Your weekly summary from the Council

 LATEST ANALYSIS 

• How the COVID-19 Pandemic Has Affected Immigration: One Year Later
  
  It’s been one year since the COVID-19 pandemic first affected immigration on a global scale. The impact has been swift, devastating, and long-lasting. All told, immigration to the United States dropped a staggering 92% during the second half of 2020. This was the largest drop off in immigration in the history of the United States. Read More »
   
• ICE’s New Case Review Process Lets Immigrants Appeal Detention and Deportation
  
  The Biden administration rolled out a “case review” process for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). People can identify cases they believe are no longer enforcement priorities and therefore require action by ICE. With over 13,000 people in detention and 1.3 million cases in the immigration court backlogs, many immigrants’ cases will need to be reevaluated. Read More »
   
• What You Need to Know about Temporary Protected Status for Venezuela
  
  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that Venezuelan nationals present in the United States would be eligible to apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The designation provides immigration status for at least 200,000 Venezuelans. Read More »
   
• How the Biden Administration Should Respond to the Arrival of Unaccompanied Children
  
  Over 300 unaccompanied children have been arriving per day since late February, rivaling the record numbers from 2019. Despite these difficulties, the Biden administration can and should make a clean break from the previous administration’s cruel and inhumane border policies. Read More »

 FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW  

• The situation at the U.S.-Mexico border continues to evolve as the Biden administration rescinds some Trump-era policies with others still in place.
  
  U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials have used “metering” since 2016, though the practice went border-wide during the Trump administration. Under metering, CBP officers tell migrants they must place themselves on a list and wait on the Mexico side of the border before they can begin applying for asylum. 
  
  The Biden administration has yet to put forward a plan for processing those placed on metering lists. This fact sheet from the American Immigration Council explains how this and other asylum turnback practices work.
  
  Read more: Metering and Asylum Turnbacks

 ACROSS THE NATION 

• Employers and workers deserve a fair, streamlined visa process. But U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has been arbitrarily rejecting petitions for H-1B workers. 
  
  USCIS’ reasoning makes no sense. The agency rejected some (but not all) H-1B petitions filed after October 1 simply because the employment start date—naturally—also fell after October 1. This created an absurd choice for employers: their foreign workers either had to start on October 1, or they had to misrepresent the employment start-date by “back-dating” the petition. 
  
  The American Immigration Council and our partners filed a lawsuit Thursday on behalf of employers whose H-1B petitions have been unlawfully rejected.
  
  Read more: Challenging USCIS’ Arbitrary Rejections of H-1B Petitions Filed After October 1

 QUOTE OF THE WEEK 

The Biden administration is reviving the Central American Minors program to reunite children from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala with their family members in the United States. Children and teens could apply for legal entry to the United States from their home countries through the program.

“We need to focus on creating avenues for people to actually come to the United States legally, in particular, to be reunited with families."

– Jorge Loweree, policy director at the American Immigration Council

 FURTHER READING 

• CNN: Democratic lawmakers wrestle with how to proceed on immigration
   

• The American Independent: The Supreme Court ruled this man could be deported — and it could affect millions
   

• The Associated Press: Biden administration won't defend Trump immigration rule
   

• TIME Magazine: As Many Americans Get COVID-19 Vaccines and Financial Support, Undocumented Immigrants Keep Falling Through the Cracks

 SAVE THE DATE  

• Join the American Immigration Council on May 6, 2021 for an exciting, free virtual evening where we will celebrate storytelling and its power to inspire change.

Register for the 2021 American Heritage Awards
 

• Sunshine Week—March 14 through March 20—promotes government transparency and access to public records. The Council will share our efforts to hold the government accountable throughout the week. 
  
  Read more: Government Transparency

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