Immigration News Updates: 10/12/2021

Officials from both the United States and Mexico met last Friday to discuss immigration reform and border security between the two nations. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has stated that he has many goals he wants to achieve with the US Government, most importantly investment in poor countries in Central America to help address the root causes of migration. An anonymous source within the US added that they also wish to slow down human trafficking cases, which target the most vulnerable members of society. Other topics reportedly included border cities, extraditions from the US to Mexico, and the flow of firearms and drugs between the two countries.
Source: Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mexico-and-us-prepare-for-security-talks/2021/10/07/325b6e8a-2787-11ec-8739-5cb6aba30a30_story.html

Governor Kathy Hochul of New York has signed a law into the state that will prosecute those who attempt to blackmail or extort undocumented immigrants by revealing their legal status. The law is meant to protect vulnerable immigrant populations from threats of deportation used to manipulate or exploit them. Similar laws already exist in the states of California, Colorado, Maryland, and Virginia.
Source: Spectrum News
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/ny-state-of-politics/2021/10/11/new-law-criminalizes-threats-to-undocumented-immigrants

Immigration advocates are pushing the Biden administration to uphold promises made during the 2020 campaign year to increase the amount of Visas given, and are becoming increasingly frustrated that Visa numbers are instead dropping sharply. Over 200,000 Visas will expire by the end of the fiscal year, and advocates state that the lack of action by Congress is extremely irresponsible, especially considering that these Visas were already approved and simply need to be granted to applicants. Republican lawmakers are pushing to keep a Trump-era focus on employment-based Visas over those intended to reunite families. Republicans also seem focused on those currently outside the US seeking entry, while Democrats argue that federal efforts should be on helping those undocumented immigrants already settled into the US.
Source: The Hill
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/576021-advocates-frustrated-by-shrinking-legal-migration-under-biden?rl=1

Governor Greg Abbott of Texas is appealing a decision by the Biden administration to deny FEMA assistance in dealing with the issue of increased numbers of migrants at the border between the US and Mexico. Governor Abbott has been heavily criticized for his state's treatment of refugees, specifically the Haitian refugee camp that formed under a bridge in Texas last month; images have shown huge lines of vehicles forming a 'steel wall' to keep out migrants, and border agents on horseback running down refugees. Abbott claims that the financial assistance from the federal government is necessary to deal with the 'border crisis', and that Texas is "doing Biden's job for him".
Source: The Hill
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/575830-abbott-appeals-denial-of-federal-emergency-declaration-at-the-border?rl=1

Immigration News Updates: 10/05/2021

Haitian refugees in Texas have been deported back to Haiti in huge amounts, despite most of the refugees living in South America for the last several years. Haiti has been in a state of turmoil for nearly a decade, and just this year saw the assassination of its president and a devastating hurricane. The refugees being returned to Haiti are seeking to leave again as soon as possible, even though many have nothing to their names. Humanitarian organizations, including UNICEF and the United Nations, have called for the immediate deportations to stop and that the needs of the refugees be considered, as many may have small children, or may be victims of gender-based violence or human trafficking. Of the migrants not deported to Haiti, many remain in Mexico to seek entry into the United States.
Source: The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/haitians-border-deportations/2021/10/01/bfa38852-222a-11ec-8fd4-57a5d9bf4b47_story.html


President Biden's administration is on track to settle the lowest number of refugees in the history of the program, lower even than the Trump administration. This is due to a number of factors, including the COVID-10 pandemic, a lack of bipartisan unity to support President Biden's infrastructure plans, and missteps by the administration in its handling of promises made during the 2020 campaign year.
Source: The Hill
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/574961-biden-on-track-to-beat-trumps-record-for-fewest-resettled-refugees

A lower court has decreed that the use of Title 42 by border officials may continue, despite calls that the law violates the immigration process. Title 42, put into place by the Trump administration at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, states that migrants can be immediately deported if they traveled through a country with any COVID-19 infections, even if the migrants themselves do not have the virus. The continued use of the law has brought the Biden administration under scrutiny, with many claiming that the law violates promises by President Biden to make immigration into the United States easier during his tenure. Harold Koh, a top official with the State Department, resigned his posting in protest of the law, calling its use "inhumane".
Source: Tuscon Sentinel
http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/100121_title_42_appeal/border-officials-can-continue-expel-migrant-families-under-covid-restrictions-court-rules/


