Your weekly summary from the Council

 LATEST ANALYSIS 

• First Round of Biden Immigration Judges Fails to Increase Diversity
  
  The Biden administration announced its first round of immigration judge appointments on May 6. Unfortunately, the immigration court appointments do not show the commitment to diversity that President Biden has demonstrated in his federal court appointments. Read More »
   
• Another Trump Barrier Broken as DHS Withdraws Two Proposed Rules for Limiting Access to Legal Immigration
  
  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently withdrew two rules proposed by the Trump administration. On the surface, it seems they have nothing in common: a proposed expansion in collecting biometrics and the proposed end to a program for foreign entrepreneurs. But the withdrawals had a common purpose—encouraging, rather than curtailing, immigration. Read More »
   
• As US Birth Rate Declines, Programs Like Social Security Need Immigration to Survive
  
  Immigrants account for 17% of the U.S. labor force even though they are only 13% of the total population. America needs immigrants to help generate the necessary tax revenue to maintain and save Social Security and Medicare. Read More »

 FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW  

• The U.S. Senate held a hearing this week with DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to discuss the department’s response to an influx of unaccompanied children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. The hearing detailed the government’s efforts to expedite the sponsorship process so children are more quickly removed from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody.
  
  This updated fact sheet from the American Immigration Council analyzes government data to track the number of children in CBP custody, as well as the average amount of time they spend in these facilities. 

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

 ACROSS THE NATION 

• The American Immigration Council, with co-counsel American Civil Liberties Union, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Public Counsel, and K&L Gates LLP, filed a lawsuit in 2014 seeking recognition of a right to appointed counsel for unrepresented children in immigration proceedings nationwide. With the same co-counsel, the Council represented two individual children in petitions for review before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, who were ordered removed by immigration judges while unrepresented by attorneys. 

  On Wednesday, in one of those individual cases —Hernandez-Galand v. Garland— the Ninth Circuit found that exceptional circumstances justified reopening the case and remanded the case to the Board of Immigration Appeals. While the Ninth Circuit did not reach the issue of the child’s right to appointed counsel in removal proceedings, the court's decision represents a win for immigrants seeking to reopen their case. 

  Read more: Right to Appointed Counsel for Children in Immigration Proceedings

 QUOTE OF THE WEEK 

“We are seeing the administration start to roll back some of the worst of the Trump administration’s paper wall policies. [However] there are so many of them, and they have to go through an individual agency process each time in order to insulate themselves from any form of legal attack.”

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

 FURTHER READING 

• Business Insider: What happened to the 'border crisis': Unaccompanied children are being released faster and detained less often
   

• ProPublica: Border Policy Is Getting More and More Convoluted. That’s Creating False Hope for Migrants
   

• The Hill: Immigration experts say GOP senators questioned DHS secretary with misleading chart

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