Week of October 1–7, 2022

An immigrant resource fair in Brooklyn provided free meals, clothing and legal counsel to hundreds of asylum seekers recently bussed from the US-Mexico border to New York City. The fair was organised by Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez and State Senator Julia Salazar, and attended by immigrants including José Barrios, who has recently arrived from Venezuela. Salazar explained that many asylum seekers already have court dates to attend and it was important that they received legal counsel. Over 11,800 asylum seekers are currently in New York City's shelter system, and the authorities are seeking to provide more permanent housing. Mayor Eric Adams has announced plans to house migrants in a tent city at Orchard Beach in the Bronx and is also asking the White House for $500m in emergency funding to pay for migrant services for one year.

Undocumented immigrants benefit both politicians and big business, but the US could prevent the majority of illegal immigration without the need for new border walls or chartered flights. The author suggests mandating the use of E-Verify at every employer and punishing employers with steep fines for failing to use it or hiring undocumented labor. However, big businesses want to use undocumented labor because it is cheaper and allows them to threaten their employees with deportation if they report working conditions. Meanwhile, politicians don't want to fix the problem of undocumented immigration because it's an important campaign ad subject. The author argues that cracking down on employers who use illegal hiring practices while making temporary, seasonal work visas more easily available would benefit the economy, but it wouldn't benefit the wealthy and powerful. The author also emphasizes the importance of immigrants to the economy, culture, and communities, and suggests that they are good for the country.

Democrats often showcase policies that allegedly help children, families, and others in need. However, what’s happening to migrant children at the Texas border shows, at least when it comes to this issue, liberals don’t seem to care as much about children as they say they do. The statistics are staggering. Since President Joe Biden was elected, more than 250,000 unaccompanied children have walked across the U.S.-Mexico border. Eight in 10 children were released into the interior of the United States, prompting new challenges at the border and in communities nationwide. In March 2021, 18,700 children crossed the border. These children have to be housed somewhere. The U.S. is simply not equipped to handle the massive number of people crossing the border. Caring for them once they’re here and in need of aid is the right thing to do. Still, we have immigration policies that take time to process. Biden, AOC, and other politicians who claim to care about families should be pleading for legal immigration and stronger border security.

New research by economist Michael Clemens has found that immigrants provide significant fiscal benefits to the US economy, including those with less than a high school degree. Previous analyses underestimated the impact of immigrants without a high school degree on government coffers, with some concluding they were not net contributors to taxes. Clemens found that this was incorrect as it omitted substantial indirect, dynamic effects of immigration, such as conservative estimates of tax revenue from capital income caused by an immigrant worker’s presence in the economy. Clemens' research shows that an average recent immigrant without a high school degree has a lifetime positive net fiscal balance of $128,000, which rises to $326,000 when including their expected children and grandchildren. This has implications for legislation to admit more employment-based immigrants and immigration more broadly, particularly for those with less education, who are often a target of immigration critics.

Lawyer Efrén C. Olivares spoke about his personal and professional experience with immigration during the 2022 Dolores Huerta keynote lecture. Olivares, now the deputy legal director of the Immigrant Justice Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, discussed his work in 2018 attempting to reunite families separated at the US-Mexico border. When the Trump administration initiated the zero-tolerance policy, which called for the prosecution of anyone who crossed the border, Olivares worked to find parents and children who had been separated. The adults were immigrants charged with the misdemeanor of crossing the border, while the children were considered “unaccompanied.” Olivares noted stories of immigrants who were indigenous and spoke Spanish as a second language, some of whom had been separated from their children for up to 58 days. Olivares argued that family separation is not new and has been a consequence of US immigration policy for over a century.

Immigration lawyers are often called on to do pro bono work in the US, given that the law does not provide for free legal representation in immigration cases. However, the demand for such services has become particularly acute during the COVID-19 pandemic, with tens of thousands of asylum cases awaiting trial and thousands of Afghan and Ukrainian nationals seeking asylum or other benefits. This has led to a drop in volunteerism among lawyers, as they become exhausted and overwhelmed by their caseloads. To counter this, creative solutions such as the Washington Immigrant Defense Network have been established to help fund pro bono work through stipends, but more needs to be done to ensure that immigration lawyers are compensated for their time and expertise, in order to continue serving some of the most vulnerable people in US society.

Mexican immigration authorities (INM) have launched a pilot program to remove the Forma Migratoria Multiple (FMM) at selected airports. Instead, the INM will stamp visitors’ passports with the authorized stay period, eliminating the need for a paper FMM. The INM has not yet updated its website to reflect this change, so visitors are advised to follow the instructions of immigration officials and their airline. U.S. citizens are reminded to comply with the authorized admission period given by immigration authorities upon arrival and to carry their original passport with them at all times. Visitors who were issued a paper FMM upon entry must keep it and be prepared to present it to immigration authorities upon departure. Those who fail to carry their passport or overstay their authorized period may face detention, fines, and deportation.

Michael Sheppard, a former warden of the West Texas Detention Center, and his twin brother Mark Sheppard were arrested after allegedly shooting into a group of 13 migrants, killing one and seriously injuring another. The incident followed another migrant shooting in Hudspeth County, Texas, and the death of over 50 migrants who were abandoned by smugglers in a tractor trailer near San Antonio in June. Michael Sheppard personally faced allegations of violence and racism by individuals held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention during his tenure at the West Texas Detention Center. Despite warnings of impropriety, Sheppard remained in a position of authority over vulnerable migrants and other individuals and was only fired after the shooting. Immigrant justice organizations routinely sound the alarm regarding abuses within immigration detention centers. In response to the shooting, Texas Governor Greg Abbott denounced the violence but also blamed the shooting on Biden’s “open border policies”.

Canada's immigration sector is expected to experience a busy month of October due to several significant developments. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is expected to announce the process for the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) 2022 in late October, while the Immigration Levels Plan 2023-2025 will be announced by November 1. The census data on immigration from 2021 will also be released by Statistics Canada later this month. The Immigration Levels Plan serves as a guideline for the number of immigrants allowed to enter Canada, including economic, family, and humanitarian class programs, over the next three years. This year, the target for 2022 is nearly 432,000 new permanent residents and over 451,000 by 2024. Furthermore, the PGP program allows applicants to sponsor their parents or grandparents for immigration to Canada, and it is yet to be announced whether IRCC will use the lottery system to determine eligible visa holders, as it has done in the past.

Amazon has announced that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has met its full allotment of employment-based green cards for the first time in several years. The company said it has played a part in advocating for its employees to reduce the green card backlog. Amazon had called on the USCIS to issue all the available green cards before the September 30 deadline. Although USCIS met its full allotment for FY2022, many Amazon employees with current "priority dates" did not receive green cards, which will add to their already long wait times. The company plans to continue its efforts by lobbying Congress to eliminate discriminatory laws and is also calling on USCIS to be able to recapture unused green cards.