Immigration News Resources

California-based AILA member Alexander Carl highlights how the Biden administration is making it incredibly difficult if not impossible for job creators to come to the U.S. by extending bans and making getting exceptions incredibly difficult, contravening the intent of Congress.

The Biden administration must improve transparency in the U.S. immigration system. Such efforts go hand in hand with strengthening democratic institutions. Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), any person has the right to access any non-exempt federal government record. FOIA is a critical tool for holding the government accountable. But it is not a […]

The post Why We Must Improve Immigration Agency Transparency – And How to Do It appeared first on Immigration Impact.

The U.S. Border Patrol apprehended nearly 100,000 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in February, a return to levels last seen in mid-2019.

The post Migrant apprehensions at U.S.-Mexico border are surging again appeared first on Pew Research Center.

It’s been one year since the COVID-19 pandemic first affected immigration on a global scale. The impact has been swift, devastating, and long-lasting. On March 11, 2020, former President Trump issued a proclamation announcing travel restrictions on two dozen European countries. It was one of the first major signs from the U.S. government that the […]

The post How the COVID-19 Pandemic Has Affected Immigration: One Year Later appeared first on Immigration Impact.

AILA Grassroots Advocacy Associate Melina Roche highlights some of AILA's advocacy priorities heading into our first ever all-virtual National Day of Action April 22 and how you can take action as an AILA member or client.

The Biden administration announced new “enforcement priorities” for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on February 18. The priorities were an initial step away from the Trump administration’s enforcement strategy that made every undocumented immigrant a target for deportation. But issuing priorities is one thing; meaningful implementation is another. With over 13,000 people in detention and […]

The post ICE’s New Case Review Process Lets Immigrants Appeal Detention and Deportation appeared first on Immigration Impact.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on March 8 that Venezuelan nationals present in the United States would be eligible to apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The TPS designation provides immigration status to many Venezuelans for the next 18 months. At least 200,000 Venezuelans are expected to be eligible. TPS was created by […]

The post What You Need to Know about Temporary Protected Status for Venezuela appeared first on Immigration Impact.

Since 2013, the government has struggled to respond to increasing numbers of unaccompanied children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. After disastrous Trump administration policies left unaccompanied children detained at the border for weeks at a time, the Biden administration is facing its own challenges to accommodate an increasingly large number of arrivals at the southern […]

The post How the Biden Administration Should Respond to the Arrival of Unaccompanied Children appeared first on Immigration Impact.

In this post, part of the Diversity & Inclusion blog post series, Laura F. Kelley shares insights into the legal profession's gender disparities and the need to come together on International Women's Day and every day to address the disparities and the harm they cause.

The U.S. Supreme Court published a new decision on March 4 that will make it harder—if not impossible—for many longtime immigrants to fight deportation. The case, Pereida v. Wilkson, abandons decades of Supreme Court precedent on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions. Undocumented immigrants and other noncitizens who are deportable may still be eligible for […]

The post The Supreme Court Makes It Harder for Immigrants to Fight Deportation appeared first on Immigration Impact.

Individuals hoping to become a naturalized American citizen will take a different civics test beginning this week, as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reverts back to a previous version of the test. USCIS has scrapped a 2020 version of the U.S. citizenship test implemented during the final months of the Trump administration. The test […]

The post Trump’s Citizenship Test Scrapped by USCIS Over Politicization and Complexity Concerns appeared first on Immigration Impact.

AILA member Yasmin Blackburn, who chairs the CT chapter's Diversity & Inclusion Committee, shares her life experience and why Black History recognition should not be limited to one month a year but celebrated year-round.

The U.S. government has long relied on a punitive and outdated detention system to keep immigrants in its custody. Even when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) places people on alternatives to detention, those alternatives are run by for-profit corporations and involve intrusive surveillance through devices like ankle monitors. New data released this week by […]

The post New Data Shows the Landscape of Community Support Services to Replace Immigration Detention appeared first on Immigration Impact.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced last week that it would make changes to two family detention centers in Texas that would result in families spending less time in detention. The agency states that the facilities will be turned into “reception centers,” where families receive COVID-19 tests, arrange travel to their destination, and are […]

The post ICE’s Changes to Family Detention Are an Improvement but Don’t Go Far Enough appeared first on Immigration Impact.

About 400,000 U.S. immigrants from 10 countries currently have TPS, which offers a reprieve from deportation.

The post Immigrants with Temporary Protected Status could be offered a path to U.S. citizenship appeared first on Pew Research Center.

The stakes in immigration court could not be higher—many people face the possibility of being permanently torn away from their families and communities in the United States. Others seeking protection in the U.S. risk being forced back to dangerous conditions in their home countries. Despite these extraordinarily high stakes, immigrants are not entitled to publicly […]

The post A Federal Defender System for Immigrants Is Long Overdue appeared first on Immigration Impact.

President Biden has ended a 10-month ban on immigrant visas—the COVID-19 immigrant visa ban. The Trump administration issued the ban in April 2020 in the name of “protecting” American jobs during the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The real purpose was not to provide any meaningful economic benefit, but to achieve the largescale […]

The post President Biden Ends Part of Trump’s Ban on Legal Immigration appeared first on Immigration Impact.

Kamala Harris embodies trends that have been unfolding over recent decades. As a result, many Americans can see themselves in her story.

The post In Vice President Kamala Harris, we can see how America has changed appeared first on Pew Research Center.

Over the past year, sweeping orders have banned many non-immigrant visa holders from entering the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic gave many former Trump administration officials the opportunity to restrict immigration based on fears surrounding the spread of the coronavirus and U.S. unemployment and immigration. The extended executive order—in effect until March 31—has consequently kept […]

The post What Are the Benefits of the J-1 Visa? appeared first on Immigration Impact.

As part of the Diversity & Inclusion blog post series, Christine Alden shares her personal experience as a student and graduate of an HBCU, along with some of the history around her alma mater, the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University.