The Borderline: 07/10–07/17
Bringing you the latest on immigration and border issues.
EDITORS’ NOTE
Hi everyone! We hope you are safe and healthy, wherever you happen to be. This is the twenty-second edition of The Borderline, Stories from the Border’s weekly newsletter on immigration and border issues. This is our curated summary of what we’ve been reading and working on throughout this summer. With all of us social distancing and doing our part to cure the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re publishing from our own corners of the country: Arizona, California, Illinois, North Carolina, and Texas.
This week, we are seeing rejections of new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) applications, despite last month’s Supreme Court ruling and a letter by several business executives — including those of Apple, Facebook, Google and General Motors — to keep the program in place. President Trump assured that a new merit-based immigration plan he aims to unveil in the next month will contain some protections for would-be DACA beneficiaries. While presidential candidate Joe Biden has promised to grant Venezuelans already in the US Temporary Protected Status, President Trump has not done the same.
After lawsuits from several colleges and eighteen states, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rescinded its policy barring international students from the US if their colleges offered only online courses this Fall. Amid recent surges in US coronavirus cases, the US, Mexico, and Canada have agreed to extend border closures for nonessential land travel until August 21st, but the US State Department announced it will resume some visa services at US embassies and consulates. Meanwhile, two Philadelphia-area immigrants on the brink of US citizenship filed a US District Court lawsuit to be administered the oath of allegiance and allowed the right to vote. A Migration Policy Institute and Immigration Legal Resource Center report has found that the Trump administration is taking twice as long as past administrations to process naturalization applications, with little evidence of fraud.
A third ICE detainee has died from coronavirus, days before a Harvard Medical School professor testified that two migrant children who died in Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) custody from flu and sepsis in late 2018 could have been saved with appropriate medical care. More than 930 immigration detention center employees have tested positive for coronavirus, and a Reuters analysis suggests that detainee transfers may be increasing disease spread. Without a federal judge’s final ruling on whether parents can be released with their children from three family detention centers, hundreds of families had to decide by this Friday whether to separate or stay together in detention, where their lawyers say they have been denied proper medical care. The US Government Accountability Office found that part of last year’s $112 million emergency funding package for CBP to buy “consumables and medical care,” was misspent.
The longest-held trans woman has been released from ICE custody, four days after figures from CBP showed that “credible fear,” claims at the US-Mexico Border rose 58% in 2019. CBP has fired four employees who participated in Facebook groups featuring violent, sexist and racist posts regarding migrants and Congress members. The union representing federal asylum officers released a public comment — one of more than 40,000 already — on the Trump administration’s proposed asylum rule changes, saying they would restrict most rights to claim asylum in the US.
To stay updated, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @borderstoriesAZ.
– Julia and Jeromel
DEEP DIVES
We are further learning about how the Trump administration’s proposed asylum rule changes may make it easier for immigration judges to dismiss asylum claims as “frivolous,” — an interpretation that would endanger survivors of human trafficking, disproportionately women and LGBTQ+ people. About how the public health emergency order that in June set 27,535 people — mainly Mexicans and Central Americans — up for deportation without the right to stay in the US to seek asylum, could be expanded to other countries with widespread communicable diseases. About how a shortage of mostly Mexican and South American seasonal temporary workers, caused by the suspension of most H-2B visas for the rest of the year, may leave millions of trees necessary after natural disasters, logging, and to protect watersheds, unplanted.
About how bans on most diversity and family reunification visas, added to the logistical challenge of reaching the US to apply for asylum, could mean even fewer resettlement chances for tens of thousands of African refugees. About whether, after COVID-19, our immigration laws can follow in line with our naturalization laws, which a New York Law School professor argues have evolved to become more inclusive. About a deep canvassing project in North Carolina that has revealed markedly fluid positions on immigration among rural voters.
About how it feels to have just ten minutes and an oath between oneself and US citizenship, endlessly extended under a bureaucracy logistically and politically resistant to finding alternatives for naturalization ceremonies. About the approximately 50,000 green cards and 75,000 other employment authorization documents that have not yet been printed, leaving the immigrants they were authorized for without proof of residence for the indefinite future.
About the poor conditions, scant testing, and US government pressure for countries to accept deportees that continues to allow ICE’s widespread transport of coronavirus across the country and world. And about the Trump administration’s steady repurposing of the Department of Homeland Security from its traditional immigration and border surveillance, to law enforcement duties in cities with large anti-racism protests, and now to protection of Confederate statues and monuments.
WEEKLY ROUNDUP
NATION
ENFORCEMENT:
- More migrants caught crossing U.S.-Mexico border despite pandemic restrictions: What happens to migrants after being caught by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP)? With the Trump administration allowing CBP to rapidly deport undocumented immigrants, what do their lives look like after U.S. border authorities put them out of the country?
