A look at the United States Immigration situation today…..
Immigration Applications Backlog’s Ruling…
A day after a federal judge struck down Trump administration policies that had frozen applications for many immigrants seeking to stay in the country, there was renewed hope that a six-month logjam might be easing.
There are more than a million backlogged applications for citizenship, green cards, work permits and asylum. When those applications would move forward, however, was uncertain.
In a strongly worded opinion on Friday, the judge, John J. McConnell Jr., wrote that the policies enacted by the Trump administration had effectively made it challenging for many immigrants to stay in the United States.
The policies, which were enacted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which administers the legal immigration system and processes paperwork for immigrants already in the country, put a hold on asylum applications. The agency also paused decisions on applications filed by immigrants from 39 countriesunder a travel ban, many of them in Africa and the Middle East….
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It was unclear how soon Citizenship and Immigration Services would restart processing applications that had been affected….
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By putting applications on hold, Mr. Hubbard said, the federal government was creating challenges for immigrants who had been trying to follow the proper legal process toward green cards or U.S. citizenship.
“This is about people who tried to follow the process and still are being stymied,” Mr. Hubbard said…..
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Immigration Caseloads Overloads….
Federal officials have quietly begun fast-tracking cases through immigration courts, pushing dozens of additional cases onto the dockets on certain days in an effort to more quickly process asylum and other claims.
The fast-tracking, which is also intended to increase the pace of deportations, started without any formal notification or announcement from the Trump administration, according to immigration lawyers and court officials interviewed by The New York Times. But a surge of cases has been apparent in numerous courts around the country. Some judges have seen their caseloads double and triple, prompting worries that cases are being rushed through, violating due process rights.
At separate courthouses in Annandale and Sterling, Va., in recent days, Times reporters observed long lines and packed dockets. Some immigration judges saw their caseloads more than double, with as many as 100 adults waiting for their cases to be heard. In Annandale, the caseloads have included dozens of unaccompanied minors.
Lines were also evident at a courthouse in downtown Chicago on a recent weekday, with families spilling out of waiting areas and into hallways. Many cases were being processed in small groups, or in several instances with more than two dozen people appearing at once….
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An official with the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which is part of the Justice Department and oversees the immigration court system, said the larger caseloads were a result of the court hiring new immigration judges, and described them as necessary to clear a backlog of upward of 3 million cases this year, according to federal figures….
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But immigration lawyers and rights groups counter that the sudden acceleration of the process risks errors, denies immigrants due process and leaves people with little time to find lawyers….
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The surge comes at a time of upheaval for Mr. Trump’s immigration strategy. On Friday, a federal judge rejected the government’s indefinite hold on asylum applications filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and on immigration applications from people from 39 countries who had been unable to obtain green cards and citizenship. The ruling is not expected to have a major impact on immigration courts.
This week, the Supreme Court also declined to review a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit requiring the government to take more steps to notify immigrants of their hearing dates if their notices are returned in the mail….
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Unlike judges in criminal and civil courts, immigration judges are part of the executive branch, and the Trump administration has taken steps to align them with the president’s pledge to deport record numbers of people. The administration has fired judges seen as insufficiently supportive of the agenda, and has narrowed the factors that qualify people for asylum….
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The judges who remain have been under pressure to issue deportation orders and rule against asylum cases, a Times investigation found. The rate of asylum grants is the lowest since 2009, according to data analyzed by The Times…..
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The Trump Adam Immigration Fire man….Tom Homan….
The Trump administration was on the brink of a major immigration showdown last week in Newark, the first in a blue state since its botched operation in Minneapolis early this year.
By Thursday, the White House had dispatched Tom Homan to meet with state and local officials, just as it did when tensions in Minnesota boiled over. The administration helped secure the Delaney Hall detention site, and the border czar met with local Democrats and state police, claiming later they agreed to most of his demands, including establishing protest zones. Democrats said the Department of Homeland Security fulfilled their ask to restore family visitation to the detention facility….
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Whether the relative calm holds is yet to be seen, but the decision to deploy Homan reflects a playbook the administration is increasingly relying on to respond to heightened unrest. And it underscores the border czar’s enduring influence inside the Trump administration as one of the president’s top aides on immigration policy.
Serving as an adviser to both the president and DHS, the 40-year veteran of immigration enforcement has emerged as a central figure in navigating politically sensitive immigration disputes in blue states. Often sidelined during top-level DHS enforcement strategy discussions during former Secretary Kristi Noem’s tenure, he has become the administration’s preferred envoy for negotiating with Democratic officials when resistance to the president’s immigration agenda intensifies.
People close to the White House note that Homan, who was awarded a presidential rank award for his work as a top immigration official under former President Barack Obama, has street credibility with Democrats in a way other top Trump officials do not. The White House tapped him in Minneapolis to take over the operation after two U.S. citizens were killed by federal agents, and he was also one of the top officials negotiating immigration funding on Capitol Hill, even though the White House and Democrats ultimately failed to reach a deal.
“Where Stephen Miller is tied at the hip to somebody like Trump — so they’re not going to negotiate with Miller — Democrats may be more willing to have some kind of conversations with Homan,” said a Republican close to the White House, granted anonymity to speak about the dynamic….