THE GIBSON REPORT — 03-04-19 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group
TOP UPDATES
Rand Paul Says He’ll Vote Against Trump’s Border Emergency, Likely Forcing A Veto
NPR: Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky says he’ll vote in favor of a resolution to terminate President Trump’s national emergency declaration with regards to the U.S.-Mexico border. Paul’s support means the resolution will likely pass the Senate with bipartisan support and could force the president to issue his first veto.
‘Remain in Mexico’ gets an expansion
Politico: A Homeland Security official alerted POLITICO’s Ted Hesson [on 2/28/19] that the Trump administration will today expand its “remain in Mexico” policy — which requires asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while awaiting resolution of their cases — to ports of entry in El Paso, San Diego, and Calexico, Calif. Olga Sánchez Cordero, Mexico’s interior minister, said Thursday that approximately 150 asylum seekers have thus far been returned to Mexico under the program. That’s a fraction of the tens of thousands who arrive at the border each month.
29 parents separated from their children and deported last year cross U.S. border to request asylum
WaPo: The group of parents quietly traveled north over the past month, assisted by a team of immigration lawyers who hatched a high-stakes plan to reunify families divided by the Trump administration’s family separation policy last year. The 29 parents were among those deported without their children, who remain in the United States in shelters, in foster homes or with relatives.
28 women may have miscarried in ICE custody over the past 2 years
AZ Rep: The delivery of a stillborn baby at an immigration detention center in Texas comes after the Trump administration ended an Obama-era policy against holding pregnant women in detention centers.
HHS docs show thousands of alleged incidents of sexual abuse against unaccompanied minors in custody
CNN: The Department of Health and Human Services received more than 4,500 complaints of sexual abuse against unaccompanied minors from 2014-2018, according to internal agency documents released Tuesday by Florida Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch.
Data from the Center for Migration Studies Shows Sharp Multiyear Decline in Undocumented Immigration
CMS: [T]he Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) reports that the US undocumented population has declined by one million since 2010; illegal entries have plummeted to historic lows; and, in recent years, only one third of newly undocumented residents entered this population by crossing the US-Mexico border.
Southern Poverty Law Center Launches ‘Immigrant Songs’ Campaign: Listen
Billboard: The Southern Poverty Law Center has launched a campaign to provide legal information and to “protect and advance immigrant rights” through song. “El Corrido de David y Goliat,” by Flor de Toloache, is the first single released as part of the SPLC’s Immigrant Songs campaign.
It’s so dangerous to police MS-13 in El Salvador that officers are fleeing the country
WaPo: There is no list in either El Salvador or the United States of Salvadoran police officers who have fled the country. But The Washington Post has identified 15 officers in the process of being resettled as refugees by the United Nations and six officers who have either recently received asylum or have scheduled asylum hearings in U.S. immigration courts. In WhatsApp groups, police officers have begun discussing the possibility of a migrant caravan composed entirely of Salvadoran police — a caravana policial, the officers call it.
Physicians for Human Rights Sends Letter Detailing the Health Risks for Infants in Detention
On February 28, 2019, Physicians for Human Rights sent a letter to DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen regarding the inherent health risks for infants in detention. AILA Doc. No. 19022837
Immigration Courts’ Growing Reliance on Videoconference Hearings Is Being Challenged
AIC: In some parts of the country, it has long been the practice for detained immigrants to appear for their immigration court hearings via video teleconference (“VTC”), rather than in-person. This is especially the case for immigrants being held in remote detention centers, hours from the nearest immigration court. However, under the Trump administration, immigration courts are increasingly relying on VTC.
Brooklyn DA supports plan to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants
NYPost: There is already state legislation pending, and the Fiscal Policy Institute estimates 265,000 immigrants would be eligible to apply if the measure passes.
Americans’ immigration emergency: Their spouses could be deported or exiled if they seek green cards
PRI: Enough families have already been hurt by the law, with its mandatory “bars,” or exile, that can last 10 years, 20 years, even a lifetime, depending on the spouse’s immigration history, as the Center for Public Integrity has reported in multiple stories. But with Trump insisting there’s a “national emergency” on the southern border—despite record low crossings—these US citizens want to let their fellow Americans know that they’re suffering an emergency every day.
