USCIS
Ninth Circuit Lifts Injunction Protecting People in ICE Detention from COVID-19
In a split decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on October 20 lifted a lower court’s protections for medically vulnerable people locked up in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The protections included requiring that ICE adhere to public health and safety protocols… Read More
With New Florida Lawsuit, States’ Efforts to Dictate Federal Immigration Policy Continue
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced a new lawsuit on Tuesday seeking an order requiring the Biden administration to detain almost all people arriving at the Southwest border. It is the latest in a string of lawsuits brought by states with Republican governors seeking to shape federal immigration policy. In its… Read More
Immigration Reform in Budget Reconciliation Is Off to a Rocky Start but Much Is Yet to Come
Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough on September 19 rejected Democrats’ initial attempt to include immigration reform provisions in a $3.5 trillion spending bill currently making its way through Congress. Senate Democrats are already formulating alternative proposals for MacDonough to consider in the days ahead. Democrats had initially proposed that the… Read More
President Biden is Overseeing a Historic Decline in Legal Immigration
The Biden administration predicts that it will fail to issue many of the legal permanent resident visas—also known as green cards—allotted this year for immigrants who have been sponsored by a U.S. employer or family member. The State Department estimates that roughly 100,000 visas for employment-based immigrants and 150,000… Read More
Supreme Court Refuses to Stop the Migrant Protection Protocols From Going Back Into Effect
The Supreme Court refused to block an order to reinstate the Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy. The decision comes after a Texas judge halted the government’s recission of the controversial and illegal program. The Supreme Court’s ruling means that the government must make “best… Read More
Biden Administration Plans Big Changes for Asylum Seekers at the Border
The Biden administration announced this week that it will propose a new rule to speed up the fair and humane processing of asylum claims of people arriving at the U.S. border. The issue has been the recent subject of fierce public and political debate. Tellingly, this is the new administration’s… Read More
New Illinois Law Expected to Go Furthest Toward Ending Immigration Detention in the US
A new Illinois law limiting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention is expected to effectively end detention in the state by next year. The law goes further than those that have limited detention in other states. On August 2, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed SB 667, known as… Read More
Reconciliation and Immigration: What You Need to Know
On the day that President Biden took office, he promised to send a bill to Congress to create a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants. Unfortunately, that bill, the U.S. Citizenship Act, has made little progress since it was introduced in February. Even the passage in the… Read More
ICE May Have Deported as Many as 70 US Citizens In the Last Five Years
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) keeps making an inexcusable error: it has been deporting U.S. citizens by mistake. 70 potential U.S. citizens were deported between 2015 and 2020, a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded. They were deported even though… Read More
ICE Will Stop Arresting and Detaining Most Pregnant and Nursing People
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will no longer detain most people who are pregnant, postpartum, or nursing, according to a new policy released on July 9. However, ICE did not commit to a total ban, saying that there will still be “very limited circumstances” that will allow the agency… Read More
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