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February 10, 2021
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Migration News: February 10, 2021
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Migration News
Juan Montes and José de Córdoba, The Wall Street Journal
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador became an unlikely ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s migration policies, deploying thousands of soldiers across Mexico to stop Central American asylum seekers heading toward the 2,000-mile border. Now, President Biden is preparing to undo much of Mr. Trump’s immigration legacy, while also facing differences with the Mexican populist over a range of other bilateral issues like security cooperation and climate change.
Michael D. Shear and Miriam Jordan, The New York Times
Mr. Biden has spent his first days in office beginning to unravel those well-known changes. He issued an executive order ending the travel ban and formed a task force to reunite the families separated at the border. Another order halted construction of the wall. Still another promised to bolster the Obama-era program for Dreamers known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. But the search for the smaller, hidden changes is just beginning. White House officials have told immigration activists that it will take time to unravel everything that Mr. Trump and Mr. Miller did to turn the immigration system against immigrants.
Sabrina Rodriguez, POLITICO
The Biden administration and Democrats on Capitol Hill have vowed repeatedly to secure a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. But a federal judge in Texas could be the one to force them to take the first step in making it happen. Advocates, attorneys and lawmakers expect a ruling within days — or weeks — on a court case that will determine the fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provides protections for more than 640,000 immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.
Laura Gómez, Arizona Mirror
On his second round of executive orders on immigration, President Joe Biden said his administration will promptly review the “safe and orderly processing of asylum claims.” For migrants from Cuba, Honduras, and Mexico who’ve been waiting in the border city of Nogales for a chance to get protections from prosecution and violence as outlined by U.S. and international law, the orders fall short: Biden’s directives mean their wait will be prolonged. Mothers, fathers and children are in the midst of a humanitarian crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border that needs immediate attention and resolution, said a group of migrants during a Feb. 3 press conference organized by the Kino Border Initiative — a binational organization that aids migrants with food, shelter and other services in Nogales, Sonora.
Julián Aguilar, The Texas Tribune
A federal judge in Texas has extended the block on President Joe Biden’s deportation moratorium for two more weeks as the case continues to play out in court. Judge Drew Tipton said in an order dated Monday the extension was necessary for “the record to be more fully developed” in the case brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who challenged Biden’s 100-day pause on deportations. Tipton originally issued a 14-day suspension of Biden’s moratorium on Jan. 26. The pause in deportations was part of Biden’s attempted day one overhaul of several of former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
Jamie Satterfield, Knoxville News Sentinel
Isabel Zelaya and his son were busy at work inside a slaughterhouse in Bean Station, Tennessee, when hundreds of black-clad people with guns stormed inside – shouting racial slurs and ordering at gunpoint all Latino workers to stop moving. Zelaya, legally employed at the slaughterhouse, thought they might be “terrorists.” But, as it turned out, they were a mix of federal agents and Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers who turned up in 2018 to raid the Southeastern Provision meatpacking plant in Grainger County. Their behavior — laid bare in court records — so shocked Chief U.S. District Judge Travis McDonough that he made a public appeal for the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the shield of immunity granted to federal law enforcement officers.
Tara Copp, McClatchy
President Joe Biden will review the deportations of veterans and military family members that occurred under the stricter immigration enforcement policies of former President Donald Trump, a White House official told McClatchy. The review is part of Biden’s broader effort to undo some of Trump’s immigration policies. For service members and veterans, Trump’s stricter policies at times led to immigrant soldiers or veterans having their naturalization applications denied at a higher rate than civilians not in the military, although by mid-2020 military naturalization approval rates had improved. Those policies also led to deportations of some veterans or family members of currently serving military personnel.
Jeanmarie Evelly, City Limits
On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that slots would be reserved specifically for food service workers and taxi drivers at the city’s new vaccination hub at Citi Field, an effort to ensure “the folks we depend on” get access to the shots. “Folks who really have taken care of us and were there throughout this whole crisis,” de Blasio said. In addition to short supply, advocates say there are other barriers that could hinder eligible essential workers from getting vaccinated — including New York’s own proof-of-eligibility requirements. Under the state’s plan, those who are eligible for vaccination because of their jobs must present documentation of their work, like an ID card, a letter from their employer or a pay stub.
Insider NJ
Today, more than one hundred educators across New Jersey sent an open letter to state legislative leaders and Governor Murphy urging immediate action to address the nearly half-million immigrant New Jerseyans who have been left behind in virtually every form of COVID-19 aid at both the federal and state levels. For 11 months, immigrant communities have been without access to state and federal relief programs.
Thomson Reuters, KFGO News
A bipartisan group of senior U.S. senators reintroduced a bill on Tuesday to make it easier for people from Hong Kong fearing persecution after joining protests against China to obtain U.S. refugee status.
The 12 senators, led by Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Bob Menendez, said the bill was a response to a draconian national security law introduced by China in Hong Kong last year that was the focus of mass street protests. The Hong Kong Safe Harbor Act would make "Hong Kongers who participated peacefully in the protest movement and have a well-founded fear of persecution" eligible for processing as refugees in Hong Kong or a third country.
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