Week of March 15–21, 2022

US border authorities recorded a 7% increase in migrant apprehensions at the southern border in February from the previous month. However, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials also deported over half of those entering government custody using rules issued under the Trump administration, according to data from CBP. Deportations under a pandemic-era restriction increased by 17% to 91,513, making up 55% of all border encounters in February. The rise in immigration arrests came from a significant increase in arrivals of migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba and Colombia, as well as a higher arrest tally for single adults, many of whom try to enter the US illegally multiple times after being expelled. CBP officials also processed 13,887 migrants from Honduras, 13,295 from Nicaragua and 7,116 from El Salvador.

About 140 Haitian migrants arrived in Summerland Key in the Lower Florida Keys on Monday morning, as authorities say smuggling operations are on the rise in South Florida. Reports suggest that Haiti is at war with its own people, with an island nation being ruled by gang violence. The Biden administration has deported more than 20,000 Haitian refugees back to Haiti since October 2021, more than the previous three presidential administrations. Local immigration advocates are calling on the administration to meet its promise to the Haitian community. Meanwhile, Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez says that both Haitians and Cubans are crossing into the US by land, with some attempting to cross by sea. According to US Coast Guard data, 1,193 Haitians have been rescued by crews since 1 October, up from 609 in fiscal year 2018.

Nguyen Van Hung, a Vietnamese national who was released from the Omura Immigration Center in Japan after over six years in detention, demanded that detainees be treated as human beings after being denied treatment for a thyroid tumor. He came to Japan in 1989 and was granted refugee status in 1992. However, after being arrested for an organized group theft of food, he served three years and four months in prison before being detained at the Osaka immigration center in July 2016 and transferred to the Omura Immigration Center in December that year. A year later, a tumor was found in his thyroid gland. The center refused to give him medical treatment, claiming he was "too young to require treatment." At a press conference, the 50-year-old said, "There must not be any more deaths among (immigration center) detainees. I want employees at the center to treat detainees as human beings." He is set to receive treatment at a hospital in Japan.

The UK Home Office has published its Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules, which includes new immigration routes, changes, and rebranding for existing routes. The Global Business Mobility category will replace four existing routes and introduce a new route, the Senior or Specialist Worker route. The Secondment Worker route is a new addition for workers being seconded to the UK as part of a high-value contract or investment by their overseas employer. The UK Expansion Worker route will replace the current Sole Representative provisions of the Representative of an Overseas Business route, and the Service Supplier route will replace certain provisions of the Temporary Work - International Agreement route. The Skilled Worker route remains unchanged, and details of the new High Potential Individual and Scale-up routes have now been finalised. The Graduate route allows international students switching to it from within the UK to begin working in their new full-time position once they have made an application, without being required to wait for their application to be decided.

Progressive House Democrats are urging President Biden to take executive actions on immigration, including expanding protections from deportation, ending the Title 42 public health order, and limiting detention for those who enter the US illegally. The Congressional Progressive Caucus has issued a list of recommendations for executive actions, as much of their agenda has been stalled with a slim House majority and a 50-50 Senate that frequently requires 60 votes to pass legislation. The agenda recommends 18 countries for either Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Deferred Enforced Departure (DED), including Mexico and Guatemala, which would mean that nationals from some of the top sources of illegal immigration across the southern border would be protected from deportation. The progressives also call for the end of the Trump-era "Remain-in-Mexico" policy and urge Biden to issue regulations to raise wage standards and labor safeguards for the H-2B seasonal worker and H-1B skilled worker programs.

84 citizenship candidates from 39 different countries were naturalized in a ceremony held in This is the Place Heritage Park by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the US District Court of Utah. One candidate, Gio Silveira from Uruguay, had waited 22 years for his citizenship to be granted and saw his son grow up to the same age he was when he first started his journey to citizenship. Other new citizens expressed their excitement for the opportunities that US citizenship would provide them, such as Eugenia Belova, originally from Russia, who said she was "so excited" after a 10-year journey to citizenship, and hopes to work as a journalist in the future. Judge Daphne Oberg said "As new citizens, you bring depth and diversity to this country. You make America more fair. You make America more equal. And now that you're citizens, your job is to share your story and your culture."

The US Department of Homeland Security's inspector general has called for the immediate evacuation of detainees from a privately run detention facility in New Mexico due to unsafe and unsanitary conditions. The Torrance County Detention Facility, which is operated by private company CoreCivic and currently houses 60 detainees, was found to be "critically understaffed" with conditions such as clogged toilets, moldy sinks and water leaks throughout the facility. However, both CoreCivic and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have disputed the report, with ICE officials signalling that they will not withdraw detainees from the facility. Advocates for immigrants have called for the detainees' release and accused the Biden administration of falling short on its promise to end for-profit immigration detention centers.

US Labor Secretary, Martin Walsh, has stated that the current US immigration system is hurting American employers and contributing to the country's workforce issues. Speaking at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference in Texas, Walsh noted that a lack of action on immigration reform is hurting corporate America, stating that between 11 and 13 million undocumented people in the US are working, and there should be a pathway for these individuals to become citizens. Julia Gelatt, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, agreed with Walsh, suggesting that employers are struggling to find workers and that allowing flexibility in the number of visas available to US employers each year, based on unemployment rates and hiring needs, would benefit everyone. The war in Ukraine is causing ripple effects in New Jersey, with one local business owner highlighting that his business relies on short-term employees from Ukraine and Russia during the summer months, and his business may suffer if these employees cannot travel to the US. Ukrainian nationals who have been living in the US since before March 1, 2022, are eligible to apply for Temporary Protected Status, but it remains unclear whether anyone who arrived after that date will receive protection. Finally, Anna Sorokin, the social media star and imposter European "heiress," has been ordered to be deported to Germany after a year-long immigration fight. Sorokin was arrested in March 2021 after defrauding numerous people out of millions of dollars while impersonating a wealthy European heiress.

Jewish Activists for Immigration Justice of Western Massachusetts are organizing a rally calling on President Biden to end the two-year old federal policy that expels immigrants seeking asylum in the US. The event, taking place at noon on March 21, coincides with similar ones across the country. Critics have asked President Biden to stop using the Trump-era policy, based on a section of the 1944 Public Health Services Law, to remove people crossing the border. Critics contend these individuals are being denied their due process rights under international law, with the people caught entering the United States illegally being sent back to the Mexican side of the border. Community Asylum Seekers of Brattleboro, Vermont, and Indivisible Northampton are co-sponsoring the event, and participants are encouraged to wear red and bring pots or pans to bang on to make noise.

Athulya Rajakumar, an Indian-American documented dreamer, has spoken to lawmakers to express her desire to remain in the US and be recognised as an American citizen, rather than being forced to leave the country in eight months. This comes as a result of no meaningful legislative reforms within the immigration system, regarding the issue of aged out kids. Documented dreamers come to the US as dependents of their parents, who legally hold a work permit in the US, like holding the H-1B foreign work visa. Once these children turn 21, they lose their dependency status. Speaking to members of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and Border Safety, Rajakumar stated that over 5,000 documented dreamers face this issue annually. Rajakumar is a recent graduate of the University of Texas at Austin from the Moody College of Communication.