Your weekly summary from the Council

 LATEST ANALYSIS 

• What Is the Law? Under New Immigration Decision, the Answer Isn’t Always Clear

The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) published a decision to address a seemingly basic question: what law should an immigration judge apply when deciding the case of an immigrant facing removal? In a time of remote hearings, when the immigration judge, the government attorney, and the immigrant may all be in different places, figuring out which law applies is complicated. Read More »

• Deadly Detention Center Fire Is a Reminder: Both the US and Mexico Are Failing Migrants

Last week, 39 migrants died in a fire in a Mexican detention center in Ciudad Juarez. The loss of life is tragic. But if a tragedy implies something private and unique, disconnected from broader social forces and with barely anyone to blame, this isn’t that. The migrants who died in Juarez were failed by both the U.S. and Mexican governments, which have spent the last three years telling them not to stay without giving them anywhere to go. Read More »

• US and Canada Expand Safe Third Country Agreement in Another Move to Limit Asylum

The United States and Canada announced the expansion of their Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) during President Biden’s visit to Canada. Under U.S. law, a so-called “Safe Third Country” agreement allows the United States to deport asylum seekers to a third country without allowing them to apply for asylum. Read More »

 FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW  

• Last week, a top official of California's largest police union was charged with importing fentanyl and other drugs with the intent to distribute them throughout the United States. 
  
  Her arrest came the same week as the Senate Judiciary Committee conducted a hearing about fentanyl and migration at the U.S.-Mexico border. Senate Republicans blamed the rise in fentanyl-related deaths on the Department of Homeland Security for failing to curb irregular migration. 
   
  In reality, the overwhelming majority of fentanyl isn't brought into the U.S. by migrants or others crossing between ports of entry, but rather through our ports of entry—it’s most often smuggled by U.S. citizens in cars and trucks. 
  
  This explainer from the American Immigration Council examines government statistics and discusses how fentanyl actually gets into the country.

Read More: Fact Check: Migrants Aren’t the Ones Smuggling Fentanyl Into the United States

 ACROSS THE NATION  

• According to the 2020 Census, Utah was the fastest-growing state in the country over the previous decade, opening doors for economic opportunity, innovation, and workforce development.
  
  Many of Utah’s newest residents are immigrants. Northern Utah in particular has welcomed more than 7,500 immigrants between 2000 and 2019, including many who migrated from another state. During this time, 5.8% of northern Utah’s population growth was attributable to immigrants
  
  This new fact sheet from the American Immigration Council, prepared in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, shows the demographic and economic contributions that immigrants are making across the region.

Read More: New Americans in Northern Utah

 QUOTE OF THE WEEK 

"We need to remember that people who are seeking asylum are part of a humanitarian crisis and are doing their best to survive. That is why international law allows anyone who reaches our shores, no matter how they get here, the opportunity to apply for protection. Congress needs to continue to pressure President Biden to find better solutions—and why we need to continue to push our elected officials to create solutions. Making it more difficult for individuals to find safety goes against our commitment to uphold international law and everything the United States stands for as a humane and just nation.”

– Kristy White, immigration attorney at Camino Immigration Services” a product of the Council and Over Zero.

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 FURTHER READING 

• Aljazeera English (WATCH): Alexandra Miller, Director of the Immigration Justice Campaign comments on the Deadly Detention Center Fire in Ciudad Juarez

• Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: How — and why — Canada and the U.S. kept their border deal secret for a year

• The Hill: As U.S. fentanyl deaths jump, GOP casts blame at the border

• NBC Memphis (WATCH): Report examines sense of belonging in the workplace

         

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