Week of June 22–30, 2022

A recent ACLU report has revealed that ICE detention facilities across the United States frequently and systematically violate the constitutional rights of those in detention to communicate with their attorneys. Access to counsel is often non-existent, and a lack of confidentiality and available communication methods make it almost impossible for detained immigrants to navigate the labyrinthine US legal system. The report reveals that even basic means of communication are severely broken or non-existent at a majority of ICE detention facilities. For example, many facilities require detained immigrants to pay to make outgoing phone calls to their attorneys, which is often prohibitively expensive. Detained immigrants are seven times more likely to be released from custody and 10 times more likely to win their immigration cases with legal representation, however the barriers to communication mean that their constitutional right to due process is rendered meaningless.

Ensuring continued immigration compliance for foreign national employees is often overlooked during a merger and acquisition (M&A) transaction. This can be costly and time-consuming, with H-1B and L-1 workers often impacted. In an article by Law.com, six main considerations are highlighted for employers with foreign-national personnel to evaluate during M&A planning and due diligence. These include H-1B and L-1 non-immigrant employees, PERM labor certification, and I-140 immigrant petitions. Additionally, companies must determine if the resulting entity is a legal successor-in-interest to a prior entity and if the transaction is effectuated through a stock purchase, an asset purchase, or another sort of agreement. The cost and complexity of these considerations can vary depending on the nature of the corporate restructuring taking place, and it is recommended that they are answered before the close of a deal.

Amendment to spending bill would restore visas unused since 1992

Would offer relief to immigrants stuck in green card backlogs

A proposal to salvage unused green cards from the past three decades and make them available to immigrants stuck in long backlogs has been advanced by US House lawmakers. The amendment was introduced by Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) to the appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for the fiscal year 2023. The amendment would allow DHS to recapture family and employment-based visas that went unused due to bureaucratic snags, processing delays, and other disruptions since 1992. The amendment would also make visas available to immigrants who weren't allowed into the country because of Trump administration travel bans. The proposal faces a long path to the finish line in the appropriations process. Restoring the expired visa numbers would offer new hope to immigrants who have been stuck in decades-long backlogs thanks to annual caps on green cards that can go to individuals from a specific country.

California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla has proposed a bill that aims to permanently protect approximately 250,000 immigrants who grew up in the United States as dependents on their parents' temporary visas, were educated there but aged out of that dependent status. These documented Dreamers require protection via legislation as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) only covers undocumented Dreamers. The siblings, Khushi and Lay Patel, for example, are still in America via student visas, but Lay, 21, is a senior at Indiana University and planning to study for an extra semester in the fall in an effort to find a way to stay in the country he calls home. The Patels want to remain in the place they call home, where their parents own and operate a business, and where the siblings each captained their high school tennis teams. Padilla's bill has bipartisan support in both the Senate and House of Representatives.

Glenn Hamer, the president and CEO of the Texas Association of Business, has written an opinion piece in The Hill calling for comprehensive immigration reform in the US. Hamer, whose wife is an immigrant from Israel and whose children are dual citizens, argues that immigrants make significant contributions to the US, including through taxes and essential service sectors such as manufacturing, landscaping, building services and food processing. However, he warns that without reform, many immigrants, including DACA recipients, could be at risk of deportation, which could worsen supply chain woes, inflation and potentially tip the country into recession. Hamer urges Congress to pass legislation that can attract broad bipartisan support, including the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act, which includes border security, refugee and asylum solutions, and the American Dream and Promise Act, which would provide DACA recipients and other undocumented immigrants with pathways to US citizenship.

US Representative Vicente Gonzalez has apologised for the behaviour of some of his Republican colleagues during a recent Congressional hearing in the Rio Grande Valley. The House Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth was supposed to be in the region to gather information about economic disparity and fairness in growth. However, Republican members on the committee spent much of their time attacking President Biden over border security. Gonzalez said he was “appalled” that his Republican colleagues used the opportunity to paint South Texas as “lawless and unsafe”, and used his constituents as “political pawns”. During the hearing, Republican members spoke about immigration, while local leaders focused on issues such as drainage and flooding, expanding broadband and building a second causeway to South Padre Island.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has added language to its guidance on humanitarian parole that could result in a higher percentage of approvals for Afghans seeking temporary entry into the U.S. for “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.” USCIS has received over 46,000 parole applications from Afghans since July 2021, but most have gone unresolved and fewer than 5,000 have been fully adjudicated, with over 90% denied. The new guidance, added in June 2022, provides examples of relevant evidence, such as evidence that the beneficiary is a member of a targeted group, to improve the approval rate for Afghans applying for humanitarian parole. Meanwhile, a committee in Congress has introduced an amendment that would allow the Department of Homeland Security to recapture family and employment-based visas that went unused due to bureaucratic snags, processing delays, and other disruptions since 1992. The amendment would also make visas available to immigrants who were not allowed into the country due to Trump administration travel bans.

The Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, signed by 20 countries in the Americas, has been criticised by some for being "empty rhetoric". The non-binding agreement aims to protect migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers and facilitate safe, regular migration, while respecting national legislation and obligations under international law. It also pledges to work towards the provision of coordinated emergency and humanitarian assistance, improving access to services, and promoting the return of children to safe conditions. However, international financial assistance may be required, and the declaration mainly focuses on providing care for asylum seekers rather than discouraging those without legitimate claims, which some experts warn may encourage more migrants to apply. Critics also say the declaration's commitments will not solve the region's migrant crisis, and many of the sending countries are functionally failed states.

US Border Patrol’s checkpoints along highways and secondary roads more than 25 miles from the US borders have problems with oversight and data collection, according to a report by the US Government Accountability Office. Border Patrol is responsible for securing US borders between official ports of entry and for preventing the illegal flow of people and contraband, such as drugs, from entering the country. Each year, over 50 million vehicles pass through these checkpoints. The report found that Border Patrol had not established clear roles and responsibilities for its headquarters management office and was not consistently and adequately staffed, leading to gaps in oversight. It also found that while checkpoint data on apprehensions and drug seizures were generally reliable, other data were unreliable, meaning Border Patrol lacked the information it needed to assess checkpoint effectiveness, ensure proper resource allocation, or explain checkpoint operations.

The UK's new immigration system, which was introduced on 1 January 2021 after the end of free movement between the UK and the EU, is more restrictive for EU nationals compared with those from other countries. EU nationals already resident in the UK can apply to remain indefinitely under the ‘settled status’ scheme, but new entrants face a skilled work visa requiring a job paying more than £25,600, unless they are in an occupation where there is a shortage of workers, have a PhD or are a new entrant, in which case the threshold may be lower. The new system is expected to reduce EU migration by around 60,000 a year. The skills and sectoral mix of migrants may look substantially different due to the new system, with the number of non-UK born people working in the accommodation and hospitality sector having fallen as EU-born migrants have left the sector and not been replaced by new migrants.