these types of violence a better chance of finding safety in the United States and being treated with the basic compassion and dignity that every single person deserves. UNHCR welcomes this important humanitarian step,” Reynolds said.

UNHCR, he added, also welcomes the U.S. administration’s commitment to bringing its asylum system into line with international standards and specifically to writing new rules on determining membership of a “particular social group,” one of five grounds spelled out in the 1951 Refugee Convention defining who is entitled to international protection as a refugee.

“In keeping with international standards, a simple and broad definition of ‘particular social group’ is an essential part of a fair and efficient asylum system,” Reynolds said, adding that UNHCR stands ready and willing to support the asylum review and rulemaking process in any way requested by the U.S. government.

ENDS

This Press Release is available here.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency: 70 years protecting people forced to flee.

—

****************

The unethical and illegal “bogus precedents” issued by Sessions and Barr have cost lives! Much of the damage done to date is irreparable. So is the continuing damage resulting from the Biden Administration’s failure to reopen ports of entry to legal asylum seekers.

🆘A functioning asylum system at ports of entry, establishing a viable refugee program in or in the region of the Northern Triangle, and a wholly reformed, due process oriented EOIR with real judges who understand how to fairly and efficiently evaluate and grant asylum under the very generous standard enunciated by the BIA in Matter of Mogharrabi but never in fact uniformly applied in practice will reduce the number of individuals crossing the border between ports of entry to seek refuge. We also need the help of NGOs in providing representation to those arriving and resettlement assistance for those “screened in” for hearings.

Right now, we have no legal asylum system at our border despite very clear statutory language commanding it. That’s a BIG problem that must be addressed immediately! Clearly, the Biden Administration must cooperate with and seek help from human rights experts now outside Government including the UNHCR.

As I’ve said before many times, expert human rights leadership needs to be brought into their Biden Administration to “kick some tail,” eradicate incompetence and bias, and fix EOIR and the asylum system.

The NDPA needs to keep the pressure building for more immediate, common sense reforms to our asylum system and a legitimate EOIR of experts who function independently from DHS enforcement and politicos.

🇺🇸⚖️Due Process Forever!

PWS

06-17-21

WE NEED MORE WORK VISAS & A LONG-OVERDUE REVISION OF CATEGORIES, SAYS “NEW AMERICAN ECONOMY” STUDY & IMMIGRATION EXPERT PROFESSOR STEPHEN YALE-LOEHR OF CORNELL LAW! — Hannah Miao Reports For CNBC

https://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/immigration/b/outsidenews/posts/expert-business-visa-categories-outmoded

From Dan Kowalski @ LexisNexis Immigration Community:

Expert: Business Visa Categories Outmoded

Hannah Miao, CNBC, June 10, 2021

“We have not revamped our legal immigration categories, including business immigration, since 1990. Some of those categories are out of alignment with our needs in the United States today,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law professor at Cornell Law School, who was not involved with the NAE study. “The pandemic has exacerbated those inconsistencies because people who are desperately needed to restart various businesses have been unable to enter the United States,” Yale-Loehr said.”

****************************

We should be expanding legal immigration opportunities in all three categories that currently feed our “green card system:”

Family visas;
Work visas; and
Refugee and asylum admissions.

We have seen during the pandemic that “essential workers” we depend upon and whose presence enriches our society and helps us build for a better future come in all types of statuses, including so-called “undocumented.” Those coming in the family, refugee, and asylum categories contribute valuable job skills, experiences, and enrichment to our society just as much, and in some cases, even more than those whose visas are based on work skills. We need to draw on and expand all three categories.

My Georgetown Law Immigration and Refugee Policy students did their own research and pointed these things out in our class just this week. They “get it!” But, our current Government immigration policy makers, not so much!

Again, to state the obvious, the Biden Administration is “missing the boat” by not restarting our asylum system at the border, running it in an appropriately generous and fair manner with experts, and expanding and getting our refugee programs functioning again. Many of those with skills we need and can use are literally “dying to get in” while we ignore both their humanity and our collective best interests.

Progressive legislative reforms to our legal immigration system are long, long overdue. But, we already have the legal authority to run far more robust and fairer legal refugee and asylum systems that would benefit America and the world, a well as saving lives and ending the ongoing squandering of Government resources on failed, illegal, cruel, and counterproductive “enforcement schemes.”

Progressive experts with the needed skill sets to fix the migration problems are out here. Obviously, Professor Yale-Loehr is just one of many. Yet, for the most part, the Biden Administration ignores their expertise and turns a deaf ear to their solutions. Doesn’t make sense to me!

Unfortunately, we appear to appear to lack the will, imagination, courage, and most of all progressive expertise in the Executive Branch to use currently available tools and legal authorities to fix migration problems.

My students continually give me hope that the next generations will provide enlightened leadership and build a more just society and a better world for the future. But, in the meantime, my generation continues to squander opportunities for improvement. There will be a cost, of that I’m sure!

🇺🇸⚖️🗽Due Process Forever!

PWS

06-11-21

🏴‍☠️PERSECUTED TRANSGENDER INDIVIDUAL DIES ⚰️IN EL SALVADOR WHILE HARRIS, GARLAND, & MAYORKAS FAIL TO RE-ESTABLISH LEGAL ASYLUM SYSTEM, MAKE LONG OVERDUE REFORMS!☠️ — VEEP Apparently Can’t Grasp Why Refugees Refuse To Stay In Countries Where They Are Likely To Be Persecuted & Die — The “Easily Fixable” Part Of The Problem Is NOT Thousands Of Miles Away In Foreign Countries, But With Garland’s & Mayorkas’s Inexcusable Failures To Act On Progressive Reforms Of Our Existing Legal System For Asylum Seekers!

