U.S. (Im)migration News
Trump orders changes to U.S. asylum policy: President Donald Trump on Monday issued a memo ordering the Department of Homeland Security to implement strict changes to U.S. asylum policies. Most markedly, the measures would charge people a fee to apply for asylum; ban anyone who enters the country without a visa from obtaining a work permit; and mandate that asylum claims are processed within 180 days (Washington Post). Currently, the asylum adjudication process can take years, and more than 800,000 cases are pending (The New York Times). People have generally been permitted to apply for employment authorization while their asylum cases were pending. The measures Trump ordered are his latest effort to stop the influx of asylum seekers at the southern border by making it harder for them to gain asylum. DHS has 90 days to come up with new regulations. Related: DHS plans to launch a DNA testing program next week for migrants arriving at the border as part of an effort to crack down on “fake families” (BuzzFeed News).
What we’re watching:
- How “Remain in Mexico” is playing out: As the U.S. continues to send asylum seekers back to Mexico under the Migration Protection Protocols (MPP) program, USCIS asylum officers are worried some of those they’re sending back may be in danger of persecution there. They say their higher-ups are forcing them to violate the refugee law principle of non-refoulement, in which governments may not return people to places where they’d face persecution (Vox). Those who were sent back to Mexico to apply for asylum face long waits, bungled paperwork, and possible kidnapping (Vice News). In some cases, sendbacks have ignored the government’s own protocols by returning migrants with “known physical/mental health issues” (Washington Post). Meanwhile, a federal appeals court is still weighing whether to temporarily halt the MPP, better known as “Remain in Mexico.”
- ICE at courthouses: Federal prosecutors charged a Massachusetts state judge and a former court officer with obstruction of justice for allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant escape from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer at a courthouse last year (New York Times). Also this week, Massachusetts district attorneys and public defenders filed a lawsuit to prevent ICE from patrolling state courthouses (CNN).
What we're reading:
- BuzzFeed News: 16-year-old unaccompanied migrant boy dies in U.S. custody — the third such death since December.
- ProPublica: Pediatrician who treated immigrant children describes pattern of lapses in medical care in shelters.
- The Intercept: Newly released documents detail ICE campaign to criminalize and prosecute migrant parents as smugglers.
- The Houston Chronicle: Trump has disrupted the coexistence of the cities of El Paso in Texas and Ciudad Juárez in Mexico with his threats to close the southern border.
- Arizona Republic: Border Patrol is creating a state of emergency in Yuma, Arizona, by releasing migrants there as shelter beds in Phoenix go empty.
- Vice News: The U.S. used suspect evidence to push young Bangladeshi migrants into adult detention.
- CityLab: A new housing policy could limit housing assistance for families with mixed citizenship status.
- Documented: A group of young immigrants who previously qualified for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) fought the Trump administration for their right to stay in the United States — and won.
- The Conversation: Central American women fleeing violence experience more trauma once they get to the U.S.-Mexico border.
- Washington Post: ICE is holding $204 million in bond money, and some immigrants might never get it back.
- Vice News: Border Patrol is running out of beds. Get ready for more tent cities at the border.
- NPR (listen): The Trump administration has drastically dropped visas for Afghan and Iraqi interpreters.
- NBC News: Emails show Trump administration had “no way to link” separated migrant children to parents.
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Forty-four immigrants from 16 countries take the oath to become naturalized U.S. citizens in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 25, 2019. (Photo by Tania Karas)
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Longreads & Listens:
- This American Life (listen): How a small town reacted when 100 residents were arrested by ICE in just a few hours.
- The Atlantic: Could technology revolutionize refugee resettlement?
- Politico Magazine: New York has been a refuge for many fleeing the violence and poverty of Puebla, Mexico. Here’s what it’s like to be deported back.
- Washington Post: Why is migration slowing from Mexico while it surges from Guatemala and Honduras?
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Around the World
Europe is striking more migration deals: According to a leaked EU document, cooperation between Spanish and Moroccan immigration authorities has succeeded in slashing irregular migration to Spain (Associated Press). The report is vague on the details, but human rights groups have condemned EU countries for outsourcing their border controls. A similar deal with Turkey to stem migration to Greece, struck three years ago, has turned the island of Samos into an inhumane “open-air prison for refugees” (The Nation). But criticism is unlikely to derail the Spanish government’s efforts, with talk of a migration crisis featuring heavily in the country’s recent election campaign and border guards preparing for a summer spike (The New Humanitarian). Greece, too, still faces challenges: The number of unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the country rose slightly to more than 2,600 last year, even as the EU-wide figure dropped (Ekathimerini).
