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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released an advance copy of a final rule on July 31 that will impose significant fee increases across many facets of the legal immigration system. These changes include an astronomical 80% increase to the cost of becoming a U.S. citizen and a first-time fee for asylum applicants. The rule […]

The post USCIS Fee Hikes Will Go Into Effect for These Applications appeared first on Immigration Impact.

A federal judge in New York has once again put the Trump administration’s “public charge” rule on hold, but only for the duration of the COVID-19 national emergency. This rule, which went into effect in February after the Supreme Court stepped in, has restricted the ability of low-income immigrants to obtain green cards. But it’s […]

The post Trump’s Public Charge Rule Is Blocked Again Over Impact of COVID-19 appeared first on Immigration Impact.

The Trump administration has been detaining immigrant children in hotels along the Texas-Mexico border and in Arizona. Some of the children are as young as 1 year old and are held in the hotels for weeks before being expelled from the United States. A group of immigrant children who were held in one of these […]

The post Government Secretly Held Asylum-Seeking Children in Hotels appeared first on Immigration Impact.

AILA President Jennifer Minear looks forward to the year ahead during her installation speech and calls on all of us to "push ahead, sure in our cause, guided by the strength of our convictions, and buoyed by the support of this AILA community."

After nearly six weeks of inaction following its stinging defeat before the Supreme Court on June 18, the Department of Homeland Security released a memo gutting the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative. This will set the stage for a full rescission of the initiative in the months ahead. The Supreme Court had ruled […]

The post What You Need to Know About the Partial DACA Rescission Memo appeared first on Immigration Impact.

The May 25 killing of George Floyd by Minnesota police officers rightly sparked public outrage and protests throughout the United States. In response, the Trump administration deployed federal forces from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—which houses federal immigration enforcement agencies including U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—to different cities and engaged in aerial surveillance […]

The post Trump Deployed a Federal Agency With a History of Excessive Force to Police Racial Justice Protests appeared first on Immigration Impact.

If unauthorized U.S. immigrants aren't counted, 3 states could each lose a seat they otherwise would have had and 3 others each could gain one.

The post How removing unauthorized immigrants from census statistics could affect House reapportionment appeared first on Pew Research Center.

In recognition of the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and acknowledgment that there is still much work to be done, AILA republishes, with permission, a piece from Diversity & Inclusion Committee member Caroline Ostrom on avoiding reinforcing the social perceptions around disabilities.

A Canadian court has ruled that the United States is no longer a country to which the Canadian government could safely return asylum seekers who crossed the U.S-Canada land border.  This upends more than 15 years of bilateral cooperation between the two countries. On July 22, the Federal Court of Canada ruled that sending asylum […]

The post Canadian Court Rules US Is No Longer a ‘Safe Third Country’ for Asylum Applicants appeared first on Immigration Impact.

President Trump issued an executive order on June 21 that laid out a plan to violate the U.S. Constitution by excluding undocumented immigrants from the 2020 Census. An accurate census count is vital to ensuring that each state receives their fair share of seats in the U.S House of Representatives. It also directs hundreds of […]

The post 3 Things You Need to Know About Trump’s Unconstitutional Census Executive Order appeared first on Immigration Impact.

This blog post is the published transcript of the year-end speech given by Immediate Past President Marketa Lindt during AILA’s Virtual Annual Conference on July 20, 2020.

The Trump administration has justified major changes to citizenship processing to “safeguard” the U.S. immigration system from application fraud. Yet the increased vetting has not lowered the number of approvals over the last few years, indicating an absence of fraud. The time it takes to approve those applications, however, has grown. A new report from […]

The post USCIS Wastes Time and Money With Increased Vetting in Citizenship Processing appeared first on Immigration Impact.

AILA Member John Manley compares the provisions in the RAISE Act (which Congress failed to pass) and the executive actions being taken by the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic and notices some similarities.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced last week that it was launching a “Citizens Academy” in Chicago. The move justifiably generated everything from confusion to anger and fear from elected officials and community members. The program is already the subject of recently introduced bills to ban funding for it. ICE describes the program as […]

The post ICE’s ‘Citizens Academy’ Has No Place in Communities That Welcome Immigrants appeared first on Immigration Impact.

Another man has died in immigration detention from COVID-19. His tragic and avoidable death marks the deadly end to a jail-to-deportation pipeline that disproportionately targets Black and Brown people. On July 13, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a press release announcing that Onoval Perez-Montufa had died from COVID-19. The release says nothing about who […]

The post The Jail-to-Deportation Pipeline Turns Deadly for Immigrants in the Pandemic appeared first on Immigration Impact.

The Trump administration’s full-on assault on the U.S. immigration system has continued despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The president has not only pursued his agenda during the outbreak—he has, in several instances, used the pandemic as a pretext to reduce the number of noncitizens who can come to the United States lawfully. Many recent policy changes […]

The post USCIS Upends the Lives of Immigrants by Refusing to Print Their Work Permits and Green Cards appeared first on Immigration Impact.

In a blow to government transparency, the Trump administration has decided to designate Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) a “security/sensitive agency.” The move further shields ICE from public accountability, allowing them to withhold even more information. According to a leaked government memo, the Trump administration granted ICE’s request to be designated a “security/sensitive” agency when […]

The post ICE Has Been Granted the Same Level of Secrecy as the FBI appeared first on Immigration Impact.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) expects, by the end of July, to have worked through nearly the entire backlog of naturalization oath ceremonies put on hold in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency is now providing new ways to take the oath, including drive-thru naturalization ceremonies. The cancellation of oath ceremonies had prevented […]

The post USCIS Holds Drive-Thru Naturalization Ceremonies to Work Through COVID-19 Backlog appeared first on Immigration Impact.

National Advocacy Counsel Katie Shepherd of the Immigration Justice Campaign shares the recent work with pro bono counsel Gibson Dunn that aims to free immigrants from the appalling conditions at Joe Corley detention facility.

Even as President Trump downplays the threat of COVID-19, the Trump administration is using the pandemic as a pretext to bar more people from asylum in the United States. While the proposal is being tied to the coronavirus right now, this asylum bar could remain in place long after the current national crisis subsides. Who […]

The post Trump Labels Asylum Seekers as National Security Threat in Expanded Asylum Bar appeared first on Immigration Impact.