Week of July 22–31, 2022

KANEKO, a creative environment in Omaha, Nebraska, is hosting the "CARNE y ARENA" virtual reality art exhibit that explores the experiences of migrants fleeing their homes and seeking refuge in the US. Created by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the experience features multi-sensory elements such as visuals, audio, and tactile sensations to immerse visitors in the journey of Central American migrants seeking a better life in the US. The exhibit includes interviews with real migrants, a former border patrol agent, and information on legal and immigration groups to encourage advocacy. KANEKO hopes the exhibit will inspire viewers to take proactive steps to learn about and improve the immigration process. The exhibit will run through early September.

Canada's Express Entry is an online system that manages applications from skilled workers seeking permanent residency. It offers three programs: Canadian Experience Class (CEC), Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) and Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP). The CEC program is for those with Canadian employment experience, while the FSWP is for those with foreign working experience. The FSTP is for workers with skills in construction, agriculture, and manufacturing. The process for obtaining permanent residency involves submitting a profile, checking the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score, preparing documents, submitting the profile, and waiting to be invited. Earlier this month, Canada invited 1,500 candidates to apply for permanent residency, including those under the FSWP for the first time since December 2020. By 2024, the country aims to accept 111,500 immigrants.

KC Immigration Lawyers, a law firm based in Missouri, has launched a new website to offer legal services related to immigration. The website is aimed at helping prospective clients quickly find information they need about immigration cases. KC Immigration Lawyers assists clients with citizenship, green cards, fiancée visas, and family-based immigration. The founding attorney of the law firm, William Elmer Niffen II, has been practicing law for 29 years and specializes in immigration law. The law firm aims to reduce the hardship and anxiety associated with the immigration process and assist clients with each step of the process. The office of KC Immigration Lawyers is located in North Kansas City, Missouri, and clients can schedule a free consultation through phone or online inquiry.

Undocumented immigrants have played a crucial role in keeping the US economy going during the pandemic, yet they are also among the most precarious workers, writes Professor Roseann Liu in an op-ed for the Philadelphia Inquirer. In Pennsylvania, where 9% of frontline workers are foreign-born and 48% of undocumented immigrants have been living for more than a decade, businesses rely on their labor to deliver goods and services reliably and cheaply, yet these workers cannot legalize their status. Congress has been gridlocked on immigration reform for a quarter century, and bans require people who have been in the country illegally for a year or less to leave the country for three years, while anyone who has been here longer must leave for 10 years. The Biden administration has taken some steps, but Liu calls for more protections for workers, including whistleblower protections, to stop deportations and provide work authorizations.

Make the Road New York, a major immigrant advocacy group, has urged the Biden administration to prioritize immigration policy ahead of the upcoming midterms. In a meeting at the White House on Tuesday, members of the group warned that the “political environment has worsened” with heightened inflation concerns, unfavorable court outlooks, and the Democrats’ slim congressional majority in jeopardy. Group members stressed the need to provide permanent solutions for undocumented immigrants, including those currently with temporary protections in programs with tenuous futures. They urged officials to make immigration reform a policy priority, before the window of opportunity potentially closes in November. The White House declined to comment on the meeting, but group members said they urged the administration to be more vocal in pressing Congress to act on immigration reform. Congress has remained unlikely and unable to reach any kind of immigration breakthrough that would garner enough Republican support to pass the Senate.

The surge in illegal immigration across the southern border of the United States is being attributed to the booming U.S. labor market, according to a new report. In May 2022, there were 10.2 million private job openings in the US, up 69% from the monthly average during the Trump administration. The wage gain for immigrants is already four to 10 times more compared to mostly Latin American countries. This, combined with the hottest labor market in the history of the private job openings dataset, likely explains why so many illegal immigrants are trying to come now. There are not enough temporary work visas available in enough sectors of the U.S. economy for legal migrant workers to meet the demand of the US labor market, so illegal migrant workers meet it. The economic gains from working in the United States largely explain why immigrants want to come in the first place and the scarcity of visas explains why so many come illegally.

Republican Senators have proposed the Asylum Accountability Act, which seeks to permanently bar illegal immigrants who skip court hearings from benefiting under the Immigration and Nationality Act. The legislation comes as illegal border crossings to the southern border of the US continue to surge due to the perception that asylum seekers will be able to apply for asylum, abscond from court hearings, and live in the US without repercussions. The current 10-year penalty for failing to appear in court is believed to be insufficient to deter absconders, particularly as the Biden administration has failed to secure the border and limit interior enforcement. Asylum cases take an average of four and a half years to complete, with many illegal immigrants taking advantage of the asylum system to avoid court hearings. A Government Accountability Office study found that 9% of all illegal immigrants enrolled in Alternatives to Detention ultimately absconded.

Saskatchewan's immigration minister, Jeremy Harrison, has proposed that the province be granted Quebec-style autonomy over immigration, giving it sole authority to nominate newcomers moving to the province. The Saskatchewan Immigration Accord would include a transfer of federal resources for settlement services to the province and guaranteed provincial allocation of nominees each year. The federal government would continue to bear responsibility for admission based on national security, family reunification and the admission of refugees, which represents close to half of newcomers to Saskatchewan every year. The Quebec Accord grants that province the sole responsibility for the selection of economic immigrants. Saskatchewan's government expects to exceed its current cap of 6,000 under the province's immigrant nominee program this year and seeks a proportionate share of national immigration at a minimum of 13,000 positions allocated to the province in 2022.

A new coalition of businesses and other groups has been created in Nebraska to help influence state and national policies around immigrant labour. Omaha Together One Community (OTOC) organized an initial meeting of the coalition in Lincoln earlier this month, which included employers, union representatives and immigrant advocacy groups. The group is seeking to change national immigration laws and influence policies impacting foreign-born workers. A report by the American Immigration Council showed that Nebraska was home to about 3,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program recipients in 2020, while around 2,000 people have Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in the state. However, despite these programmes offering work authorisation, there is no clear path to citizenship.

Republican candidate Scott Baugh's views on immigration are described as "classic nativist gibberish" in an op-ed by Tim Miller in The Bulwark. Baugh, who is running against Democrat Katie Porter to represent California's 47th District, suggested that the assimilation of recent immigrants is tearing America's civic and political code apart. Miller argues that such views are historically inaccurate, and that immigrant groups have been assimilating into American culture for generations. He notes that assimilation can take time, but that immigrants and their descendants learn and speak English the longer they are in the country, and that they start businesses and become homeowners. Miller suggests that the solution to any issues regarding assimilation of undocumented immigrants is to legalize them, thereby enabling them to integrate into society.