Your weekly summary from the Council

 LATEST ANALYSIS 

• Here’s How Americans Can Sponsor Afghan Refugees as They Resettle in US Communities
  
  Since the last evacuation flights left Afghanistan, there have been over 68,000 Afghan allies housed on Department of Defense bases waiting for resettlement. The scope and size of the mission, designated as Operation Allies Welcome, is of historic proportions. Now a new Biden administration initiative aims to speed up that process. Read More »
   
• ICE Makes It Impossible for Immigrants in Detention to Contact Lawyers 
  
  “Ben G.” is a 35-year-old veterinarian from Nicaragua who fled to the United States after he was beaten and tortured by police. When he crossed the border into the U.S., he requested asylum. Despite passing the government’s initial screening, Ben was still unable to find a lawyer once he was placed in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention. Read More »
   
• DHS Issues New Memo Restricting Enforcement Activities in ‘Protected Areas’
  
  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a new memo that provides a framework for when and where DHS law enforcement entities can conduct enforcement activities in sensitive locations. Read More »
   
• Class Action Settlement Gives Second Chance to Qualifying US Employers for H-1B Petition Approval
  
  A recent class action settlement is expected to result in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) approving more market research analyst H-1B petitions. The lawsuit was filed by four U.S. employers whose H-1B petitions had been denied when USCIS determined that market research analysts were not a “specialty occupation” as required for an H-1B visa classification. Read More »
   
• The Border Isn’t Open. Just 1 in 3 People at the Border Last Year Could Access the Asylum Process.
  
  The Border Patrol has carried out nearly 1.7 million apprehensions at the southern border in the last year—a record. But 1.7 million apprehensions do not mean that 1.7 million individual people have been detained while trying to enter the U.S. Read More »

 FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW  

• The Biden administration announced that DHS will issue a new memo to formally terminate the Migrant Protection Protocols, a Trump-era policy that sent thousands of asylum seekers to dangerous areas of Mexico to await their hearings.

  In the new memo, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledges that “difficulties in accessing counsel and traveling to courts separated by an international border” make the policy itself impossible to fix. 
  
  This fact sheet from the American Immigration Council discusses how the government justified MPP, its inherent dangers, as well as additional developments under the Biden administration. 

  Read more: The Migrant Protection Protocols

 ACROSS THE NATION  

• The American Immigration Council, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)—and nearly 90 legal service provider organizations—urged DHS and ICE to ensure adequate access to attorneys in immigration detention centers and a meaningful opportunity for people to represent themselves.
  
  In a letter sent to the agencies, the organizations highlighted the barriers people in detention face in accessing legal representation and provided recommendations to remove these obstacles.

  Read more: Council Advocates for Meaningful Access to Legal Representation in Immigration Detention

 QUOTE OF THE WEEK 

“Today’s new memo [terminating MPP] acknowledges that MPP led to ‘extreme violence and insecurity’ for migrants, and that it suffered from ‘inherent problems’ that ‘no amount of resources can sufficiently fix.’ The Biden administration should immediately transmit these findings to the government of Mexico, which has demanded improvements before it will allow MPP to resume. But as this memorandum acknowledges, there is no way to make an inhumane program humane.

“Rather than turning away people fleeing harm, we should ensure people have a fair day in court. We can face the challenges of our immigration system by embracing our humanitarian and legal obligations and reinforcing our system with robust due process.”

– Jorge Loweree, policy director for the American Immigration Council

 FURTHER READING 

• The Times of India: Class action lawsuit challenging denial of H-1B visas to market analysts settled.
   

• Sinclair Broadcast Group: Border challenges mount for Biden as arrests hit all-time high in 2021

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