Your weekly summary from the Council

 LATEST ANALYSIS 

• ‘We Had a Shortage Last Night of Beds for Babies.’ Congressional Report Reveals Cruelty, Chaos of Family Separation
  
  Emails from U.S. officials reveal that the government never had a plan to reunify separated parents and children. One Border Patrol supervisor commented, “This is going to be a huge headache, I might be spending some time in the slammer.” Read More »
   

• The Government Wants Immigrants to Show Up for Court—But Neglects to Tell Them How to Attend Their Hearings

  Over 60,000 people have been returned to Mexico under the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols. U.S. officials are supposed give them information about how to appear at their U.S. court hearings. But the information is often incomplete, inaccurate, and confusing. Read More »
   

• The Value of Pro Bono Legal Services in Immigration Detention
  
  Access to counsel is vital for those held in immigration detention. Without a lawyer, there's only a 1 in 10 chance of winning release. Read More »
   
• ICE’s COVID-19 Death Toll Might Be Higher Than It Claims
  
  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to mismanage the spread of the coronavirus in its facilities nationwide—and the consequences might be far more deadly than the agency wants to admit. Read More »

 FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW 

• The H-1B petition process could be eliminated and replaced with a system that would make the visa program so expensive that it would only be accessible to the richest corporations. This fact sheet provides an overview of the H-1B visa category and petition process. It also explains how highly skilled, temporary workers complement U.S. workers, fill employment gaps in many STEM occupations, and expand job opportunities for all.  
  
  Read more: The H-1B Visa Program: A Primer on the Program and Its Impact on Jobs, Wages, and the Economy
   
• Some wrongly claim that immigrants do not show up to court. But a comprehensive analysis of the government’s own data shows that immigrants placed into removal proceedings appear for all of their court hearings in the vast majority of cases. 
  
  Read more: Immigrants and Families Appear in Court: Setting the Record Straight

 MEET THE EXPERTS 

The George Mason University’s Schar School's Power Lunch event series gathers some of the world's top political leaders, journalists, and experts to discuss the prospects for the next four years of US public policy. Join Wendy Feliz, founding Director of the Center for Inclusion and Belonging at the American Immigration Council, for a discussion on national unity on Friday, November 6, 2020 from 12:00pm - 1:30pm EST.

Register: Power Lunch Event Series

 QUOTE OF THE WEEK 

“CBP's xenophobic language and actions have long made this agency a threat to Black migrants. CBP's expanded law enforcement role policing Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests places the larger U.S. public in danger as additional targets of its racist, sexist, and homophobic abuse. BAJI stands with Black people and immigrants in this country demanding transparency and accountability for CBP's ongoing abuses.”

– Tsion Gurmu, legal manager at the Black Alliance for Just Immigration 

 FURTHER READING 

• Los Angeles Times: Op-Ed: When Trump says immigrants don’t show up for court hearings, he couldn’t be more wrong
• Law & Crime: New Lawsuit Seeks to Expose How Trump Administration Used CBP to Quell George Floyd Protests
• The Washington Post: Trump didn’t build his border wall with steel. He built it out of paper.

  WATCH 

“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” explains the dismantlement of the U.S. asylum system and why it matters—with analysis from the American Immigration Council.

Read more: Proposed 15-Day Filing Rule for Asylum Seekers Is Designed to Be Impossible 

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