Monday, September 20, 2021
Senate Removes Legalization Proposal – The Senate parliamentarian decided last night that the Democrats’ legalization proposal for undocumented immigrants cannot be included in reconciliation because it does not conform to the Byrd rule. Democrats have vowed to pursue alternative approaches to immigration reform in reconciliation. The House version of the reconciliation bill contains two significant reforms to legal immigration: recapture of unused visas and cap exemptions.
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Government Drops Deportation Case Against Washington State Immigration Activist -The government has dropped a deportation case against prominent activist Maru Mora Villalpando and granted her lawful permanent residency. The decision ends a four-year case against Mora Villalpando, 50, who came to the U.S. from Mexico 25 years ago on a visa that has long since expired, and who became well known for her advocacy on behalf of immigrants, especially detainees at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma.
DHS chief can’t even give ‘ballpark’ estimate on illegal immigration numbers– Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday insisted that the US borders are closed, but he could not give a “ballpark” estimate on how many of the 1.3 million illegal immigrants apprehended at the border this year are being held, were deported or released in the US.
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Border Crisis Sparks Calls for Change in Immigration Policy – The last surge of migrants, in 2019, was resolved when migrants were forced to wait in Mexico to have their immigration hearing. Before that, there was a surge in 2014, which the Obama administration resolved by building detention centers where immigrants could be held while awaiting their day in court before an immigration judge. According to former Border Patrol chief Ronald Vitiello, if Congress had given the Border Patrol, DHS, and ICE the tools needed to control the border, there would be a lot less chaos.
Friday, September 24, 2021
A Top Immigration Judge Who Stepped Down Under Trump Has Now Been Chosen to Lead the Court System – The Biden administration has appointed a former lead immigration judge to head the nation’s immigration courts after years of significant changes under former president Donald Trump that curtailed judicial flexibility. David Neal, who retired from his position as a chief immigration judge of the Executive Office of Immigration Review in 2019, has now been appointed to lead the agency. His resignation in 2019 came during a time when many immigration judges left EOIR due to concerns about how the Trump administration had reshaped the work the court was doing.