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February 23, 2021
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Migration News: February 23, 2021
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Silvia Foster-Frau, The Washington Post
Dozens of migrant teens boarded vans Monday for the trip down a dusty road to a former man camp for oil field workers here, the first migrant child facility opened under the Biden administration. The emergency facility — a vestige of the Trump administration that was open for only a month in summer 2019 — is being reactivated to hold up to 700 children ages 13 to 17. Government officials say the camp is needed because facilities for migrant children have had to cut capacity by nearly half because of the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, the number of unaccompanied children crossing the border has been inching up, with January reporting the highest total — more than 5,700 apprehensions — for that month in recent years.
Megan Leonhardt, CNBC
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday filed a lawsuit against Libre by Nexus, claiming the company is preying on immigrants through a bond scam that traps participants into paying expensive fees. According to Monday’s lawsuit filed by the CFPB in partnership with Massachusetts, New York and Virginia attorneys general, Libre works with detainees and their families — typically Latino immigrants who speak little to no English — to secure their release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers on bond while they wait for their immigration hearings.
Adam Liptak, The New York Times
The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to rule on two Trump administration initiatives: one placing limits on a federal health program in an effort to restrict access to abortions, and the other denying green cards to immigrants who were considered likely to make occasional use of public benefits like food stamps. Under the court’s ordinary schedule, the cases will be argued in the fall. But they may be moot by then, as President Biden has signaled that his administration is reconsidering both measures.
Candice Hare, KMVT 11
Senate Bill 1132 was introduced with the purpose of making a Driving Authorization Card available to all Idaho residents over the age of 16, including undocumented immigrants. Republican Sen. Jim Guthrie introduced the bill, which in its Statement of Purposes indicates the passing of the bill could “improve Idaho’s road safety, ensure more drivers on Idaho roads are covered by insurance, enhance driver education and training for all Idahoans, and generate additional state revenue for Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) programs.”
Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News
The increasing number of migrant children taken into custody along the southern border in recent days has severely strained the U.S. government's ability to house them, according to data obtained by CBS News. Last week, U.S. border agents apprehended more than 1,500 migrant children, according to government statistics reviewed by CBS News. On Sunday, an additional 300 minors were taken into custody. Due to the steady increase in border crossings by unaccompanied children, nearly 90% of the 8,000 available beds administered by the federal agency charged with housing these minors are being occupied. On Monday, the number of children housed by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), reached 7,100, leaving fewer than 900 empty beds.
María Inés Zamudio, WBEZ Chicago
In Illinois, people detained or incarcerated in jails and prisons became eligible to get the vaccine starting on Jan. 25. There are at least 177 immigrants detained in county jails in Illinois, according to data from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In addition to the facility in Kankakee County, the county jails in northwest suburban McHenry County and Pulaski County, at the state’s southern tip, also have federal contracts to house detained immigrants.
Salvador Rivera, WJTV
Last week, fearing a crush of people at border crossings, the White House and Department of Homeland Security set up a web portal for people with pending asylum cases. They were to log on and reaffirm their intentions to enter the U.S. They would later get a time and date when they could come to the border to cross. But many, even those without cases pending, are ignoring the instructions and continue arriving at the campsite. Cabrera, a Honduran native, says she does have an asylum case pending, but has not been able to access the computer system because it’s not working properly.
Eunice Lee, SCOTUSblog
In asylum cases before the immigration and federal courts, responsibility for making credibility determinations rests with the immigration judge. Immigration laws recognize that in asylum proceedings — as in other contexts — the trier of fact who directly hears a person’s testimony can best assess their credibility. In some cases, however, IJs decline to make explicit credibility findings when denying asylum. On Tuesday, in Wilkinson v. Dai and Wilkinson v. Alcaraz-Enriquez, the Supreme Court will consider the permissibility of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit’s approach to these circumstances: When immigration courts fail to make an explicit credibility determination, the 9th Circuit treats the asylum seeker’s testimony as credible in its own review.
Danielle Dreilinger, The Seattle Times
Even so, educators who work with refugee students say children who come to this country at a disadvantage in every way — recovering from trauma, struggling to parse a new language, behind academically — can catch up to their peers and even excel, if they’re given the right support. That bodes well for the millions of children who have been left behind by COVID-19.
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