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February 3, 2021
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Migration News: February 3, 2021
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Migration News
Michael D. Shear (@shearm) and Zolan Kanno-Youngs (@KannoYoungs), The New York Times
President Biden moved cautiously on Tuesday to confront the most intractable immigration issues that his predecessor left behind: reuniting migrant children separated from their families, rebuilding a working asylum system and restoring opportunities for foreign workers and students to enter the country. A trio of executive orders signed on Tuesday reflect a reimagining of America’s place in the world after four years of Mr. Trump’s “America First” vision. But administration officials and immigration advocates cautioned that will not happen immediately. Mr. Biden’s government is wary of flinging open the border until it has rebuilt an asylum and refugee system that can process potentially large influxes of people.
U.S. will not expel unaccompanied migrant children under Trump-era policy now being reviewed
Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News
The Biden administration on Tuesday said it will not summarily expel unaccompanied migrant children from U.S. borders and pledged to examine the unprecedented Trump-era policy, which was authorized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last spring. As part of one of the executive orders he signed Tuesday, President Biden directed the CDC and the Department of Homeland Security to initiate a review of the policy, which allows U.S. border officials to swiftly expel migrants without a court hearing or an asylum interview. While the Trump administration said the expulsions policy was necessary to prevent coronavirus outbreaks along the southern border, former CDC officials have told CBS News that the White House pressured the agency to approve the sweeping order, which invokes a late 19th century public health law.
Elliott Spagat, The Philadelpha Inquirer
[Biden’s] orders Tuesday on family separation, border security and legal immigration bring to nine the number of executive actions on immigration during his first two weeks in office. With proposed legislation to give legal status and a path to citizenship to all of the estimated 11 million people in the country who don’t have it, Biden has quickly taken aim at many of former President Donald Trump’s sweeping changes to deter immigration, both legal and illegal, and established a vision that is likely to far outlast his tenure if he’s able to muster enough support in a deeply divided Congress.
Joseph Guzman, The Hill
The Senate has confirmed Alejandro Mayorkas to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), making him the first Latino and first immigrant to head the department responsible for enforcing U.S. immigration laws. The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Mayorkas in a 56-43 vote, despite opposition from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who urged Republicans to vote against Mayorkas’s confirmation due to a 2015 inspector general report that criticized Mayorkas for his mismanagement of a program that granted U.S. residency to foreign investors.
Associated Press
Immigrant activists and state lawmakers are renewing the push to make Massachusetts a sanctuary state. Supporters of the Safe Communities Act said Tuesday they’ll be resubmitting the proposal to the legislature again.
Priscilla Alvarez (@priscialva), CNN
The Biden administration is opening an overflow facility for unaccompanied migrant children apprehended at the US-Mexico border, the federal agency tasked with the children's care told CNN in a statement. The Health and Human Services Department will reopen a facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, that can accommodate about 700 children and can be expanded if necessary. The reopening of the facility comes amid an increase in apprehensions of unaccompanied children on the Southwest border, fueled in part by deteriorating conditions in Latin America and a perceived possible relaxation of enforcement, and reduced capacity limits at other facilities due to Covid-19.
Nomaan Merchant, Associated Press/ABC27
Lawyers working with immigrant families detained by the U.S. government for more than a year say they’re worried the families could be deported as soon as this week. Six parents and six children could be placed on deportation flights as early as Wednesday, even though they continue to fight to win asylum, the lawyers said. The families say they were unfairly denied protections under several policies enacted by former President Donald Trump’s administration that courts later prohibited.
Nicholas K. Geranios, Associated Press/East Oregonian
Two farm groups are suing the state of Washington for failing to revise emergency regulations that seek to protect migrant farmworkers from the COVID-19 virus. The groups filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Yakima County Superior Court. It seeks to invalidate the recently renewed rules as arbitrary, capricious and not feasible.
Further Reading
Religion News Service
Analysis Group
PBS NewsHour – includes special LIRS mention!
University of Oxford
The Washington Post
Ideastream
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