Week of May 28–31, 2023

LOS ANGELES — Immigrating to the United States has been anything but a walk in the park for Luis and his family. After all, six years later, they are still waiting for their asylum case to be resolved.

“The anxiety is eating me alive as the days come and go,” says Luis in Spanish.

Luis, an accountant from El Salvador, does everything by the book and by the numbers. Currently, 274 is on his mind. That’s the number of days his work permit has been expired.

He has been having to rely on temporary extensions to hold him off at work. Those will lapse at the beginning of next year.

“They keep asking [at work] when the new work permit will arrive,” says Luis.

His driver’s license expired, too. When he tried to buy a house, he encountered issues.

“The bank wouldn’t accept my expired work permit,” he said.

Long wait times are nothing new for immigration lawyer Edward Pilot.

“Needless to say, there are files in my office accumulating dust that shouldn’t be,” he said.

And it’s getting worse. Processing times grew by almost 50% between 2017 and 2021, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In a recent letter to the House Appropriations Committee, a group of lawmakers expressed their dismay at the over 8.6 million applications and petitions pending before USCIS as of September of last year, including over 1.4 million work applications.

Over at the Executive Office of Immigration Review, things aren’t much better. The backlog exceeded two million cases in January, impacting migrants who have been waiting years to have their cases resolved.

“They have been relegated toward the back of the line twice: initially when President Obama jumped the unaccompanied minors from Central America to the front of the line, and then second, when President Trump jumped the recent arrivals to the front of the line,” says Pilot.

Spectrum News reached out to the government for comment but did not hear back.

In a statement published in December of last year, USCIS said that they had made significant progress in the last few months in reducing the backlogs and credited congressional funding. They also say they hope to get back to pre-pandemic levels later this year. In their letter, lawmakers ask for more resources to be allocated to the agency to meet those goals and cut down on wait times for migrants like Luis.

“We are looking forward to the day when we’ll be liberated from this uncertainty,” he said.

The day he’ll finally be able to focus on the only number that really matters, he says — his two kids.

Gov. DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1718 into law last month that some consider the "strongest anti-illegal immigration legislation in the country"

Immigrant workers, religious leaders and concerned families united in Homestead Saturday to push back against Florida's new anti-immigration law.

In a "March for Unity" hundreds gathered in front of Homestead City Hall to protest Senate Bill 1718 Gov. DeSantis signed into law last month that some consider the "strongest anti-illegal immigration legislation in the country."

The new law requires any hospital that accepts Medicaid to ask patients whether they are United States citizens.

People could be charged with felonies if caught transporting five or more undocumented immigrants or a minor.

Employers will be required to use E-Verify to check employment eligibility. If not, businesses will be fined.

And students with dreams of practicing law will also be impacted. Starting in 2028, Florida will not allow undocumented immigrants to receive a law license.

According to the Florida Immigrant Coalition the law has caused tremendous fear, anxiety, and misinformation among the immigrant communities of Florida. Families have left the state, and many more are making plans to leave in the coming months.

In response to these concerns, WeCount! and a coalition of faith leaders, community-based organizations, and immigrant families gathered to denounce SB1718 and to say, "We’re here, and we’re not going anywhere. There is no Florida without us."