Migration News

ICE, CBP to stop using ‘illegal alien’ and ‘assimilation’ under new Biden administration order
Maria Sacchetti, The Washington Post
The Biden administration has ordered U.S. immigration enforcement agencies to stop using terms such as “alien,” “illegal alien” and “assimilation” when referring to immigrants in the United States, a rebuke of terms widely used under the Trump administration. The change was detailed in memos sent Monday to department heads at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, the nation’s chief enforcers of federal immigration laws, according to copies obtained by The Washington Post. It is part of an ongoing effort to reverse President Donald Trump’s hard-line policies and advance President Biden’s efforts to build a more “humane” immigration system.

Biden’s pollster to Dems: Don’t be afraid to talk immigration
Alex Thompson, Theodoric Meyer and Laura Barrón-López, Politico Transition Playbook
Politicians “think of immigration as a sensitive or a wedge issue,” but that’s wrong, Anazlone told Transition Playbook of his briefing, which included pro-immigrant advocacy groups like FWD.us. “Some of this stuff has such incredibly high support and bipartisan support that, quite frankly, politicians kind of lag behind it.” His poll, conducted last month for the centrist think tank Center Forward, found that 74 percent of likely voters supported legislation that would create an earned path to citizenship for young undocumented immigrants known as “Dreamers”; those granted temporary protected status; farmworkers; and other essential workers.

The White House is defending an about-face on the number of refugees the U.S. admits.
Katie Rogers, The New York Times
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, on Monday defended the administration’s decision to keep the number of refugees allowed into the country at the level set by the Trump administration, a move last week that prompted immediate criticism by Democrats and an about-face by President Biden. Ms. Psaki said the Biden administration was still trying to figure out how to process more refugees and plans to raise the cap by May 15. “The challenge is not the cap,” Ms. Psaki said while fielding questions from reporters on the issue for several minutes. “The challenge is the ability to process.”

Immigrant Detention For Profit Faces Growing Resistance After Big Expansion Under Trump
John Burnett, NET Nebraska
The Trump administration dramatically expanded the detention network —often over local objections — and private prison companies were riding high. Under Trump, ICE detained a record 56,000 migrants, asserting they had to be locked up or they would abscond once they lost their immigration cases. But the political winds have shifted. These days, privately run immigrant jails are facing mounting public opposition, state legislatures are considering measures to shut them down, and the prison industry has fallen out of favor with the new administration in Washington, D.C.

Biden Increases Seasonal-Worker Visas by 22,000
Michelle Hackman, The Wall Street Journal
The Biden administration will make an additional 22,000 seasonal guest-worker visas available this year ahead of the busy summer season, the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday. The visas are in addition to the 66,000 H-2B visas the government makes available each year to seasonal employers, including landscapers, fisheries, resorts and county fairs, which look to add staff for their busy seasons. The decision comes just weeks after the Biden administration lifted a ban on the guest-worker visas and other work visas imposed by the Trump administration last June amid the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

'They're giving up': How COVID red tape is decimating international education in Texas
Benjamin Wermund, The Houston Chronicle
The coronavirus is threatening to cripple international education in the United States for the second year in a row — a potentially massive blow to Texas, where foreign students contribute an estimated $2 billion to the state’s economy. Embassies and consulates in many nations are still shuttered because of the pandemic, so students across much of the world can’t get visas to come to the American universities they want to attend in the fall. And the U.S. currently bans travel from some of the nations that send the most students, including China and Brazil, so even students who can get their visas there have to spend two weeks quarantining in a third country before entering the U.S.

Further Reading

Op-Ed: Reclaim America’s moral voice by welcoming refugees to our shores
Los Angeles Times

What America would look like with zero immigration
CNN

Why Must Central American Asylum Seekers Risk Their Lives to Reach the US? There is an Alternative.
Just Security