Migration News

Number of unaccompanied migrant children in Customs and Border Protection custody falls 45%
Priscilla Alvarez, CNN
The number of unaccompanied minors in US Customs and Border Protection custody, akin to jail-like conditions, has dropped 45%, according to the latest government data, amid an ongoing effort by the Biden administration to find suitable spaces to accommodate kids after facing scrutiny for overcrowded facilities. As of Sunday, there were 3,130 children in the custody of CBP, an agency not intended to care for children for prolonged periods of time, marking a drop from the peak -- 5,767 on March 28 -- since the government started providing data, indicating progress in alleviating Border Patrol stations.

Elizabeth Warren Wants To Know Why Joe Biden Hasn’t Lifted The Refugee Cap Yet
Igor Bobic, The Huffington Post
th Warren (D-Mass.) says she wants to hear more from Joe Biden’s administration regarding its delay in restarting refugee admissions into the United States. “I don’t know why there’s a hold-up. I want to understand why this hasn’t already happened,” Warren told HuffPost on Monday. Biden is on pace to accept the fewest refugees of any modern president, including Donald Trump, according to a new report by the International Rescue Committee, a global humanitarian relief organization. Only 2,050 refugees have resettled in the U.S. halfway through the fiscal year.

McMaster Says Feds Can't Place Unaccompanied, Undocumented Migrant Children In SC Foster Care
Catherine Welch, WFAE
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster issued an executive order Monday directing the state to block the federal government from placing immigrant children entering the country illegally into foster care and group homes. The order is a response to a Biden administration request seeking placement for unaccompanied migrant children at the U.S.–Mexico border. South Carolina Department of Social Services Director Michael Leach told the governor in a letter that six agencies were interested. Leach said the federal government would offer the agency “very favorable terms” for placing the children for 35 days or longer if needed. No children have been placed.

Concerns raised over emotional well-being of migrant youths in San Antonio
Jessie Degollado, KSAT San Antonio
Many immigrant advocates agree that detention of children in any form, even in a temporary shelter, doesn’t help migrant youth already traumatized by what they’ve left behind. “I would say that every second a child is held in detention is traumatizing, every second,” said Hope Frye, executive director of Project Lifeline, a national organization dedicated to the welfare of undocumented children. Frye also served as the lead monitor in the landmark Flores Settlement that limited how long children can remain in detention and how they must be treated. As a result, Frye said she has seen many unaccompanied minors like those now temporarily housed at the Freeman Coliseum Expo Hall.

Huge Trump-era and pandemic immigrant visa backlog poses challenge for Biden
Bob Ortega, CNN Investigates
Even though President Joe Biden has moved to reverse many of his predecessor's anti-immigration policies, the consequences of those restrictive measures linger and have contributed to a massive backlog of nearly 2.6 million visa applications. The backlog includes nearly half a million applicants who are "documentarily qualified" and ready for interviews, according to a recent legal filing by the State Department. Backlogs in some immigrant-visa categories are 50 or even 100 times higher than they were four years ago, at the start of the Trump administration. Some of the backlogs are due to restrictions imposed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. But some also spring from pre-pandemic Trump policies or actions that the Biden administration hasn't unwound.

Biden picks Tucson police chief to run U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Nick Miroff, Maria Sacchetti and Mark Berman, The Washington Post
President Biden is preparing to nominate Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus to be commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, selecting a critic of the Trump administration’s immigration policies to run the country’s largest federal law enforcement agency as it contends with the biggest increase in migrants arriving at the southwest border in two decades. Magnus has led the Tucson police department since 2016 and has prominently associated himself with the movement favored by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party that emphasizes a less-aggressive, community-based policing model.

The Daca immigrant fighting to empower young Texas voters
Alexandra Villarreal, The Guardian
Claudia Yoli Ferla can’t vote herself. But, by registering and educating others, the 28-year-old immigrant and El Pasoan has helped thousands of fellow Texans gain access to the polls, despite the blot of voter suppression in her state. Now – as Republican lawmakers push reforms that would subject constituents to even more barriers at the ballot box – Yoli Ferla is seeking to fight back by empowering a powerful bloc of young voters who could transform Texas’s political future. “I cannot wait till the day that I get to cast a ballot,” she told the Guardian. “But I know that that moment will only come with the continued organizing of young people on the ground, demanding systematic change not only from Congress, but also our state leaders.” As the incoming executive director at Move Texas, a non-partisan, youth-focused civic engagement non-profit, Yoli Ferla wants to use her platform to uplift the voices, stories and lived experiences of other young people, trying to turn first-time voters into lifetime organizers.

Further Reading

Mexico’s new migrant policy adds to Biden’s border woes
The Washington Post

OMA hosts Michigan Network for Undocumented Immigrant Success
Grand Valley Lanthorn

Holding on to hope: The story of an asylum-seeker
KYMA

Hello Future Set to Launch Small Business Incubator for Refugee Youth
PRNewswire

Valley immigration attorney explains legal process for asylum seekers
KTAR.com

An immigrant braces for upheaval after two decades in America
The Boston Globe