Immigration News Resources

Part of the Diversity and Inclusion Blog Post Series In 1998, I moved to Mississippi from my hometown of Detroit, Michigan to work as a reference librarian at the Mississippi College School of Law in Jackson.  I had always had one foot in the law and one foot outside it.  In 1997, I earned a […]

AILA Media Advocacy Committee member, and expert on business immigration, Sandra Feist highlights the problems with the recent H-1B salary level rule and urges attorneys and members of the public to take action and submit a comment before the comment period closes Dec 2.

While our Thanksgiving dinner tables may look a little different this year, one thing remains the same: Thanksgiving is a time to catch up and reconnect with loved ones. Whether you are doing this by phone, Zoom, or at a social distanced gathering, many of our conversations will reveal that our families and friends hold […]

The post Talking Turkey: How to Discuss Immigration for Long-Lasting Change appeared first on Immigration Impact.

In this blog post, Director of the Immigration Justice Campaign Karen Lucas highlights the harm faced by Cameroonian asylum seekers who are being wrongfully deported by ICE and urges the public to take action to draw attention to this injustice.

For years, the Trump administration has argued that limited capacity at ports of entry led to its policy of turning back asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border (the “turnback policy”). But a recent amicus—or “friend of the court”—brief filed in a lawsuit challenging this policy argues that the true justification is racial hostility. In the […]

The post Discriminatory Treatment of Haitians Throughout History Informs Current Policy at the US-Mexico Border appeared first on Immigration Impact.

AILA members Angelo A. Paparelli and Stephen Yale-Loehr offer some insights and ideas for the incoming Biden-Harris administration on actions that would make the immigration system more transparent, efficient, and welcoming.

The Trump administration announced on November 17 that it plans to start denying work permits to people who have been ordered deported, but who have been released from immigration custody because they cannot—or should not—be deported. A stated purpose of this new rule, published by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is to encourage people […]

The post Trump Administration Wants to Deny Work Permits to Some People Released From ICE Detention appeared first on Immigration Impact.

AILA Law Journal author Sarah Diaz shares in a short video a bit about the process of writing for the Law Journal, the topic she chose, and how AILA members and others can use the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction to help children separated from their parents.

Lawful permanent residents seeking to become U.S. citizens will now be required to take a more difficult and longer citizenship test. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the change on November 13. The new test increases the total number of questions from 100 to 128. Applicants will be verbally asked 20 questions and must […]

The post New US Citizenship Test Makes It Harder for Immigrants to Become Citizens appeared first on Immigration Impact.

AILA Board of Governors Member Greg Siskind highlights how the Biden-Harris administration should implement digital modernization of immigration filings, as well as a plea to make sure that attorneys and stakeholders be part of the testing of any new process.

A judge has ruled that recent changes to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that were a veiled attempt to gut the program are invalid because Chad Wolf—the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—was not lawfully appointed to his position. The federal judge’s decision may signal that other immigration policies enacted under […]

The post Federal Court Invalidates Changes to DACA Because Chad Wolf Was Unlawfully Appointed appeared first on Immigration Impact.

AILA Law Journal author Sarah Houston is interviewed by AILA Editorial Director Danielle Polen for the blog, sharing how she became an advocate for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers and how transgender women and men in particular face a hidden epidemic of physical and psychological abuse.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently issued a proposed rule that will change the way it selects the registrations of U.S. employers that want to file H-1B petitions subject to the annual “cap.” USCIS will now give preference to jobs with the highest wages. But the law establishing the H-1B visa category does not […]

The post USCIS Is Proposing an H-1B Rule That Ignores Why the Category Exists appeared first on Immigration Impact.

This article is part of the Moving Forward on Immigration series that explores the future of immigration in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.  President-elect Joe Biden’s plan on immigration stands in stark contrast to the xenophobic agenda the Trump administration has put forward the last four years. Much of Biden’s plan revolves around […]

The post Biden’s Immigration Plan Is a Promising Start in the Work Ahead appeared first on Immigration Impact.

Immigration detention was dangerous before President Trump took office four years ago. His policies—coupled with a deadly global pandemic—have only made the situation more dire. Immigration detention has expanded in the past decade, driven largely by large private prison companies such as CoreCivic and GEO Group. These companies’ sole motivation is to maximize their profit […]

The post Making the Case for Ending Immigration Detention appeared first on Immigration Impact.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled that certain people with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) can apply for green cards without leaving the United States. In Velazquez v. Barr, the Court held that receiving TPS is treated as an “inspection and admission” when someone applies for a green card. These prerequisites are […]

The post Court Protects Some TPS Holders’ Right to Apply for Green Cards appeared first on Immigration Impact.

President-elect of the United States Joseph Biden called for national unity in his victory speech on November 7. He said, “It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric. To lower the temperature. To see each other again. To listen to each other again. To make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy. […]

The post Immigration Advocates Can Have a Role in Advancing National Unity appeared first on Immigration Impact.

A major theme of the 2020 election has been how demographic shifts in the American electorate would influence the outcome. Political pundits have given a great deal of airtime to examining the voting patterns of “Latinos” in the United States. Exit polls show that President Trump fared well with Latino voters, particularly in Florida. And […]

The post The Media Is Obsessed With The ‘Latino Vote’ – There Is No Such Thing appeared first on Immigration Impact.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage inside ICE detention centers, hundreds of Cubans who cannot be deported, continue to be detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). They have exhausted their options in their legal cases but remain detained months after a judge issued a final order of removal. This situation occurs because […]

The post  Hundreds of Cubans Who Cannot Be Deported Face Prolonged Detention appeared first on Immigration Impact.

AILA Editorial Director Danielle Polen interviewed Kaelyn Mostafa, author of an article in the Fall 2020 edition of the AILA Law Journal entitled "The Effect of States’ Legalization of Marijuana on Good Moral Character and Eligibility for U.S. Citizenship" to learn more about her process and topic.