U.S. denied tens of thousands more visas in 2018 due to travel ban: data
Reuters: The U.S. State Department refused more than 37,000 visa applications in 2018 due to the Trump administration’s travel ban, up from less than 1,000 the previous year when the ban had not fully taken effect, according to agency data released on Tuesday.
40 Years After The Vietnam War, Some Refugees Face Deportation Under Trump
NPR: More than four decades after the Vietnam War brought waves of expatriates to the United States, the Trump administration wants to deport thousands of Vietnamese immigrants, including many refugees, because of years-old criminal convictions. U.S. officials have been working behind the scenes to convince the Vietnamese government to repatriate more than 7,000 Vietnamese immigrants with criminal convictions. They have all been ordered removed from the U.S. by a judge.
Human Smugglers Are Thriving Under Trump
Atlantic: Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies have made America’s historically weak anti-smuggling efforts even weaker. Over the past two years, as smuggling networks have thrived, the Department of Homeland Security has shifted money and manpower away from more complex investigations to support the administration’s all-out push to arrest, detain, and deport immigrants here illegally.
BuzzFeed: US border officials didn’t receive guidance from the Trump administration on how to implement its “zero tolerance” policy that led to separations of migrant families until after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen signed a memo enacting it, according to emails obtained by Democracy Forward through a Freedom of Information Act request.
When Trump declared national emergency, most detained immigrants were not criminals
WaPo: According to new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement figures obtained by The Washington Post, the nation’s immigration jails were not filled with such criminals. As of Feb. 9, days before the president’s declaration, nearly 63 percent of the detainees in ICE jails had not been convicted of any crime.
He Exposed Abuse At A Florida Immigrant Detention Center. Now He’s In Prison
WLRN: Weeks after a documentary exposing injustices at a South Florida for-profit immigration detention center debuted at a national film festival, Claudio Rojas— the film’s inside source— was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Miramar during his annual visa check-in, records show.
LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS
Newsweek: The Department of Homeland Security announced on Thursday that to comply with a court injunction it would extend the Temporary Protected Status it sought to terminate for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti and Sudan.
Exasperated Federal Judge Pokes Holes In Trump Administration’s Refusal To Protect Young Immigrants
Gothamist: A federal judge in Manhattan heard arguments Monday on a class action case that could determine whether undocumented immigrants in New York between the ages of 18 and 21 can stay in the country legally if they’ve been abused or abandoned by a parent.
ICE Detention Center Says It’s Not Responsible for Staff’s Sexual Abuse of Detainees
ACLU: Although the employee pled guilty to criminal institutional sexual assault under Pennsylvania law, the defendants contend that they should not be liable for any constitutional violations. Their argument rests in part on their assessment that the sexual abuse was “consensual” and that they should be held to a different standard because the Berks Family Residential Center is an immigration detention facility rather than a jail or prison.
The Government Is Hiding Information About How It Deports People – This Lawsuit Seeks to Expose That
AIC: The lawsuit demands the Executive Office for Immigration Review and the Department of Justice release to the public information on how immigration court stays of removal are decided.
Judge grants citizenship to twin son of gay couple
AP: A federal judge in California ruled Thursday that a twin son of a gay married couple has been an American citizen since birth, handing a defeat to the U.S. government, which had only granted the status to his brother. The State Department was wrong to deny citizenship to 2-year-old Ethan Dvash-Banks because U.S. law does not require a child to show a biological relationship with their parents if their parents were married at the time of their birth, District Judge John F. Walter found.
