Your weekly summary from the Council

 LATEST ANALYSIS 

• New USCIS Center Is Good News for Some of Its Worst Backlog Victims

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is opening a new service center to try to fix some of its most egregious backlogs. The agency reportedly has already reassigned 150 employees – and plans to have over 300 – to staff a virtual service center, which will eventually operate fully remotely. Read More »

• DHS Publishes Privacy Document About ATDs and the Data They Collect – Two Decades Late

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published the Privacy Impact Assessment for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s implementation of Alternative to Detention Programs (ATD). The PIA—a government document that describes potential privacy issues for technology that collects, uses, disseminates, or maintains personally identifiable information—contains insightful information about ATD programs that ICE has been implementing. Read More »

• A Groundswell of Opposition to Biden’s Asylum Transit Ban

The public has spoken: an asylum transit ban was bad policy during the Trump era, and it's bad policy now. The proposed rule, a new version of a Trump-era policy, would all but bar asylum for any non-Mexican who crosses the U.S. southern border between ports of entry unless they had applied for—and been denied—asylum in another country before arrival. Read More »

 FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW  

• The U.S. doubled the number of people admitted from February to March through the Refugee Admissions Program.  
   
  6,122 refugees were resettled last month, with the top nationalities coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burma, Syria, and Afghanistan. This welcome development inches the United States closer to the number of refugees admitted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.  
   
  This fact sheet from the American Immigration Council provides an overview of the refugee resettlement process and examines why forcible displacement is on the rise across the world.

Read More: An Overview of U.S. Refugee Law and Policy

 ACROSS THE NATION  

• In a new guide, the American Immigration Council breaks down our Al Otro Lado v. Mayorkas lawsuit challenging the U.S. government’s unlawful “metering” policies stopping asylum seekers from crossing into the U.S. at ports of entry. It also offers information on how some individuals impacted by these policies may contact the lawyers in the case to determine if they may qualify to return to the U.S. to seek asylum again.  

The guide is now available in English, Spanish, and Kreyol.

Read More: Your Rights Under Al Otro Lado v. Mayorkas

 QUOTE OF THE WEEK 

“Out of the 42 incidents in which a person's nationality was reported, 33 (79%) involved U.S. citizens. Just three incidents involved a smuggler without legal status.”

– Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Policy Director at the American Immigration Council, on Fentanyl Apprehensions at the U.S.–Mexico Border.

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 FURTHER READING 

• The Daily Tar Heel: NC House passes bill to require sheriff's Departments to work with ICE

• Florida Pheonix: The fate of Dreamers: Advocates fear ‘damaging consequences’ if in-state tuition is repealed

• Mundo Obrero – Workers World: U.S. immigration policy causes migrant deaths

• ABC News 7: Belonging in the Workplace

         

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