Migration News

Texas attorney general files lawsuit to block Biden's deportation freeze
Ted Hesson, Reuters 
The Texas attorney general filed a lawsuit on Friday that seeks to block U.S. President Joe Biden’s move to pause certain deportations for 100 days, a controversial opening-move by the Democratic president that has provoked blowback from some Republicans. In the court filing on Friday, Paxton argued that the deportation moratorium violated the president’s constitutional duty to execute federal laws. Paxton, a Republican, also said the temporary freeze violated an enforcement agreement the state brokered with the outgoing Trump administration earlier this month.

ICE starts 100-day moratorium on deportations for certain immigrants in U.S.
Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News 
U.S. immigration authorities on Friday began implementing a 100-day moratorium on deportations of certain immigrants already in the country as part of a major shift in immigration enforcement policy under President Biden. The freeze, a pledge Mr. Biden made during the campaign, will temporarily shield most immigrants facing deportation from being removed from the U.S. until May, as long as they entered the country before November 1, 2020. 

Mexican leader says Biden offers $4B for Central America
Mark Stevenson, Rob Gillies, and Aamer Madhani, AP 
President Joe Biden’s first calls to foreign leaders went to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at a strained moment for the U.S. relationship with its North American neighbors. Mexico’s president said Saturday that Biden told him the U.S. would send $4 billion to help development in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala — nations whose hardships have spawned tides of migration through Mexico toward the United States. López Obrador, who spoke Friday with Biden by phone, said the two discussed immigration and the need to address the root causes of why people migrate.

GOP Lawmakers Propose Major Immigration Restrictions
Asher Stockler, Law360
In the face of President Joe Biden's immediate moves to liberalize immigration pathways that had been curtailed under his predecessor, Republican legislators in the House have introduced a pair of bills seeking to codify major new restrictions on legal immigration. The GOP-sponsored bills would eliminate the diversity visa lottery, which allows up to 55,000 immigrants from underrepresented countries to come to the United States each year, and prevent anyone convicted of a crime from obtaining asylum. The measures, drafted by Reps. Bill Posey, R-Fla., and Bob Good, R-Va., were introduced Thursday, Biden's first full day in office. Good's bill, the asylum ban, has 12 co-sponsors, including Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Paul Gosar of Arizona. Posey's bill is identical to legislation introduced in the previous Congress.

ICE frees potential witnesses in Georgia medical abuse case
Nomaan Merchant, AP 
U.S. immigration authorities have released the last of nine detained women who were taken to see a rural Georgia gynecologist accused of performing unnecessary hysterectomies or other medical procedures, a lawyer for the women said Friday. Dozens of women have accused Dr. Mahendra Amin of conducting procedures without their consent that were medically unnecessary and potentially endangered their ability to have children — allegations that sparked wide outrage. The women were detained at the privately run Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia. Under the administration of former President Donald Trump, ICE deported at least six women last year who alleged misconduct by Amin and came within hours of deporting at least three others before their lawyers intervened. 

Biden to impose South Africa travel ban to combat new COVID-19 variant - CDC
David Shepardson, Reuters 
President Joe Biden will impose a ban on most non-U.S. citizens entering the country who have recently been in South Africa starting Saturday in a bid to contain the spread of a new variant of COVID-19, a senior U.S. public health official told Reuters. Biden on Monday is also reimposing an entry ban on nearly all non-U.S. travelers who have been in Brazil, the United Kingdom, Ireland and 26 countries in Europe that allow travel across open borders.

Menendez to renew push for protecting Venezuelans from deportation
Sabrina Rodriguez, Politico
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) on Monday will launch another effort to offer Venezuelan exiles protection from deportation through Temporary Protected Status — a move that the Biden administration supports and former President Donald Trump fell short of doing. Menendez will introduce a bill that would allow Venezuelans fleeing the humanitarian crisis brought on by Nicolás Maduro’s government to live and work legally in the U.S. through TPS. It comes less than a week after Trump, on his last full day in office, used executive power to shield Venezuelans from deportation through the Deferred Enforced Departure program, or DED.

Democrats start reining in expectations for immigration bill
Alan Fram, AP 
It’s taken only days for Democrats gauging how far President Joe Biden’s bold immigration proposal can go in Congress to acknowledge that if anything emerges, it will likely be significantly more modest. As they brace to tackle a politically flammable issue that’s resisted major congressional action since the 1980s, Democrats are using words like “aspirational” to describe Biden’s plan and “herculean” to express the effort they’ll need to prevail. A cautious note came from the White House on Friday when press secretary Jen Psaki said the new administration views Biden’s plan as a “first step” it hopes will be “the basis” of discussions in Congress. Democrats’ measured tones underscore the fragile road they face on a paramount issue for their minority voters, progressives and activists.

State Dept. Suspends Iraqi Visas Over System Vulnerabilities
Daniel Wilson, Law360 
The U.S. Department of State on Friday temporarily suspended a refugee visa program for Iraqis who had previously worked in support of the U.S. government, saying it needed to address vulnerabilities uncovered during recent federal investigations. The 90-day pause to the Direct Access Program for U.S.-Affiliated Iraqis follows recent indictments of people involved in a scheme to steal records from the State Department's system for processing refugee applications, specifically targeted at applications made under the program, according to the department.

Worth a Read 

Language barriers, wariness make vaccinating immigrants hard
AP 

Editorial: Congress has to seize the moment Biden has given it to fix immigration
LA Times 

Biden’s Chance to End Border Chaos
Wall Street Journal 

The ‘Muslim Ban’ Is Over. The Harm Lives On.
The New York Times 

Why Biden’s immigration plan may be risky for Democrats
AP 

California’s Alex Padilla brings rare Senate perspective — an immigrant family’s struggle for dignity
San Francisco Chronicle 

Barred From U.S. Under Trump, Muslims Exult in Biden’s Open Door
The New York Times 

Biden's effort to reunite Trump-era separated families is trickiest immigration challenge
USA Today