- Harford County Sheriff’s Office (in Maryland) renews controversial cooperation agreement with federal immigration agency ICE: What is the relationship between police departments and immigrant communities in localities where the police are actively cooperating and partnering with ICE?
- U.S.-Mexico border closure to be extended another month to the dismay of some El Paso businesses: How could U.S. and Mexican governments help businesses and border town communities while keeping the border closed for non essential travel?
- US-Mexico land border to remain closed but flights continue: Would U.S. and Mexican governments restrict all non essential travel between their countries? Why are flights to tourism destinations like Cancún still going when both countries agreed to close down the border?
- Border Patrol arrests 20 Cuban migrants who landed in Key West in a homemade boat: What is the “wet foot, dry foot” policy? What would happen to these Cuban migrants after being detained by Border Patrol?
- Maryland Sen. Van Hollen pushes for federal protection for immigrant workers during coronavirus pandemic: Would the HEROES Act, which guarantees coronavirus relief access for immigrants and extension of worker permits on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients, have any chance of being passed? Would there be pressure to push the federal government to pass it?
RULINGS:
- DOJ Fights Block Of Trump’s Asylum Policy At 9th Circ.: Will the estimated 26,000 people “metered” at points of entry finally get their day in Immigration Court?
- Judge delays ruling on ICE detention, meaning migrant parents and kids could be separated Friday: What is holding back ICE in releasing parents along with their children? If ICE releases children in detention centers, what would their reason be for keeping their parents detained?
- California Court To Rule Soon On Immigration Protections Case With Teen As Lead Plaintiff: How could the recent Supreme Court ruling on keeping DACA affect the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling on whether to uphold or revoke TPS that applies to more than 400,000 immigrants?
- Court allows release of ICE detainees at Adelanto through bail process: Would the detainees be able to afford the process of applying for bail? What happens to those who cannot afford its cost?
- California Judge Agrees To Extend Deadline For Releasing Children From Immigration Custody: Will this become precedent for ensuring families in ICE custody remain together?
- Appeals court blocks administration effort to weaken protections for asylum seekers: Will the US fall in line with international standards of gender-based violence as grounds for asylum?
- Trump administration must accept new DACA applications, judge orders: Who will ensure that the Trump administration executes this ruling to its full effect?
ARIZONA:
- Border wall construction to start at national park, restrict access to the Arizona Trail: What has been the environmental impact of the border wall construction?
- Migrant rescues in Arizona desert exceed 2019 total as apprehensions rise across border: What does “rescue” mean as it is used to describe the encounters that Border Patrol agents have with immigrants at the border? What happens to immigrants after being apprehended by Border Patrol?
- Yuma border agents locate 2 dead Mexican nationals, apprehend another: Would Border Patrol have found the other two migrants had it not been for the originally apprehended one?
- Phoenix immigration lawyer suspended for 45 days for filing frivolous asylum claims: Do client’s chances of remaining in the US actually increase if placed in removal proceedings?
CALIFORNIA:
- Border Patrol Sent a Newborn US Citizen to Mexico: Under the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico,” policy, who is birthright citizenship for?
- Committee approves Aguilar provision to allow DACA recipients to work in Congress: What other versions of employment in public offices are DACA beneficiaries currently not eligible for?
- Migrant Mother Given A Choice: Leave Her Newborn In US Or Return To Mexico Together: What discretion does DHS have in keeping asylum-seeking families together in the US?
ILLINOIS:
- Plan for Chicago ICE Citizens Academy Causes Uproar: Will the backlash dissuade the program’s continuation, or potential academy recruits from surveilling their suspected undocumented neighbors?
NORTH CAROLINA:
- Trump’s visa freeze adds to hardships for NC’s Indian immigrants: What does it mean to be accepted into a country for one’s work, but restricted to second-class personhood, not allowed to visit family back home?
- Thousands Of Young Undocumented Immigrants Still Can’t Apply For DACA Even After SCOTUS Decision: How long until the Department of Homeland Security starts granting DACA statuses like the Supreme Court decision requires it to?
TEXAS:
- Trump Criticizes Private Texas Border Wall Built By Supporters: Is this any indication for how Trump will react to future privately-funded border wall-building ventures?
- El Paso Border Patrol agent runs over migrant, expels him to Mexico: Will there be any consequences for the agent?
- This asylum seeker fled to Texas to escape violence, only to test positive for coronavirus while fighting deportation: Are the 3,000+ ICE detainees with the virus given the same shot at survival?
- Dispatch records: Woman dies after falling from border fence near Sunland Park: When even the highest costs do not deter, at what point does attempted deterrence become harm?
- Trump administration waives federal regulations to expedite border construction in Rio Grande Valley: What will be the environmental costs of such a rapid expansion?
