Your weekly summary from the Council

 LATEST ANALYSIS 

• Discriminatory Treatment of Haitians Throughout History Informs Current Policy at the US-Mexico Border
  
  For years, the Trump administration has argued that limited capacity at ports of entry led to its policy of turning back asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. But a recent amicus—or “friend of the court”—brief filed in a lawsuit challenging this policy argues that the true justification is racial hostility. Read More »
   
• Trump Administration Wants to Deny Work Permits to Some People Released From ICE Detention
  
  The government’s goal—make life so difficult for people that they deport themselves—is despicable. Many people with families to support, including those with young children, depend on the ability to work. The unbearable hardships Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would be imposing through this regulation will have widespread ramifications. Read More »
   
• New US Citizenship Test Makes It Harder for Immigrants to Become Citizens
  
  Lawful permanent residents seeking to become U.S. citizens will now be required to take a more difficult and longer citizenship test. The new test also includes changes that can be viewed as political. Read More »
   
• Federal Court Invalidates Changes to DACA Because Chad Wolf Was Unlawfully Appointed
  
  A judge has ruled that recent changes to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that were a veiled attempt to gut the program are invalid because Chad Wolf—the acting secretary of the DHS—was not lawfully appointed to his position. This is the third time a judge has found that Wolf's appointment was invalid. Read More »

 FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW  

• Newly-elected sheriffs in Georgia and South Carolina have agreed to cut ties with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Their counties will no longer have 287(g) agreements with the agency. This publication explains how the 287(g) program deputizes local police officers to enforce federal immigration law and examines the many problems with this type of partnership.
  
  Read more: The 287(g) Program: An Overview
   
• ICE is reincarcerating people it had previously released from immigration detention due to concerns around the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency should continue to reduce its detainee population as it did early in the pandemic, rather than place vulnerable people back in imminent danger. This special report discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected detention centers across the country and the U.S. immigration system at large.
  
  Read more: The Impact of COVID-19 on Noncitizens and Across the U.S. Immigration System

 ACROSS THE NATION 

• A federal court granted class certification in a lawsuit challenging U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) pattern and practice of arbitrarily denying U.S. businesses' H-1B petitions for market research analyst positions. The ruling is a victory for hundreds of American businesses and the foreign analysts they sought to employ, who can now ask the court to take action as a single group. 
  
  The American Immigration Council, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and the law firms Van Der Hout LLP, Joseph & Hall P.C., and Kuck Baxter Immigration LLC filed the suit.
  
  Read more: USCIS’ Unlawful Denial of H-1B Petitions Spurs Class Action Lawsuit

 QUOTE OF THE WEEK 

“Under current rules, undocumented immigrants who have final orders of removal and are temporarily released from DHS custody are generally eligible for work permits. This can occur because their countries of nationality will not take them, thereby leaving them no choice but to stay in the US.

“The administration is willing to put its nose to the grindstone in the waning days of the Trump presidency to push more proposals.”

– Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel at the American Immigration Council

 FURTHER READING 

• USA TODAY: Biden might need years to reverse Trump's immigration policies on DACA, asylum, family separation, ICE raids, private detention and more
   
• Law360: Congress Should Take Responsibility For Immigration Reform
   
• Vox: New Democratic sheriffs in Georgia and North Carolina have vowed to cut ties with ICE

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