Reform

How Would Biden’s Supreme Court Nominee Handle Immigration Cases?
President Biden has nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer on the United States Supreme Court. With nearly a decade as a federal judge, Judge Jackson’s record may provide some clues about how she would handle immigration cases as a Supreme Court Justice. Immigration law… Read More

Biden Should Use the State of the Union for a Reset on Immigration
On Tuesday night, President Biden will give his first State of the Union address to a packed House chamber. Other than, perhaps, an early nod to resettling Ukrainian refugees, those of us in the immigration reform movement don’t expect to hear much about our priorities until the big speech’s second… Read More

The New Public Charge Standard Will No Longer Penalize Medicaid and SNAP Recipients
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to clarify the meaning of the “public charge ground of inadmissibility” on February 24. The new guidance will be welcome news for immigrants as well as state governments and immigrant-serving organizations across the country that have worked… Read More

The Dignity Act Could Signal Increasing Support for Immigration Reform on Capitol Hill
Miami Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a freshman Republican from Florida’s 27th congressional district, last week introduced an immigration reform bill that she calls the “Dignity Act.” Rep. Salazar claims the bill will both halt undocumented immigration to the United States and provide a “dignified solution” to the legal… Read More

Why USCIS’ New Mission Statement Is So Crucial
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) unveiled a new mission statement this week, signaling an important shift in how the agency wants to tell its story and shape its priorities ahead. On February 8, USCIS Director Ur Jaddou announced the agency’s new mission. “USCIS upholds America’s promise as a… Read More

The House Passes the America COMPETES Act, Including Immigration Reforms to Help the U.S. Economy
The House of Representatives passed an economic competitiveness bill on February 4 that includes several immigration provisions. The bill is called the ‘‘America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology, and Economic Strength Act of 2022’’—or the America COMPETES Act of 2022. This bill (which is more than… Read More

State Department Waives Fees for Immigrants Denied Visas Due to the Muslim Ban
The State Department announced a new rule that will waive fees for visa applicants who were denied because of the Muslim and refugee ban. Under the new rule, an immigrant visa applicant who has an approved immigration petition may reapply for a visa without paying the fees if they were… Read More

Immigration Detention and Enforcement Are a Mixed Bag in Biden’s First Year
Immigration detention and enforcement in the United States under the first year of the Biden administration has been a mixture of improvements and setbacks. The Trump administration implemented nearly 400 changes to interior enforcement with the goal of subjecting all undocumented immigrants to enforcement actions, and President Biden assumed office… Read More

Biden’s Border Ambitions Fall Short in a Year of Setbacks and Continued Focus on Deterrence
President Biden took office committing to unwind Trump’s border policies and go in a new direction—to reunite families, restore access to asylum, and reverse “policies enacted over the last 4 years that contravened our values and caused needless human suffering.” Despite a strong start in early 2021, the border is… Read More

The Immigration Policy Successes and Failures of the Biden Administration
The Biden administration has—in its first year—rolled back many of the worst discriminatory policies implemented by the Trump administration that targeted non-U.S. citizens. But much work remains to be done. The U.S. immigration system and the refugee program are still plagued by dysfunction and in dire need of substantive… Read More
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