Tag: Trump immigration policy

Judges Strike Several Blows to Trump Immigration Policies

New York Times logoJudges in three states ruled against a policy that would withhold green cards to immigrants who receive public assistance such as Medicaid. Another judge ruled on border wall funding.

President Trump’s immigration agenda ran into legal blockades in courts around the country on Friday as judges in four states barred his administration from trying to withhold green cards from people who use public benefits and rejected his plan to divert funds to erect a border wall.

In three rulings, federal judges in New York, California and Washington State issued injunctions temporarily blocking the “public charge” rule, which would impose serious impediments to legal residency for those who use benefits such as Medicaid or those deemed likely to use them in the future.

The rule, widely seen as an attempt to keep out immigrants who are poor or in need of help, was one of the Trump administration’s signature immigration policies — and it ran into a legal brick wall in three corners of the country on a single day.

View the complete October 11 article by Miriam Jordan on The New York Times website here.

Federal judge declares Trump border proclamation unlawful

The Hill logoA federal judge in Texas declared on Friday that President Trump‘s proclamation of a national emergency on the southern border is unlawful, blocking the plan to divert funding for a border wall.

Judge David Briones of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas said in his opinion that the plan would be blocked after getting input from both sides in a lawsuit for the scope of an injunction.

The lawsuit was brought by El Paso County in Texas and a group called the

View the complete October 11 article by Harper Neidig on The Hill website here.

Pols seek answers on sick immigrant medical program

Pressley, Markey say Trump administration not following through on reinstatement

CONGRESSWOMAN AYANNA PRESSLEY and Sen. Ed Markey say the Trump administration has not followed through on its pledge to reinstate a program that helps seriously ill immigrants remain in the country legally without risk of deportation.

The program, called medical deferred action, provides temporary legal immigration status for sick immigrants that cannot otherwise be treated in their home countries. The program was canceled and then reinstated by the Trump administration over the past two months.

At a roundtable event at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts on Wednesday, Pressley said attorneys working for patients in the program say they have received no confirmation of the reversal from the Trump administration.

View the complete October 9 article by Sarah Betancourt on The Commonwealth Magazine website here.

Nearly 1 million migrants arrested along Mexico border in fiscal 2019, most since 2007

Washington Post logoThe number of migrants taken into custody along the southern U.S. border soared to nearly 1 million during the government’s fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data released Tuesday.

The number of unauthorized crossings from Mexico into the United States marked the highest volume in 12 years, amid a record influx of Central American families that peaked during the spring, overwhelming U.S. agents, border stations and immigration courtrooms.

Mark Morgan, the acting CBP commissioner, told reporters at a White House briefing that more than 52,000 migrants were taken into custody in September at U.S. ports of entry and between them, a decline of 18 percent from August.

View the complete October 8 article by Nick Miroff on The Washington Post website here.

Trump’s order will deny visas to immigrants who lack health-care coverage

Washington Post logoThe White House late Friday issued a proclamation saying it would deny visas to immigrants who “will financially burden” the U.S. health-care system starting Nov. 3, demanding that foreign nationals prove that they have insurance or are affluent enough to cover their own health-care costs before entering the United States.

The new rule — issued at 7 p.m. on a Friday, less than 13 months before Election Day — comes as President Trump is facing an impeachment inquiry and intensifying his efforts to fulfill his campaign promises to curb immigration. Like many of Trump’s immigration policies, it is likely to face swift legal challenges in federal courts.

Trump said he is taking the action to “protect the availability of health care benefits for Americans,” and said “taxpayers bear substantial cost” in paying for medical expenses of people who lack health insurance.

View the complete October 4 article by Maria Sacchetti on The Washington Post website here.

Border Officials Confirm: Government Has Built No New Wall

Customs and Border Protection officials admitted this week that despite Donald Trump’s claims, not a single new mile of border wall has been built in Trump’s nearly three years in office.

Trump has repeatedly suggested he has kept his signature campaign promise — a massive wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border funded entirely by Mexico. As recently as Wednesday, he claimed that “massive” sections were “going up rapidly.”

That claim is totally debunked by a document provided to Newsweek this week by CBP and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

View the complete October 2 article by Josh Israel on the National Memo website here.

U.S. Government Plans to Collect DNA From Detained Immigrants

New York Times logoThe Department of Homeland Security said it would begin testing on hundreds of thousands of immigrants in federal detention facilities.

The Trump administration is moving to collect DNA samples from hundreds of thousands of people booked into federal immigration custody each year and to enter the results into a national criminal database, an immense expansion of the use of technology to enforce the nation’s immigration laws.

Senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that the Justice Department was developing a federal regulation that would give immigration officers the authority to collect DNA in detention facilities across the country that are currently holding more than 40,000 people.

The move would funnel thousands of new records to the F.B.I., whose extensive DNA database has been limited mainly to genetic markers collected from people who have been arrested, charged or convicted in connection with serious crimes.

View the complete October 2 article by Caitlin Dickerson on The New York Times website here.

Shoot Migrants’ Legs, Build Alligator Moat: Behind Trump’s Ideas for Border

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — The Oval Office meeting this past March began, as so many had, with President Trump fuming about migrants. But this time he had a solution. As White House advisers listened astonished, he ordered them to shut down the entire 2,000-mile border with Mexico — by noon the next day.

The advisers feared the president’s edict would trap American tourists in Mexico, strand children at schools on both sides of the border and create an economic meltdown in two countries. Yet they also knew how much the president’s zeal to stop immigration had sent him lurching for solutions, one more extreme than the next.

Privately, the president had often talked about fortifying a border wall with a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators, prompting aides to seek a cost estimate. He wanted the wall electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh. After publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks, the president backed off when his staff told him that was illegal. But later in a meeting, aides recalled, he suggested that they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down. That’s not allowed either, they told him.

View the complete October 1 article by Michael D. Shear and Julie Hirschfeld Davis on The New York Times website here.

Trump administration imposes 18K limit on refugees, the lowest ever

The Hill logoThe Trump administration on Thursday proposed slashing refugee admissions to 18,000 for fiscal year 2020, marking a record low total since the program began in 1980.

The Trump administration last year set the refugee cap at 30,000. The administration has made curbing the number of migrants entering the country a priority.

The Departments of State, Homeland Security (DHS) and Health and Human Services submitted the proposed refugee admissions for fiscal year 2020 in a report to Congress on Thursday.

The Trump administration said it was necessary to reduce the number of refugee admissions in order to focus on addressing the flow of migrants at the U.S. southern border with Mexico and reducing the large backlog of asylum claims.

View the complete September 26 article by Morgan Chalfant and Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

Trump administration reaches deal to send asylum seekers to El Salvador in an effort to deter migrants from entering the United States

Washington Post logoThe Trump administration announced an accord Friday that will allow the United States to divert asylum seekers from the U.S. border to El Salvador, pushing migrants into one of the most dangerous countries in the world. The deal between the two governments is the latest measure aimed at creating new layers of deterrents to the influx of migrants applying for protection on U.S. soil.

Kevin McAleenan, the acting homeland security secretary, signed a “memorandum of understanding” with Salvadoran Foreign Minister Alexandra Hill in front of television cameras in Washington, but the two officials gave few details and no indication when their accord would take effect.

McAleenan, who traveled to El Salvador for talks last month with President Nayib Bukele, praised a “shared responsibility” on migration that was part of a broader deal to accelerate economic development in Central America with the goal of keeping migrants in their home countries.

View the complete September 20 article by Nick Miroff on The Washington Post website here.