Your weekly summary from the Council

 LATEST ANALYSIS 

• Supreme Court Rejects Government Practice of ‘Notice-by-Installment’ in Niz-Chavez v. Garland
  
  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week in Niz-Chavez v. Garland that immigration law requires the government to give noncitizens complete notice about their immigration court case at one time. The ruling denounces the government’s practice of providing necessary information over time and in multiple documents, which can lead to immigrants missing their court dates entirely. Read More »
   
• Problems at USCIS Persist, Despite Biden’s Progress on Immigration in His First 100 Days
  
  The When President Biden took office, he inherited a legal immigration system that was teetering on the brink of collapse. Delays within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have reached historic levels and some work permit applications are taking so long to process that thousands are losing their jobs. Read More »
   
• Sinema and Cornyn Propose Changes to Asylum Processing at the Border
  
  The current situation at the U.S.-Mexico border has once again exposed the flaws of our country’s asylum system. Senators Kyrsten Sinema and John Cornyn and Representatives Tony Gonzales and Henry Cueller introduced a bipartisan, bicameral bill as an effort to alleviate some of the system’s greatest deficiencies. Read More »
   
• The House Has Passed Two Major Immigration Bills. Here’s What They Would Do
  
  The U.S. House of Representatives has passed two major bills—the NO BAN Act and the Access to Counsel Act—on April 21. These bills would restrict presidential powers to institute travel bans and ensure access to attorneys for certain people detained at ports of entry. Read More »

 FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW  

• The House Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday held a hearing on the arrival of asylum seekers and unaccompanied children at the U.S.-Mexico border. Much of the hearing focused on understanding the root causes of the rising arrivals and how the government can better protect children in its custody. 

  The government can and should view the arrival of high numbers of asylum seekers as a humanitarian protection management challenge, not a security challenge. This fact sheet from the American Immigration Council provides an overview and analysis of border encounters and border apprehensions in 2021.

  Read more: Rising Border Encounters in 2021: An Overview and Analysis

 ACROSS THE NATION 

• President Biden laid out an ambitious immigration agenda for his first 100 days in office, including reversing harmful barriers to immigration and updating the system more broadly. Some obstacles, like the Muslim and African Bans, were quickly dismantled with the stroke of a pen. But other executive actions, like lifting the refugee cap or addressing obstacles to immigration processing, remain incomplete.

  A new report released this week by the American Immigration Council analyzes how the Biden administration is responding to the bureaucratic barriers put in place by the Trump administration and makes recommendations to foster a fair and efficient system of legal immigration. 

  Read more: Tracking the Biden Agenda on Legal Immigration in the First 100 Days

• USCIS arbitrarily rejected H-1B petitions filed after October 1 simply because the employment start date—naturally—also fell after October 1. The agency created an absurd choice: foreign workers needed to start on October 1, or the U.S. employer had to misrepresent the intended employment start-date by “back-dating” the petition.

  On Thursday, a lawsuit filed by the American Immigration Council on behalf of seven U.S. businesses challenging USCIS’ arbitrary and capricious refusal to accept timely and properly filed H-1B petitions was dismissed in court. 

  Read more: Challenging USCIS’ Arbitrary Rejections of H-1B Petitions Filed After October 1

 QUOTE OF THE WEEK 

“President Biden's first 100 days were a success in signaling a very different and new way forward on immigration. His next hundred days must be characterized by meaningful action to address the ongoing hardship experienced by immigrants and their families created by Trump's invisible wall.”

– Jorge Loweree, policy director at the American Immigration Council

 FURTHER READING 

• Business Insider: Democrats urge Biden to stop using local police to enforce federal immigration law
   
• KENS 5: Tens of thousands of asylum-seekers in limbo after Biden administration changes policies
   
• The San Diego Union-Tribune: Supervisor proposes legal help for people in immigration custody in San Diego County
   
• Capital & Main: Getting Past ‘Smart Walls’ to Build a Smart Immigration Policy

 SAVE THE DATE  

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