The Trump administration is testing a new program which would expedite migrant deportations, Robert Moore reports in The Washington Post. The “secretive” pilot program, Prompt Asylum Claim Review, would give migrants a decision on their asylum application in 10 days or less.

But it’s not without controversy: “Immigration lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union said the administration’s pilot denies asylum seekers due process and highlights the limited role lawyers can play; lawyers are not allowed to meet with their clients in Border Patrol stations and are limited to brief conversations by phone.”

Welcome to Friday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes. We’re less than two weeks out from our annual event, Leading the Way: An American Approach to Immigration. (Media can register for the event here).

Have a story you’d like us to include? Email me at [email protected].

“NOT SENDING OUR BEST” – Criminal misconduct by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and U.S. Border Patrol agents has reached a five-year high, Justin Rohrlich reports in Quartz. “The number of arrests of CBP officers and Border Patrol agents, according to the report, had been on a half-decade decline before leaping 11% between fiscal years 2017 and 2018.” The data show that of the 268 CBP employees arrested in fiscal year 2018, 11 were arrested twice, one was arrested four times, and one was arrested five times. The offenses “range from fraud to capital murder.”

1,556 MORE – That’s the number of additional immigrant children who were separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border than has previously been disclosed, Maria Sacchetti reports for The Washington Post. These are in addition to the more than 2,700 children known to have been separated last year. “These are the families we’re going to have to search for all over the world,” the ACLU’s Lee Gelernt said.

“HITTING THE GAS” – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a report last week celebrating the results of Trump’s immigration agenda during fiscal year 2019, per Daniel Shoer Roth in the Miami Herald. Specifically, there were five changes USCIS touted in its “historic year:” (1) reducing asylum claims, (2) denying residence to immigrants considered a “public charge,” (3) increasing the minimum financial requirement for investor-based residency, (4) analyzing social media use of citizenship and visa applications, and (5) increasing the investigation and screening of immigrants. Meanwhile, the president plans to “hit the gas” on his immigration agenda in 2020, Paul Bedard reports in the Washington Examiner: “Topping his list will be the construction of one mile a day of new border wall, aggressive challenges to judicial hurdles, and a new merit-based green card for foreign workers.”
VEGAS – The city of Las Vegas will “no longer detain people on federal immigration holds following a federal court ruling in California against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE],” Max Michor writes in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. That means the city will suspend its agreement with ICE as result of the ruling: “ICE cannot order jails to hold immigrants for longer than their sentence as part of the 287(g) program, unless they’re in a state with statutes that specifically address civil immigration arrests.” The Metropolitan Police Department also issued the same announcement and made clear that its city jail is “for misdemeanors only.” Ultimately, if local law enforcement are not seen as immigration enforcement, we are all safer.
THE MEXICO SIDE – Makeshift refugee shelters in Matamoros, Mexico — just south of the U.S.-Mexico border — are deteriorating, and residents are living in squalid conditions, Acacia Coronado reports in the Texas Tribune. The camp has been in place since 2018, when the Trump administration implemented policies aimed to ensure migrants wait south of the border before requesting asylum. “Migrants have been piling into the camp at a rate of several dozen a day. With only two wooden shower stalls in the woods, less than 10 portable toilets and no cleaning supplies, the conditions are quickly deteriorating. Lack of running water and limited access to food have led the migrants to the river to bathe, fish and draw water; they use a wooded area nearby as a makeshift bathroom.” A reminder that Matamoros is one of the most dangerous cities on the border.

REFUGEES IN EUROPE – Europe’s cramped, “hellish” refugee camps are “an expression of the continent’s self-inflicted helplessness,” Yiannis Baboulias writes in an opinion piece for Foreign Policy, arguing that the EU’s populist politicians and internal disputes have left the continent weaker: Europe relies on Turkey to act as a buffer for Syrian refugees, straining diplomatic relations and giving Turkey “the upper hand in any conversation about migration” as the region continues to receive millions of people fleeing war. If the continent is going to solve this crisis, populist immigration hardliners “cannot be allowed to obstruct Europe’s ability to resolve coming geostrategic challenges. A continent as wealthy and peaceful as Europe cannot possibly continue to claim it can’t accommodate the few thousands stuck in Greece and whoever else arrives to its shores from active war zones.”

Thanks for reading,

Ali