Migration News

Biden Administration Considers Overhaul Of Asylum System At Southern Border
Franco Ordoñez, NPR
President Biden's top advisers promise "long-needed systemic reforms" to address a backlog of more than 1 million asylum cases in the immigration court system, which often keeps people applying for asylum waiting years to resolve their cases. That could mean some big changes to how asylum cases are processed at the southern border. The plan the Biden administration is considering to speed up the process would take some asylum cases from the southern border out of the hands of the overloaded immigration courts under the Department of Justice. Instead, it would handle them under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security, where asylum officers already process tens of thousands of cases a year, two people familiar with the discussions who were not authorized to speak about administration plans told NPR exclusively.

Biden Administration to Allow Work-Visa Ban to Expire
Michelle Hackman, The Wall Street Journal
The White House won’t renew a ban on H-1B and other work-based visas imposed last year in response to the Covid-19 pandemic that is set to expire Wednesday, according to three people familiar with the decision. The ban blocked foreign workers on a range of temporary work-based visas from coming into the country. The Trump administration had imposed it in June, saying it was necessary to safeguard jobs for American workers as the economy sputtered and unemployment soared because of lockdowns designed to contain the coronavirus. On Dec. 31, then-President Donald Trump renewed the ban through the end of March.

Beyond The Border, Fewer Immigrants Being Locked Up But ICE Still Pays For Empty Beds
Joel Rose, NPR
The sprawling detention center in Tacoma, Wash., housed more than 1,300 immigrants on average at the height of former President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. Now nearly four out of every five beds at the facility are empty. That's because Immigration and Customs Enforcement released hundreds of people to lower the risk of COVID-19, and because the agency is arresting and detaining fewer unauthorized immigrants under orders from President Biden. But that doesn't translate into savings for the U.S. government — or the American taxpayer. In fact, because of the way ICE structures its contracts with private companies and localities that own and operate the detention centers, the agency guarantees it will pay for a minimum number of beds whether they are filled or not.

Migrants freed without court notice — sometimes no paperwork
Elliot Spagat, AP News
Overwhelmed and underprepared, U.S. authorities are releasing migrant families on the Mexican border without notices to appear in immigration court or sometimes without any paperwork at all — time-saving moves that have left some migrants confused. The rapid releases ease pressure on the Border Patrol and its badly overcrowded holding facilities but shifts work to Immigration and Customs and Enforcement, the agency that enforces immigration laws within the United States. Families are released with booking records; only parents are photographed and fingerprinted. The Border Patrol began the unusual practice last week in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, which has seen the biggest increase in the number of migrant families and unaccompanied minors crossing the border. Last week, the agency added instructions to report to an ICE office within 60 days to adults’ booking documents.

Meet the Immigrant Women on Hunger Strike for Pandemic Relief
Paul Frangipane, Documented
Three immigrant women huddle on lawn chairs surrounding space heaters in the middle of Thompson Street across from Washington Square Park. It’s been 11 days since any of them have eaten and a year since they’ve been able to work enough to sustain their families. They are part of a group of excluded workers taking part in a hunger strike to push the state legislature to pass a fund for undocumented workers and New Yorkers recently released from incarceration who have not been eligible for state and federal aid during the pandemic.

Glorieta Camps might house up to 2,400 migrant youth
Victoria Traxler, Santa Fe New Mexican
The operators of an adventure retreat in Glorieta were preparing Tuesday for the potential arrival this week of an influx of immigrant children and youth in need of temporary housing. According to a volunteer page on the Glorieta Camps website, the organization was asked by the White House and Health and Human Services Department to “house and feed potentially 2400 unaccompanied children.” Josh Nelson, an executive assistant for Glorieta Camps, said he expected the organization to issue a news release regarding a federal contract for the camp to house the children, but he was unsure when the deal would be finalized. As of late Tuesday night, the camp had not issued the statement.

Further Reading

4 reasons why migrant children arriving alone to the US create a ‘border crisis’
The Conversation US

An immigration lawyer’s tips for noncitizens in criminal court
InjusticeWatch

With Renewed Attention on the Border, These 8 Documentaries Illuminate U.S. Immigration Policies Involving Kids
PBS Frontline

Special Report: How Trump administration left indelible mark on U.S. immigration courts
Reuters