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Your weekly summary from the Council
LATEST ANALYSIS
- New Biden Administration Policies Offer Crucial Protections for Immigrant Youth
The government made two important announcements on March 7th affecting immigrant children who have been abused, abandoned, and neglected. The first is a new policy that offers work permits and deportation protection to children with approved Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) petitions. The second is a long-anticipated SIJS regulation, clarifying eligibility requirements for youth seeking protection. Read More »
- Immigration and Customs Enforcement Issues Annual Report—What Does It Really Mean?
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released its fiscal year 2021 annual report. In it, the agency reported a significant decrease in both overall deportations and internal apprehensions from fiscal year 2020 and prior years. While related media coverage has largely attributed these changing trends to policy decisions made by the Biden administration, much of the decrease can be attributed to several different factors. Read More »
- Why Are Afghans Facing Significant Delays in Humanitarian Parole and Refugee Processing?
The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in August 2021—as the country’s government was overtaken by the Taliban—led to the chaotic evacuation of thousands of Afghan nationals. The humanitarian parole process for Afghans has been plagued with delays, denials and other issues, and very little information about the humanitarian parole process has been made publicly available by the government. Read More »
FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
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In an urgent alert issued on Friday, a federal watchdog agency urged ICE to immediately remove and relocate people detained at the Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico—citing inhumane and dangerous conditions that attempt against the safety and wellbeing of those held at the center. The findings reveal the consistent pattern of cruelty and mistreatment of people across ICE detention centers in the United States and highlights the need to rethink immigration detention.
This new fact sheet by the American Immigration Council provides an overview of the wide range of programs that provide alternatives to detention (ATDs) and run the gamut from no governmental intervention—as a means of reducing the overall use of detention—to extensive surveillance and restrictions on liberties that are focused on limiting the movement of people.
Read more: Alternatives to Immigration Detention: An Overview
ACROSS THE NATION
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Sunshine Week, a national celebration of access to public information, highlights the need for government accountability and transparency.
The American Immigration Council filed two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to investigate trending issues within our immigration system. One FOIA request seeks to uncover information on why Afghan nationals continue to face significant delays in humanitarian parole and refugee processing. The second FOIA request seeks to learn more about the longstanding, but little understood, role of Assistant Chief Immigration Judges (ACIJ) and the influence of these judges over the immigration courts.
Read more: Government Transparency
MAKE A CONTRIBUTION
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“After more than a decade inside the immigrant-rights movement, I’ve concluded that changing individual mindsets and societal norms will be key to making progress, at least in the current social and political environment. Philanthropy and the movement for immigrant justice must invest in work that shifts culture at least as much as labor to shape immigration policy itself.
“…These strategies are the building blocks for creating a culture abundant with positive narratives, new norms of civic friendship and problem solving, and deeper engagement among people from diverse backgrounds... Such investment will help break the paralysis of toxic polarization on immigration and potentially re-energize cooperation and mutual care on a host of intractable problems."
– Wendy Feliz, founding director of the Center for Inclusion and Belonging at the American Immigration Council
GET INVOLVED
Join us on March 24 for an exclusive screening of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Writing with Fire.
Amid a crowded news landscape dominated by men, reporters for India’s only all-female news are taking it upon themselves to uncover their country’s inequities with intrepid determination.
Register for our exclusive screening on March 24.
FURTHER READING
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