The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday boosted states’ power to prosecute undocumented immigrants, Greg Stohr reports for Bloomberg News. In a 5-4 ruling against three Kansas men convicted of using others’ Social Security numbers to get jobs, the justices “rejected contentions that Kansas had intruded on the exclusive domain of the federal government by prosecuting the men for identity theft.” With this decision, the court has essentially muddied the waters on the role of states in immigration enforcement.
Stuart Anderson spoke to several attorneys with concerns over the significant ramifications of this decision for Forbes: “Employers in states disposed to prosecuting unauthorized employees will now be a force multiplier for [U.S. Immigration and Customs (ICE)] enforcement,” Michael Neifach, a former general counsel for ICE, told Anderson. “Employers in these states should expect more requests for all employee records, including I-9s.”
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TRANSGENDER DETAINEES – Government inspections at the nation’s only dedicated unit for transgender immigrant detainees uncovered serious health care lapses, Mica Rosenberg and Ted Hesson report for Reuters. The inspections of the transgender unit of the Cibola County Correctional Center in New Mexico — contained in internal ICE and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reports — had previously not been reported and showed “hundreds of unanswered requests for medical attention, poor quarantine procedures and deficient treatment for mental illnesses and other chronic diseases.” All detainees were abruptly transferred from the facility in January following a report by the ICE health corps. The revelations come as congressional Democrats allege ICE is not living up to its own standards for caring for transgender immigrants.
IMMIGRATION ATTORNEYS – Immigration lawyers are facing unprecedented challenges as they work to remotely represent clients impacted by the administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, writes Jack Herrera for PRI’s The World. The attorneys, many of whom are working pro bono, say they’ve been unable to meet in-person with their clients, who are stuck hundreds of miles away in Mexican border towns. Communication over the phone can also be nearly impossible, and lawyers worry about their clients’ safety. Herrera writes of Rebecca Press, legal director at the nonprofit legal aid organization UnLocal: “Whenever her client didn’t reply, she would stare at the messages marked ‘unread’ and imagine the worst: Had her client been kidnapped, or killed?”
EUROPEAN CRISIS – As Turkey reopens its doors to refugees hoping to make it from Syria to the European Union, asylum seekers “are coming face to face with a Europe that has no room for their hopes and dreams, and waning sympathy for their plight,” writes Ishaan Tharoor for The Washington Post. As we reported yesterday, a child recently drowned when a boat on its way to Greece capsized; this week the Greek coast guard confronted another approaching dinghy by firing warning shots to intimidate the refugees. Greek authorities have “temporarily suspended the registration of asylum claims from those illegally crossing the border and may attempt to forcibly ‘return’ new arrivals without registering their claims,” Tharoor writes. And as European leaders remain divided over how to handle the crisis, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis reportedly discussed the issue with President Trump, who claimed “the right of Greece to enforce the law on its borders.”
PETER PAN BUSES – Peter Pan Bus Lines says it will continue to allow federal immigration officials onto its buses to conduct checks for undocumented immigrants, Philip Marcelo reports for the Associated Press. The company’s announcement follows release of a Border Patrol memo confirming agents cannot board buses without the consent of the company, and after Greyhound, the nation’s largest bus company, said it will no longer allow border patrol agents on board without a warrant. “Peter Pan Bus Lines is in the business of transporting its passengers safely from place to place,” wrote a group of state ACLU chapters in a 2018 letter to Peter Pan. “It should not be in the business of subjecting its passengers to intimidating interrogations, suspicionless searches, warrantless arrests, and the threat of deportation.”
Thanks for reading,
Ali
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