At Least Nine Babies Are Being Detained by U.S. Immigration Authorities, a Complaint Says
Buzzfeed News reports that according to a complaint filed by AILA, the American Immigration Council, and CLINIC, at least nine infants under the age of 1, and some as young as 6 months, have been detained by ICE at a Texas detention center where they lack adequate medical care. AILA Doc. No. 19030136
ICE Releases Guidance on Migrant Protection Protocols
ICE released a memo providing guidance to impacted Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) field offices on implementation of the Migrant Protection Protocols. AILA Doc. No. 19022870
President Trump issued a presidential proclamation on 2/15/19 declaring a national emergency along the southern border. (84 FR 4949, 2/20/19) AILA Doc. No. 19021539
USCIS Releases Q&As from Teleconference Discussing USCIS Intercountry Adoption Policy Guidance
USCIS provided background and effective dates, as well as Q&As, from the 1/22/19 teleconference on determining suitability of prospective adoptive parents for intercountry adoption policy guidance that USCIS issued on 11/9/18. AILA Doc. No. 19011400
USCIS Provides Q&As from Teleconference on N-648 Changes
USCIS provided the Q&As from the 2/12/19 teleconference discussing USCIS policy guidance on Form N-648, Medical Certification for Disability Exceptions. The Q&As covered the effective date, N-648 requirements, policy highlights, and more. AILA Doc. No. 19012835
USCIS to Publish Revised Form I-539 and New Form I-539A
USCIS announced that on 3/11/19, it will publish a revised Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status, and a new Form I-539A to replace the Supplement A in previous versions of Form I-539. Starting on 3/11/19, USCIS will only accept I-539s with a 2/4/19 edition date. AILA Doc. No. 19021137
USCIS Processing Delays Soared While Application Rates Fell
AILA Policy Counsel Jason Boyd highlights newly released USCIS data and shows how the new information “has cast an even harsher glare on the agency’s well-documented failure to process its caseload in a timely fashion.” AILA Doc. No. 19030137
RESOURCES
- WHO Mental Health ATLAS 2017
- AILA Submits Amicus Brief on Motions to Reopen Based on Changed Country Conditions
- AILA and National Justice for Our Neighbors Submit Amicus Brief on Persecutor Bar
- AILA and NIJC Submit Amicus Brief Challenging the Auer Deference Rulings
EVENTS
- 3/6/19 Chinese Couplets (Women’s History Month Screening)
- 3/8/19 Asylum & Immigration Conference with the Federal Bar Association at NY Law School
- 3/11/19 NYIC CLE to discuss the state of immigration detention in New York
- 3/12/19 AILA Spring Federal Court Litigation Conference
- 3/13/19 Sanctuary Law: Can Religious Liberty Protect Immigrants?
- 3/26-27/19 CLINIC: Immigration Legal Services for Immigrants Experiencing Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault
- 3/28/19 The Rise Of Legal Status Restrictions In American Social Welfare Policy
- 3/28/19 Land of Song: Voicing Immigration; Carnegie Hall’s Migrations
- 3/29/19 Keeping Up with the Nguyens: When Poor Immigrants Return to the Homeland
- 4/11/19 2019 National Day of Action
- 4/11/19 Heating up History: An Exploration of Spice, Hot Sauce, and Immigrant Foods
- 8/4/19 Legal, Cultural, & Historical Approach to Understanding the Complex and Controversial Issue Dominating Our National Dialogue
ImmProf
Monday, March 4, 2019
Sunday, March 3, 2019
- A Sign of the Times: Arkansas church sign — ‘heaven has strict immigration laws, hell has open borders’
- Number of Undocumented Immigrants in US at a 25-Year Low
- Tanya Golash Boza: Are Deportation Laws Racist?
- From the Bookshelves: The Eagle Has Eyes: The FBI Surveillance of César Estrada Chávez of the United Farm Workers Union of America, 1965–1975 by José Angel Gutiérrez
Saturday, March 2, 2019
Friday, March 1, 2019
- One twin born to same-sex parents was declared a citizen, the other was not; judge disagrees
- From the Bookshelves: Latino Professionals in American Testimonios of Policy, Perserverance and Success by Maria Chavez
- Immigration Article of the Day: Deportations Past, Deportations Present by César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández and Allison Crennen-Dunlap
Thursday, February 28, 2019
- Lawsuit Challenges Board of Immigration Appeals Policy Secrecy
- From the Bookshelves: Banned: Immigration Enforcement in the Time of Trump by Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia
- Global Governance of International Migration 2.0: What Lies Ahead?
- Immigration a Complex — and Divisive — Issue for Catholics
- Immigrant of the Day: Karl A. Racine (Haiti), District of Columbia Attorney General
- 21 Savage: A “martyr of conscience”?
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
- Immigration Article of the Day: Race, Gender, and Nation in an Age of Shifting Borders by Catherine Powell
- California’s AG Releases Report on Immigration Detention
- President Trump’s Political Miscalculation? Missing from Trump’s wall war: What immigration hawks really want
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
- Dinghy vs. Lorry: Migrating Across the English Channel
- U.S. government documents show thousands of alleged incidents of sexual abuse against unaccompanied minors in custody
Monday, February 25, 2019
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Thanks, Elizabeth!
PWS
03-05-19