Week of February 22–28, 2023

A judge in Teller County, Colorado, has ruled that the local sheriff’s office did not violate state law by agreeing to hold inmates on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) even after they posted bond. The lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Colorado was based on the sheriff’s decision to enter into a 287(g) agreement with federal immigration authorities, which lets deputies enforce immigration law in exchange for training. Teller County is the only county in Colorado with a 287(g) agreement with ICE, after a 2019 Colorado law prohibited state law enforcement officers from arresting or detaining people on federal immigration charges, which are a civil offense. The ACLU has vowed to appeal the ruling. The Teller County ruling may embolden other Colorado sheriffs to enter into 287(g) agreements with ICE. Legal battles around so-called “immigration detainers” have been happening across the country for years.

Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis is calling for the repeal of laws that have granted additional legal rights to undocumented immigrants. The proposal was outlined in an immigration package which DeSantis unveiled during a press conference last week. The package includes the repeal of a 2014 law that offered out-of-state tuition vouchers to eligible Dreamers who attended a Florida high school for at least three years, which received wide-ranging Republican support at the time. It also proposes to repeal a second law passed in 2014 that allowed non-citizens to be admitted to the Florida Bar. DeSantis’ proposal would also require all Florida employers to use the E-Verify system, a federal database that allows employers to check workers’ employment status.

Two Republican governors have endorsed the idea of giving states the power to issue their own immigration visas. Eric Holcomb of Indiana and Spencer Cox of Utah argue that without such visas, states are likely to face a growing gap in their workforce as retirement rates accelerate and birth rates decline. Immigration sponsorship, similar to programs already used by employers and universities, would provide states with a dynamic means of attracting new residents to fill low-skilled and entry-level roles in agriculture, healthcare and the service industries. They propose that states could sponsor no visas or many visas each year, up to a limit set by Congress, for the specific sorts of jobs they need to fill. The policy would give states greater responsibility for the success and contributions of immigrants to American life.

In a recent decision, Matter of Duarte-Gonzalez, the Board of Immigration Appeals held that the three- and ten-year unlawful presence bars at INA § 212(a)(9)(B)(i) continue to run while a noncitizen is in the United States. The Board relied on the plain language of the statute and found that there is no requirement that the noncitizen remain outside the United States during the period of the bar. This decision is a positive development for noncitizens who may now qualify for adjustment of status, but practitioners should remember that the decision only applies to certain factual scenarios and does not affect the separate ground of inadmissibility for the permanent bar under INA § 212(a)(9)(C)(i). The ten-year bar for departing after a deportation/removal order must also be spent abroad or waived.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and other groups have filed a friend of the court brief with the US Supreme Court arguing that a prohibition on encouraging undocumented immigrants to remain in the country is unconstitutional under the First Amendment. The Encouragement Provision, part of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv), makes it illegal to “encourage or induce” an undocumented immigrant to “reside” in the US, if one knows that such “coming to, entry, or residence” in the US will be in violation of the law. The brief argues that the provision is overbroad and would silence constitutionally protected speech. If upheld, it would also silence online speech by immigration advocacy and services organisations. The case, United States v. Hansen, is due to be heard in March 2023.

Indiana lawmakers have rejected a proposal that would have allowed immigrants living in the country illegally to obtain state-issued cards giving them permission to drive. The bill aimed to establish driver privilege cards that are already issued in several other states. The proposal would have had Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles issue the cards to immigrants who pass the state’s driving test, have paid Indiana taxes in the past year, submitted to a fingerprint background check and provide proof of auto insurance. The bill failed to gain Senate Appropriations Committee approval, which was needed because of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles’ estimated $1.4 million cost to develop the new license. Eighteen states, including California, Illinois, New York and Utah, have already approved similar driving cards in recent years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Israel's Ministry of Aliyah and Integration will use NIS 250m ($77m) to encourage Jewish immigration from the US and France, according to Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer. Sofer said he wants to use the budget to help entire communities to settle in Israel and will allocate funds for programmes designed to integrate new immigrants into the employment market. His ministry will employ 70 new staff and enlarge absorption centres throughout the country. Sofer also wants to expand programmes for learning Hebrew, and 3,000 vouchers have been added for that purpose. Sofer said he wants to "put all of my efforts into the absorption of more immigrants from the Western countries, mainly the US and France." In the past year, there has been a significant decrease in the number of immigrants from these countries, he said.

Nearly 100 immigrants who were rounded up during a 2018 raid at a meat processing plant in Tennessee have reached a $1.17 million settlement against the U.S. government and federal agents, who they said used racial profiling and excessive force during the operation, stepping on a person’s neck and punching another in the face. Legal experts called it a rare victory for undocumented immigrants. “It is very hard to win a settlement from the U.S. government and agents in immigration enforcement cases,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a law professor specializing in immigration at Cornell Law School. “They used the pretext of a tax investigation of the plant’s owner to plan and carry out a full-blown operation targeting the Latino workers,” said Michelle Lapointe, deputy legal director for the National Immigration Law Center and the lead attorney in the lawsuit. The settlement will not automatically allow the workers to remain in the country indefinitely. But they will receive a letter from the federal government confirming that they are class members in the lawsuit, which they can submit to help their immigration cases.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is focusing on optimising its cloud services and reducing costs. The agency has been using cloud computing since 2014 and has taken workloads and systems that were previously hardware-based and moved them to either a container workload or optimised them to be more cloud-native. Managing costs is also a key aspect, with the agency using FinOps, a cloud financial management discipline, and the Technology Business Management framework to monitor spending and find ways to reduce costs. Michael Cassidy, CTO of the US Trustees Program in the Department of Justice, says that keeping the workforce trained on the latest cloud technologies is a challenge.

The New Zealand government has extended its 2022 Special Ukraine Visa until March 2024, and expanded the eligibility criteria to allow for a wider group of Ukrainians to apply. Under the previous rules, only immediate family members were eligible to sponsor Ukrainian visa applicants. Now, an “acceptable sponsor” can take on financial responsibility for the applicant, thereby allowing many more Ukrainians to seek safety in New Zealand. World Vision New Zealand’s Senior Policy and Advocacy Advisor, Dr Lauren Donnan, said that the changes will mean New Zealand is a better option for Ukrainians seeking a safe haven from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Dr Donnan also called on the New Zealand government to provide more financial and housing support for refugees settling in the country.