For months now, the Trump administration has chipped away at immigration policies under the guise of protecting Americans from COVID-19.

It has essentially blocked immigration at the border under Title 42 of the U.S. Code, which bans immigration if there is a "serious danger of the introduction of … disease into the United States." It has deported at least 900 unaccompanied children without giving them the opportunity to make an asylum claim or talk to a social worker. It halted the processing of green cards in an effort to “put unemployed Americans first in line for jobs,” President Donald Trump said in April.

And Trump’s crusade against immigration has only accelerated in recent weeks after the administration announced plans to dismantle asylum policies that have been in place for half a century and allowed persecuted people from across the world to seek refuge here. The changes drastically narrow who would qualify for U.S. asylum and strip all asylum seekers of the right to have their case heard in front of an immigration judge. 

“Whether it’s restrictions to legal immigration or further gutting the asylum system, the goal to reduce immigration to its lowest level possible continues to be at the forefront of this administration’s decision-making,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel for the American Immigration Council, told The New York Times.

The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security submitted 161 pages of regulations to the Federal Register that would further block asylum. As Mother Jones explains, judges would have the power to deny asylum before the person has an opportunity to appear in court based solely on the asylum seeker’s application paperwork.

The new rules, which are now under a comment period in the Federal Register before they go into effect, would also restrict gender-based asylum claims, as well as claims for immigrants fleeing political persecution. Applications from asylum seekers subjected to gang violence in their home countries would also be denied. The government would also be able to deny protections to any immigrant who spent 14 days in another country without first seeking asylum there.

Read the asylum regulations here.
 

SOME AWARD NEWS ON OUR U VISA INVESTIGATION

We recently got some good news regarding our U visa investigation, which exposed how law enforcement agencies across the U.S. are routinely undermining protections for immigrant crime victims: The story is a finalist for the Gene Miller Award for Investigative Reporting in Florida.

The U visa was created in 2000 to increase trust between police and immigrant communities. In order to apply, victims need police to sign a form, called a certification, that confirms their cooperation. But my analysis of policies from more than 100 agencies serving large immigrant communities found that nearly 1 of every 4 create barriers never envisioned under the program.

My story closely followed Nataly Alcantara’s case. After she cooperated with Miami police for months – looking at mugshots, inviting police into her home, landing a key lead that led to a suspect – the agency declined to sign her certification. Our story prompted policy change at the city of Miami Police Department, which changed its rules to bring it in line with Congress’ vision for the U visa program. 

The Gene Miller Award, part of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sunshine State Awards, recognizes stories that “expose a wrong or promote understanding of a problem, issue or subject in the public interest.” The winners will be announced next month.
 

3 THINGS WE’RE READING

1. Undocumented immigrants in California face obstacles two months after the state promised them COVID-19 relief. (Los Angeles Times)

After the federal COVID-19 stimulus package failed to include undocumented immigrants, Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged to provide $500 payments to as many as 150,000 immigrants in his state. But two months later, only 73,000 had received the relief. Complicating matters is that the dozen or so nonprofits tasked with distributing the funds “lack the bandwidth to handle such a large and complicated program.”

The kicker: The slow progress in handing out the money already approved has left many Californians, whose immigration status makes them ineligible for regular state unemployment benefits, without help while being out of work for months, said Kim Ouillette, an attorney for the group Legal Aid at Work, which helps immigrants. “It’s hard to overstate how extreme it has been,” Ouillette said. “We have heard about workers who are rationing food for themselves and their children to get by, people who have lost housing.”

2. Migrant children held at family detention centers must be released from those facilities, a judge rules. (The New York Times)

Judge Dolly M. Gee, who presides over the decades-old landmark Flores case that safeguards the rights of migrant children in U.S. custody, ruled recently that children held in the country’s three family detention centers must be released promptly, either with their parents or to relatives living in the U.S. In her order, she criticized the Trump administration’s haphazard compliance with coronavirus guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The family residential centers are on fire and there is no more time for half measures,” Gee wrote in her order.

The kicker: The order was the first time a court had set a firm deadline for the release of minors in family detention if their parents designated a relative in the United States to take custody. Recent orders had required their “prompt” release. “Some detained parents facing deportation brought their children to this country to save them from rampant violence in their home countries,” said Peter Schey, counsel for the class of detained children, “and would prefer to see their child released to relatives here rather than being deported with the parent to countries where children are routinely kidnapped, beaten and killed.”

3. As countries shut down their borders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration is exporting the virus via deportation flights. (Type Investigations)

Between February and late June, more than 350 deportation flights left the U.S. to at least 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Among the countries is Haiti, which only has about 120 ICU beds and fewer ventilators. “Some government officials complain that instead of helping the region fight the pandemic, the U.S. is only fanning the flames of contagion,” the story reads.

The kicker: Interviews with people detained by ICE and government and public health officials in Haiti and Guatemala make clear the repercussions of hard-line immigration enforcement at any cost. Most imminent are the public health concerns, as the U.S. fails to consistently test for COVID-19 infections among those it plans to deport. Beyond that, reporting in receiving countries reveals that returning migrants have become targets for blame, while limited public health systems struggle to cope with the crisis. Finally, there are growing diplomatic consequences, as the U.S. pushes allied nations to allow the deportation flights to land.

Your tips have been vital to our immigration coverage. Keep them coming: [email protected]. 

– Laura C. Morel

Fact-based journalism is worth fighting for.