|
Your weekly summary from the Council
LATEST ANALYSIS
FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
-
The Biden administration raised the refugee admissions cap to 62,500—after facing weeks of criticism for keeping the historically low level set by the Trump administration. The announcement would welcome families fleeing warzones and religious persecution into the United States in fiscal year 2021, fulfilling the president’s promise to restore America’s reputation as a beacon of hope for those seeking protection.
This fact sheet from the American Immigration Council explains how the U.S. refugee program works.
Read more: An Overview of U.S. Refugee Law and Policy
ACROSS THE NATION
-
Immigration enforcement agencies plan to destroy important records that document abuse, neglect, misconduct, and civil rights violations of people in detention. Destroying documentation of such conduct would further hinder accountability and oversight at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) where abuse and misconduct are well established. The records should be preserved, and future records destruction decisions must meaningfully involve the public.
The American Immigration Council and a large, diverse coalition of more than 80 organizations urged the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and DHS to withdraw and review the records destruction schedules. The letter cites recent scrutiny of how DHS determines which records are worthy of preservation as well as alarming evidence of ICE and CBP abuse, especially amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read more: Council and Broad Coalition Urge Department of Homeland Security to Withdraw Records Destruction Plans
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“[The USCIS rule that would have expanded the biometric data collected from immigrants] was one part of a multi-part effort by the Trump administration to dramatically expand the personally identifiable information collected from noncitizens during their four years in office, but this was by far the most sweeping one.
“It would have doubled the population of people subjected to biometric collection every year and radically redefined what biometrics are in the immigration context, taking it from fingerprints to include DNA, palm prints, iris scans and including technologies that have yet to be proven effective and that are not fully understood by the general population.”
– Jorge Loweree, policy director with the American Immigration Council
FURTHER READING
MAKE A CONTRIBUTION
|
