Migration News 

Policy To Bar Asylum-Seekers On Health Grounds Advances
Suzanne Monyak, Law360
The Trump administration is plowing forward with a proposal that would allow border officials to turn away asylum-seekers deemed a health risk, as the administration works to cement its immigrant restrictions before leaving office next month. The White House budget office completed its review on Friday of the proposed asylum changes, paving the way for the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to potentially finalize and implement the policy in the final days before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated.

Several Trump immigration restrictions will remain in place, Biden advisers say, urging patience
Nick Miroff, Washington Post 
Top advisers to president-elect Joe Biden said Monday they will not immediately roll back asylum restrictions at the Mexico border and other restrictive Trump administration policies, walking back some of Biden’s campaign promises for “Day One” changes. Susan E. Rice, incoming domestic policy adviser, and Jake Sullivan, Biden’s pick for national security adviser, provided written statements in an exclusive interview with the Spanish wire service EFE saying they will “need time” to undo Trump’s immigration policies. Rice said Biden will use executive authority to implement his immigration agenda, but her statements urging patience appeared to reflect the incoming administration’s worries that easing up too quickly on Trump’s enforcement system could trigger a new migration surge at the border.

Exclusive: Biden team weighs deportation relief for more than 1 million Hondurans, Guatemalans
Ted Hesson and Laura Gottesdiener, Reuters 
The incoming Biden administration is considering a plan to shield more than a million immigrants from Honduras and Guatemala from deportation after the countries were battered by hurricanes in November, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team is weighing whether to grant them Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The program allows people already in the United States at the time of the designation to stay and work legally if their home countries have been affected by natural disasters, armed conflicts or other events that prevent their safe return. The designations last six to 18 months and can be renewed.

Immigration detainees file for class-action lawsuit against ICE and Georgia gynecologist, alleging misconduct
Teo Armus, Washington Post 
A group of immigrant women detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeking a class-action lawsuit against the agency, alleging they received subpar gynecological care — or faced retaliation for speaking out about it — while being held at a facility in Georgia. A complaint filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia cites sworn testimony from at least 35 detainees at Irwin County Detention Center, who say they were subject to nonconsensual and invasive procedures by Mahendra Amin, a physician in Ocilla, Ga. The 160-page filing also alleges those women and others held at the facility were placed in solitary confinement, experienced physical assault and deported — or nearly deported — for speaking up about Amin, including in an ongoing federal investigation. According to the document, one unnamed woman has said she complained to staff at Irwin about him as early as 2018.

Mixed-status immigrant families eligible for stimulus checks in COVID relief bill
Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News 
As part of the $900 billion coronavirus relief package it passed late Monday, Congress is set to allow mixed-status households with undocumented family members to receive stimulus checks that they were denied under the first round of legislation in the spring. Under the bipartisan agreement, U.S. citizens and green card holders will be able to receive $600 in direct aid, even if they filed a joint tax return with an undocumented spouse, as well as additional $600 checks per dependent child, according to congressional aides and the text of the legislation. The new compromise would also retroactively make mixed-status families with one Social Security number-holder eligible for the $1,200 per household and $500 per child checks allocated by the CARES Act, which was enacted in late March.

Texas Challenges Legality of DACA in Latest Bid to End the Program
Michelle Hackman, Wall Street Journal 
Texas and eight other Republican-led states will ask a federal court on Tuesday to rule the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program unlawful, posing a fresh threat to the Obama -era program offering deportation protections to young immigrants that has been the subject of legal battles for the past few years. The Trump administration first attempted to end the program, known as DACA, in September 2017, but it was blocked by federal courts. The Supreme Court ruled in June that it hadn’t taken the proper steps to do so, and after several additional months of legal wrangling, the government began accepting new applications for the program for the first time in more than three years.

Md. Judge Beefs Up Order Protecting Young Asylum-Seekers
Suzanne Monyak, Law360 
A Maryland federal judge on Monday ordered U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to stop rejecting asylum requests from young migrants under an invalidated policy and to retract improper denials, after advocates accused the government of using "back doors" to preserve the policy. U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel said Monday it was necessary to update his earlier injunction halting the policy to further protect the young migrants covered by the class action, or else they could be deported with no pathway to return to the U.S. while the case progresses. Judge Hazel had previously temporarily halted the policy change, which had stripped special asylum protections reserved for unaccompanied migrant children from some migrants who crossed the border alone but were later reunited with a parent or turned 18.

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For undocumented immigrants, the work doesn’t stop at the election
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