Migration News 

Obama-era program for immigrants faces new court challenge
Nomaan Merchant, AP 
A federal court next week is expected to consider whether to invalidate a program that shields from deportation immigrants brought to the United States as children, potentially creating complications for the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden. The challenge scheduled to be heard Dec. 22 in Houston concerns President Barack Obama’s original memorandum creating Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which currently covers about 650,000 people. Federal courts have already turned away President Donald Trump’s efforts to end DACA. Under the order of a judge in New York, the Trump administration in December restored the program to its original terms under Obama, accepting new applications and full renewals of two-year work permits and general protections from deportation.

U.S. border officials expelled dozens of migrant children in violation of court order
Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News 
U.S. border officials have expelled at least 66 unaccompanied migrant children without a court hearing or asylum interview since a federal judge ordered them to stop the practice, the Trump administration conceded on Saturday. In a filing in federal court in Washington, Justice Department lawyers acknowledged the expulsions represented a "contravention" of a ruling issued by U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan in November that prohibits the Trump administration from using a pandemic-era emergency border policy to expel minors who are apprehended without their parents or legal guardians.

As Biden Prepares to Take Office, a New Rush at the Border
Miriam Jordan, New York Times 
After a steep decline in border crossings through much of this year, interceptions of unauthorized migrants along the Arizona-Mexico border are climbing again: Detentions in October were up 30 percent over September, and the figure in coming months is expected be even higher. And they are likely the leading edge of a much more substantial surge toward the border, immigration analysts say, as a worsening economy in Central America, the disaster wrought by Hurricanes Eta and Iota and expectations of a more lenient U.S. border policy drive ever-larger numbers toward the United States.

Contractors Dynamite Mountains, Bulldoze Desert In Race To Build Trump's Border Wall
John Burnett, NPR
In the Coronado National Memorial — where conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado entered what is now Arizona — contractors are pulverizing the wilderness in a rush to put up as many miles of border wall as possible before the Trump administration vacates Washington. They're dynamiting mountainsides and bulldozing pristine desert for a barrier the incoming Biden administration is expected to cancel.

Travel restrictions at U.S. land borders extended through Jan. 21
David Shepardson, Reuters 
U.S. land borders with Canada and Mexico will remain closed to non-essential travel until at least Jan. 21 with coronavirus cases spiking to record numbers, U.S. and Canadian officials said on Friday.

Arrests of Immigrant Children at Border Climb, Fueling Concern for Biden Team
Alicia A. Caldwell and Michelle Hackman, Wall Street Journal
Immigrant children and families are again heading north to the U.S.-Mexico border in increasing numbers after a lull, signaling the possibility of a fresh humanitarian crisis and an early challenge for the incoming Biden administration. The flow of these migrants, who historically have come to seek asylum at the border, had slowed in the past year after the Trump administration made policy changes that cut off access to the asylum system. The coronavirus pandemic, which prompted a wave of lockdowns across Latin America, also hindered people from traveling.

Trump finalizes sweeping asylum restrictions in last-minute immigration push
Ted Hesson and Mimi Dwyer, Reuters
The Trump administration finalized a regulation on Thursday that greatly restricts access to asylum in the United States, part of a last-minute immigration crackdown that incoming President-elect Joe Biden will likely try to reverse. The final rule cuts off asylum access for most migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border through a series of changes to eligibility criteria, according to experts and advocates. In addition, it directs immigration judges and asylum officers to deny broad types of asylum claims, such as those based on domestic abuse and gang violence, with some exceptions.

Worth a Read 

Why immigrant advocates still can't locate 628 parents separated in 2017
AZCentral 

On Immigration, Activists' Demands May Exceed Biden Realities
NPR 

Progressives are getting ready to push Biden on immigration reform
Vox 

Thankfully Trump failed to deport the ‘dreamers.’ This Rhodes scholar shows what we would have lost.
The Washington Post