Week of October 8–14, 2022

Catholic immigration advocates have urged Congress to pass permanent legislation to protect young immigrants from deportation and allow them to work towards US citizenship after a US appeals court ruled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program unlawful. The court affirmed a 2020 decision by a lower court that the Obama administration did not have the legal authority to create DACA. The decision prevents the Biden administration from enrolling new participants in the program, but it does not mandate the program’s shutdown or renewal application processing. Instead, the ruling leaves DACA in a state of uncertainty, and it sends the case back to the lower court to review new DACA regulations. About 700,000 young people, known as Dreamers, benefit from DACA’s protection, which enables them to work, go to college, get health insurance, a driver’s license, and not face deportation.

Aboubakar Soumahoro, a former migrant worker in Italy, has won a seat in Italy's lower house of parliament for the Green and Left party, and he hopes to represent the poor and disfranchised, regardless of their colour. Soumahoro arrived in Rome aged 19 and was shocked by the reality of migrant life in a country he had idolised. He became an activist for migrants without official documents and subsequently founded a union representing agricultural workers. Soumahoro accuses the right-wing parties of politicising the migrant issue for electoral gain, claiming that they have failed to grasp the severity of problems faced by common families. Soumahoro has promised to ensure that no one ends up living on the streets and that people are treated as human beings regardless of their passport.

The US family-based immigration system has become increasingly bogged down over the last few decades, and with more than 7 million people now waiting to be reunited with relatives, there is no end in sight. US citizens are currently allowed to sponsor immediate relatives, including spouses, unmarried minor children and parents, to immigrate immediately to the US without any numerical limits. However, Congress also created categories and caps, meaning that family members of US citizens and lawful permanent residents who are not immediate relatives are sponsored through a system known as family preference, which currently has five categories, each with a cap. The annual cap for family sponsorship has not increased since 1992, and due to the numerical limits and the backlogs they have created, an estimated 1.6 million family-sponsored immigrants will die before they can immigrate to the US legally.

Immigration attorney Genesis Mercado-Arias is using her work to help young women in El Salvador by providing them with scholarships to continue their education. Mercado-Arias is the founder of the Ella Initiative, a social impact organization based in Kansas City, which will provide $1,000 scholarships to young women in El Salvador. The organization is named after the Spanish word for “her/she” and honors the strong women in Mercado-Arias’s family who taught her the importance of education. Many young women in El Salvador do not continue their education after the age of 15, as it is not required and often not advocated for. The scholarships will help to ease the burden of going to school by providing funds for basic necessities like food, clothing, and school supplies.

Undocumented high school graduates in Arizona could receive in-state university and community college tuition if Proposition 308 is approved in November. The measure has been supported by prominent business interests and Latino organisers, but is opposed by those who see immigration as a key election issue. Republican strategist Tyler Montague, chairman of Yes on 308, hopes that if it is approved it will encourage Arizona’s Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly to support immigration reforms. Arizona is known for its hostility to undocumented migrants and is one of three states to prohibit in-state tuition for them. Supporters of Proposition 308 argue that affected students are Arizonans who could help to build the state’s workforce.

US Senate Democrats are optimistic that they can establish a legal pathway to citizenship before year-end for more than 600,000 undocumented people enrolled in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The recent 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upheld a lower court decision that DACA is unlawful, even though current recipients are not yet affected. This has prompted calls from immigration rights advocates for legislative action. DACA provides temporary relief for children brought unlawfully into the US, allowing them to obtain driving licenses and work permits and protecting them from deportation. Sen. Dick Durbin, chairman of the US Senate Judiciary Committee, said Republicans will not want to vote for immigration reform during their re-election campaigns, making it unrealistic that Congress will pass any DACA legislation before the midterm elections.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will automatically extend the validity of expired permanent resident cards, commonly known as Green Cards, for lawful permanent residents (LPRs) who file a Form I-90 application to replace their card. This extension will be valid for 24 months from the expiration date of the Green Card, and is set to come into effect on 26 September 2022. The USCIS has been struggling with backlogs, and the move aims to help LPRs facing long waiting times to present their Green Cards as proof of employment eligibility. The I-797C notice of action for a Form I-90, which confirms an extension, is an acceptable List A document for establishing identity and employment authorization and does not require reverification. The USCIS has already begun issuing amended receipt notices for LPRs who have a pending Form I-90 application and a receipt notice dated before 26 September 2022.

New York-based immigration advocacy group Make the Road New York is contesting a $4m claim made by contractor KBE-NY for work on a community centre in Queens. KBE-NY placed a mechanic’s lien on the new Corona centre in July, allowing a creditor to place a claim on a property to secure a debt. Last week, Make the Road asked a judge to toss the lien and offered to pay $4.4m, or 110% of what it owes. The payment is backed by an insurance company, according to a court filing. The location on Roosevelt Avenue, which had been set to open this year, is still under construction as of early October. The city issued a partial stop work order for safety violations in early October, according to records from the Department of Building.

The Multnomah County District Attorney's Office in Oregon has introduced an immigration reform policy in a bid to protect non-citizens from being deported when charged with a crime. The new policy will direct deputy district attorneys to consider immigration consequences in all phases of prosecution, including making charging decisions, plea bargaining, and sentencing. The policy also allows for punishments to be restructured to avoid deportation as long as the changes don’t reduce the sentence's severity. Previously, non-citizens accused of a crime could be sent back to their country of origin, while US citizens charged with the same offense may only receive probation. District Attorney Mike Schmidt said deportation doesn't make the community safe but instead breaks up families, threatens the local economy and further propagates generational inequities.

Former US President Bill Clinton has criticised Joe Biden's open border policy, stating that "there's a limit" at which point open borders will cause "severe disruption". He added that the established immigration protocols function on the assumption that border conditions would "be more normal". Clinton has long been aware of the negative effects of over-immigration on American citizens. In his 1995 State of the Union address, he spoke about the anxiety Americans experience during periods of unchecked immigration, and stated that it is wrong and self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the abuse of immigration laws. During his speech, Clinton mentioned Barbara Jordan, the former US representative who chaired the US Commission on Immigration Reform, who endorsed significant legal immigration reductions with an emphasis on high-skilled admissions, fewer refugees, more deportations, and a chain migration overhaul that would limit sponsorship to nuclear family members.