Grim Reaper — “This Dude loves the ‘Miller Lite’ approach to asylum by Garland and Mayorkas, as well as Harris’s latest tone-deaf ‘victim shaming.’” Keeps him (as well as human smugglers) in business! Reaper Image: Hernan Fednan, Creative Commons License

https://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?guid=25ce5cef-76d6-4701-9193-3d887d407397&v=sdk

Marcos Aleman reports or AP in the LA Times:

SAN MIGUEL, El Salvador — Rejected by her family, Zashy Zuley del Cid Velásquez fled her coastal village in 2014, the first of a series of forced displacements across El Salvador. She had hoped that in the larger city of San Miguel she could live as a transgender woman without discrimination and violence, but there she was threatened by a gang.

She moved away from San Miguel, then back again in a series of forced moves until the 27-year-old was shot to death April 25, sending shock waves through the close-knit LGBTQ community in San Miguel, the largest city in eastern El Salvador.

“Zashy was desperate; her family didn’t want her … and the gangsters had threatened her,” said Venus Nolasco, director of the San Miguel LGBTQ collective Pearls of the East. “She knew they were going to kill her. She wanted to flee the country, go to the United States, but they killed her with a shot through her lung.”

One day after Del Cid’s slaying, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris identified anti-LGBTQ violence in Central America as one of the root causes of migration in the region during a virtual meeting with the president of neighboring Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei. She is visiting Guatemala and Mexico this week.

Transgender migrants were present in the Central American caravans that attempted to reach the United States border in recent years, fleeing harassment, gang extortion, violence and police indifference to crimes against them. Even in those large migrant movements, they say they faced harassment.

Things had been rough during Del Cid’s first stint in San Miguel. She had been living in a neighborhood where, as in many parts of the country, the MS-13 gang was the ultimate local authority. Gang members began to harass her, then brutally beat her, breaking her arm in 2015, Nolasco said.

“They warned her to leave, but she didn’t listen,” Nolasco said.

Del Cid moved in with Nolasco in the same neighborhood. One day, the gang grabbed Del Cid again.

“They took her, they wanted to kill her,” Nolasco said. “I begged them not to kill her, to let her go and she would leave the neighborhood.”

Del Cid moved back to her hometown, but her family rejected her again. She tried to please them, but she couldn’t, Nolasco said. Del Cid joined a church, got a girlfriend and had a baby girl, but could not maintain that life, she said.

She returned to San Miguel, where initially things seemed to go better. In 2020, Del Cid received humanitarian and housing support from COMCAVIS TRANS, a national LGBTQ rights organization, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Del Cid rented a home and opened a beauty salon there. She hired another woman to help her and was participating in an entrepreneurship program. She was preparing a business proposal to move the salon into its own space.

But Del Cid was shot in the back walking alone at night down the street. Passersby tried to help her and took her to a hospital, where she died. So far, police have made no arrests, and Nolasco believes that like other hate crimes in the country, “it will be forgotten; they’re not interested in what happens to us.”

Laura Almirall, UNHCR representative in El Salvador, said Del Cid’s killing frightened her community and saddened everyone who knew her.

“She was excited about her new plans and her new life. And unfortunately and tragically, everything came to an end,” she said.

Nolasco said that in San Miguel, some 70 miles east of the capital, the transgender community endures constant harassment from intolerant residents and gangs. They have rocks thrown at them, are beaten and are victims of extortion. If they go to police to make a report, they are insulted and demeaned. “Don’t come here to claim rights, because there are no rights for you,” police tell them, Nolasco said.

. . . .

********************

Read the rest of the article at the link.

Despite some legal nonsense from EOIR and sometimes from uninformed Circuit Judges who have never represented asylum seekers and know little of actual conditions in the Northern Triangle, neither El Salvador nor the other Northern Triangle governments are “willing and able” to protect most individuals suffering gender-based and other forms of persecution. Decisions claiming otherwise are, in most cases, legally wrong and disingenuous to boot.

The U.S. asylum system needs expert Asylum Officers at DHS and progressive expert Immigration Judges at EOIR. Babbling (misleadingly) about “sealed borders” won’t take the place of telling Garland and Mayorkas to stop screwing around, bring in progressive experts, and fix the U.S. asylum system before more die! V.P. Harris could have taken the first necessary step toward “fixing the Southern Border” without even leaving DC.

How are we going to promote the rule of law in other nations when we ourselves are unwilling to exhibit honesty and follow the law with respect to the most vulnerable in the world seeking legal refuge at our borders?

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

06-09-21

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

Related posts:

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

🇺🇸DPF!

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Kevin Robillard and Rowaida Abdelaziz report for HuffPost:

🇺🇸DPF!

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🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

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🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

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Here are some of my questions:

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🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

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Dan Kowalski reports on LexisNexis Immigration Community:

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

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🇺🇸🗽⚖️Due Process Forever!

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Biden’s program for migrant children doesn’t go far enough

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

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🇺🇸⚖️Due Process Forever!

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From Dan Kowalski @ LexisNexis Immigration Community:

🇺🇸⚖️🗽Due Process Forever!

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🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

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