A group of immigration activists confronted Democratic Senator from Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema, in a public restroom at Arizona State University, where the Senator lectures. The activists urged Sinema to support President Biden's infrastructure bill, which includes provisions for increased immigration support. Sinema claims that the activists violated her expectation of privacy, while the activists claim that Sinema has ignored efforts by the group to meet with her. "We got you elected", one of the activists says in the video of the encounter, posted to the group's Twitter account. "We can get you out of office if you don't support what you promised us."
Source: The Hill
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/575133-immigration-activists-follow-sinema-into-bathroom-in-phoenix

Notes used during the transmission of January 26, 2021

In these notes you will find:

• DED for Certain Venezuelans

• DED TPS and Deferred Action Characteristics

• Green Card for Liberians during DED

• Preserving and fortifying DACA

• Aggravated Felonies List

• Revise and stop deportations for 100 days

• Instructions of Work Permit during DED
  
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Who is the New Secretary of Homeland Security, ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS?

Mayorkas, a lawyer and former federal prosecutor, arrived in the United States at the age of one when his parents, a Havana Jew and a Romanian Jew, fled to the United States to escape from communism, persecution, and abuse after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959.

He experienced first-hand the serious problems, fears, legal irregularities, and emotional instability of refugees and immigrants in general. His nomination is an important step in favor of immigrants.

Proud of his Cuban and immigrant background, Alejandro Mayorkas graduated with honors from the University of California, Berkeley, and received his law degree from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter, he began his career as a lawyer in the private sector as part of the firm O'Melveny & Myers. Currently, in addition to his work with DHS, he maintains the practice of law at the international law firm of WilmerHale, and is well known for his work with non-profit organizations in legal services to the poor, refugee resettlement, and education of disadvantaged youth. His work was instrumental in developing the DACA program that allowed thousands of children who came to the United States illegally to develop, and many of them are part of the first line of defense against the COVID-19 pandemic.

He worked as a Director of Immigration (USCIS), received numerous awards from civic and community organizations, including the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF).

We look forward to the start of his charge at the Department of Homeland Security which is, as he said, “a noble mission to help keep us safe and to advance our proud history as a country of welcome".

The Immigrant's Statue

The Statue of Liberty, national monument of the United States and symbol of New York, represents freedom and emancipation in relation to oppression. It is located at the mouth of the Hudson River. It was a gift from France to the United States to commemorate the centenary of the Declaration of Independence of the United States. This giant bronze colossus welcomes immigrants from all over the world regardless of race, social class or beliefs.

Between 1886 and 1924, almost 14 million immigrants from all over the world entered the United States through New York. The statue was a resounding symbol that they had reached the land of their dreams. For these anxious newcomers, the torch did not suggest "enlightenment" as its creators intended, rather it was a "welcome" message. As time passed, immigrants began to call the statue "The Mother of Exiles" as a symbol of hope for the next generations of immigrants.

In 1903 Emma Lazarus's poem, "The New Colossus", was immortalized on a bronze pedestal at the base of the Statue of Liberty. Emma was an American Jewish daughter of Moses Lazarus and Esther Cardozo, both of families descended from Sephardic Portuguese Jews whose members had emigrated to New York in the past. Initially she had rejected the offer to write the poem, but the writer Constance Cary Harrison convinced her that the statue would be of great importance for immigrants arriving to the port.

“The new colossus” has precisely this name because it does not speak of the Colossus of Rhodes, but of a “new” one: this statue of a woman that stands in New York does not take care of the city of foreigners but rather welcomes them and lends them his coat. The mother of the exiles opens the doors to those who were lost in the storm and makes a clear request to the world "give me the unfortunate, the homeless and lost in the storm", very subtly and at the same time firm, asks to hand them over while she holds the flame of the torch in her hand that shows the way to the great golden entrance door.”
Source: Azcona, Natalie. “El Poema Escondido En La Estatua De La Libertad Es Un Canto De Amor a Los Inmigrantes.” Viva Noticias, 4 Aug. 2017, https://vivanoticias.net/poema-escondido-la-estatua-la-libertad-canto-amor-los-inmigrantes/.

These foundations were what drove the United States to be the nation it is today, a country full of cultural diversity and hope for the immigrant in search of a successful future. The United States is the country that houses the largest number of immigrants in the world; even so, the current administration seeks to change those key foundations to restrict entry to dreamers seeking a future in this great country that is the United States.

Statue of Liberty - 1890