TOP UPDATES
Today Is International Migrants’ Day: 2017 Theme: Safe Migration in a World on the Move
- A Day Without Migrants Campaign
- OHCHR: #StandUp4Migrants videos
- Honor the day with these guides to books, audio, and film:
o Books: Give the Gift of Literary Empathy – Immigration Holiday Book Guide (full disclosure, I wrote this one)
o Podcasts: Immigration and migration stories
o Film: IOM and UNICEF Film Festival in New York today
White House to push merit-based immigration in new campaign
- AP: The White House is embarking on a major campaign to turn public opinion against the nation’s largely family-based immigration system ahead of an all-out push next year to move toward a more merit-based structure.
- Attorney General Sessions Delivers Remarks on the Administration’s Efforts to Combat MS-13 and Carry Out its Immigration Priorities: “The President has also proposed ending chain migration and switching to a merit-based system like they have in Canada and Australia. That means welcoming the best and the brightest and turning away not only terrorists, but gang members and criminals.”
TPS for Nicaragua and Honduras
- Termination of the Designation of Nicaragua for Temporary Protected Status
- Extension of the Designation of Honduras for Temporary Protected Status
- EADs: Through operation of this Notice, your existing EAD issued under the TPS designation of Honduras with an expiration date of January 5, 2018, is automatically extended for 180 days, through July 4, 2018. You do not need to apply for a new EAD in order to benefit from this 180-day automatic extension. However, if you want to obtain a new EAD with an expiration date of July 5, 2018 on its face, you must file an Application for Employment Authorization (Form I-765) and pay the Form I-765 fee in addition to filing your re-registration application (Form I-821).
LexisNexis’s Role in ICE Surveillance and Librarian Ethics
LLB: As library organizations discuss ways library professionals can advocate for intellectual freedom, democracy, and equality, we should begin by grappling with how to react when our major database providers engage in massive surveillance projects with the government.
Federal Investigation Finds ‘Significant Issues’ At Immigrant Detention Centers
NPR: Immigrants detained at four large centers used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement are subject to inhumane treatment, given insufficient hygiene supplies and medical care, and provided potentially unsafe food, according to a federal report.
On the ground with ICE agents enforcing Trump’s immigration crackdown
ImmProf: Since President Trump took office, immigration arrests are up 42 percent. ICE estimates, nationwide, they make 400 arrests a day. ICE has arrested 37,000 undocumented immigrants without criminal records. That’s a 145 percent increase over fiscal year 2016.
Complaint Documents 15 Cases of Family Separation at the Border
AIC: Advocates filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) and Office of the Inspector General (OIG) on behalf of numerous families – most, if not all, who fled to the United States seeking humanitarian relief – who were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border.
DHS Overestimates Visa Overstays for 2016; Overstay Population Growth Near Zero During the Year
CMS: This paper compares US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates for visa overstays in fiscal year 2016 with estimates from the Center for Migration Studies (CMS).
An HIV-Positive Gay Asylum Seeker Staged a 7-Day Hunger Strike in an ICE Detention Facility
The Nation: Protesting prolonged detention, substandard medical care, and parole denial, Jesus Rodriguez Mendoza may soon stop eating again.
Bronx man allegedly poses as Hempstead attorney, steals more than $30,000 from immigrant clients
PIX: Efrain Vargas told clients in Hempstead he would obtain immigration and residency papers for them, but never delivered on his promises, officials said. He was arrested and arraigned Wednesday for allegedly scamming immigrants.
OCC-NYC Filing Window Hours on 12/20 and 12/22
OCC: Please be advised that our reception area and filing window at 26 Federal Plaza and 201 Varick Street will be closed from 12:00-1:30pm on Wednesday, December 20th. Please be further advised that our reception area and filing window will close at 3pm on Friday, December 22nd.
ACTIONS
- #GiveMateoBack: Amnesty International USA is also working to hold ICE accountable for family separation. You can find steps for a social media/letter writing campaign here.
RESOURCES
- USCIS Provides Training Material on the International Religious Freedom Act and Religious Persecution
- USCIS Provides Training Material on TRIG
- Manhattan DA – Supp Bs – raej@dany.nyc.gov: December 2017 will be my last month at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. If you have pending supplement B certification request that has yet to be submitted to my office, please email the requests to me by Friday, December 22nd. We will make every effort to review each certification request and provide a response before the New Year. After December 22nd, please send all U-visa supplement B requests to Mayerling Rivera atRIVERAM@dany.nyc.gov. As with all past requests, please be sure to provide a waiver signed by your client (include your client’s date of birth and any aliases)… The body of the email should include the case indictment or docket number, name of the defendant, and/ or the case arrest number. Please keep in mind that we cannot locate cases in our system records using an NYPD complaint number.
- Give the Gift of Literary Empathy – Immigration Holiday Book Guide(full disclosure, I wrote this one)
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I’m a huge “Elizabeth Gibson Fan.” I’ve known Beth since she was a star student at Georgetown Law (one of the “Best Ever” of my “Refugee Law & Policy” — “RLP” — students), a terrific Legal Intern at the Arlington Immigration Court, and a spectacular Judicial Lw Clerk/Attorney Advisor at the New York Immigration Court before she was selected for the Immigrant Justice Corps (“IJC”) assigned to the New York Legal Assistance Group (“NYLAG”).
For those who don’t know, only the “best and brightest” with an overriding concern for social justice get into the IJC. Beth would excel at ANY legal job in America — “Nonprofit, “Big Law,” judging, teaching, writing, reporting, managing.
I’m inspired that with all these avenues open to her, Beth has chosen to use her “complete package” of talents to make the justice system work for the most vulnerable among us — those who have legal rights that are largely the same as all of us, but who are “bullied” and “intentionally mistreated” by our legal system (and our current Administration, in particular) in an attempt to prevent them from using and realizing those rights.
In addition to being a weekly contributor to immigrationcourtside.com, Beth has acted as a “clearinghouse” for the vast amount of information and assistance available to the legal community involved in defending the rights of migrants. She has patiently taken many referrals of reporters and lawyers. She also has found time to write articles of her own, in addition to, of course, her main mission of helping her clients.
Beth, thanks for all you do for our country, our world, the cause of justice, and making “Due Process” under our Constitution a reality (at least for some) rather than an “empty promise!” You are truly what serving in the “New Due Process Army” is all about and why, in the end, the forces of darkness threatening our country and democracy will not prevail!
PWS
12-18-17