How Europe is criminalizing attempts to aid migrants: Sarah Mardini, a Syrian refugee, is a volunteer for an NGO that rescues migrants at sea off the Greek island of Lesvos. She and other volunteers were charged with people smuggling, money laundering, and espionage over the group’s humanitarian work with refugees on the Greek island of Lesvos (The New Humanitarian). A new report examines this growing trend of governments across Europe introducing new criminal offenses, and using existing ones, to crack down on forms of assistance ranging from maritime search-and-rescue to provides accommodation and solidarity to migrants (Against Inhumanity).
What we’re reading:
Americas:
- New Yorker: Canada questions the safety of asylum seekers in the U.S.
- Associated Press: Thousands fleeing Nigeria, Cameroon, Bangladesh, Haiti and Cuba stalled in Mexico, near the Guatemalan border.
- BBC: Mexican authorities targeted a caravan of around 3,000 migrants in the southern state of Chiapas, detaining nearly 400 people.
- Arizona Daily Star: In the Indigenous towns near Guatemala’s border with Mexico, leaving for the United States is seen as a last choice. But mounting debt and few opportunities propel migration.
- Reuters: Number of Venezuelans fleeing to Brazil surges during attempt to oust Maduro.
Middle East & North Africa:
- PRI's The World: For Syrian refugee children in Turkey, a home with dignity is hard to find.
- The Telegraph: Desperate migrants in Libyan detention centers are being forced to fight on the front lines of a new civil war.
- Washington Post: Iraq is pushing to build an isolation camp for 30,000 Iraqis who lived under ISIS in Syria. Related: Among displaced Iraqis, those with perceived ties to the Islamic State are worse off than the rest (Foreign Policy).
- IOM: Migrants are being shot and dying of preventable diseases while detained in inhumane conditions in Yemen.
Europe:
- The New Humanitarian: Who will help the 600,000 refugees and migrants in Libya?
- The Guardian: UK to deport an Iraqi man convicted for trafficking after bringing in his baby niece for medical care.
- France 24: In a tiny town in eastern France, refugees make up 10 percent of the population.
Sub-Saharan Africa:
- Business Daily Africa: Kenya moves to combat abuse of Kenyan migrant workers abroad.
- Reuters: India investigates the treatment of 40 migrant workers in Gabon, after reports that employers confiscated their identity documents.
- Al Jazeera: The terrorist group Boko Haram targets refugees and IDPs in southeast Nigeria.
- The New Humanitarian: Urban refugees: A decade on the margins in Cameroon.
Asia-Pacific:
- The Hindu: Nearly 1,600 refugees, mostly from Pakistan, have been harassed and attacked in Sri Lanka after Easter Sunday bombings.
- ABC News: Seven North Korean defectors, including a 9-year-old girl, may face forced repatriation after arrest in China.
- BBC: As many as 800,000 people along India’s eastern coast were evacuated ahead of a cyclone, which could also strike refugee camps in Bangladesh.
- The Guardian: Nauru contract standoff causes chaos and confusion as refugee services are left in limbo.
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Miscellaneous Things We Love
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NPR: Korean-Canadian photographer Hannah Yoon takes portraits of other Koreans who challenge the hyphen that so often defines them.
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Los Angeles Times: This meeting spot in Long Beach is “like a church” for isolated transgender Latinas and a much-needed refuge from hate crimes.
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Quartz: Disabled immigrants are an invisible population. Here’s how we can make the world a better place for them.
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Eater: Selling shawarma helps this Syrian refugee adapt to life in America.
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SBS: A town in regional Queensland celebrates one year since it welcomed 500 Yazidi refugees from Syria.
- The New Humanitarian: In Lebanon, a local push brings the classroom to out-of-school refugees.
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Welcome to our biweekly newsletter on global migration policy, with a U.S. focus.
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Tania Karas is a reporter and editor for PRI The World's immigration desk. She has reported from Greece, Turkey and Lebanon and was previously a staff reporter for the New York Law Journal. Find her on Twitter at @TaniaKaras.
Lolita Brayman is a U.S.-based immigration attorney focusing on refugee and asylum issues and a staff attorney with the Defending Vulnerable Populations Project with CLINIC. Find her on Twitter at @lolzlita.
Moira Lavelle is a freelance reporter focusing on gender, migration, and borders. She has written for Broadly, Rewire, and PRI. She is currently working on a master’s degree at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Find her on Twitter @alohamoira.
Fergus Peace is a researcher and journalist writing about refugees and migration. He's recently written for the Financial Times and Apolitical, and tweets at @FergusPeace.
Logo design by John Kapenga.
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