VOA Immigration Weekly Recap, October 23–29
Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com. DACA Made Into Federal Regulation, but Future Still Uncertain The Biden administration has revised a program that protected from deportation hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, in hopes of satisfying one of the arguments made by Republican-led states in federal courts that the program was not created properly. The new version of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA, was issued by Biden officials in late August and takes effect October 31. It went through a period of public comments as part of a formal rule-making process to increase its odds of surviving an ongoing legal battle. Story by VOA’s immigration reporter Aline Barros. FLASHPOINT UKRAINE: Helping Refugees Find Safety At least two are reported dead after a missile attack in the city of Dnipro. As Russia continues its global disinformation campaign, why is it targeting the African continent? How three high school students are using technology to help young refugees find safety. In Washington, VOA’s Steve Miller hosts VOA’s Flashpoint Ukraine. Migration around the world Canadian …
DACA Becomes Federal Regulation, but Future Still Uncertain
The Biden administration has revised a program that protected from deportation hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, in hopes of satisfying one of the arguments made by Republican-led states in federal courts that the program was not created properly. Biden officials issued the new version of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA, in late August, and it takes effect Monday. It went through a period of public comments as part of a formal rulemaking process to increase its odds of surviving an ongoing legal battle. Those supporting the program say the new rule does not change anything from the 2012 memo issued under the Obama administration that created DACA. The program’s future still lies in the hands of the courts after Monday, when DACA officially becomes a federal regulation. “Through the codifying of DACA, the government tried to really resolve all that, [but] it doesn’t take care of the issue of the other arguments that the states are making, which is that they’re losing money,” Felix Villalobos, affirmative services unit director at RAICES, a nonprofit immigrant-rights group, told VOA. In 2018, Texas and other Republican-led states sued the federal government, …
Venezuelan Migrants Still Coming to US by Land Despite Certain Deportation
Despite recent changes in the Biden administration’s immigration policy and its tightening of border restrictions, Venezuelan migrants who cross into the U.S. illegally continue to turn themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents. VOA News reporter Jorge Agobian spoke with some of those migrants. …
Immigration Stories Capturing the Headlines
Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com. Canadian High Court Weighs Immigration Agreement With US Canada’s highest court is deliberating whether to overturn a nearly 20-year-old immigration agreement with the United States on the grounds that asylum-seekers cannot safely be returned to Canada’s southern neighbor. The story by Craig McCulloch and VOA’s immigration reporter Aline Barros. Venezuelan Migrants in Mexico Protest New US Border Policy Venezuelan migrants hoping to enter the United States from Mexico protested over the weekend a new U.S. program granting legal entry to 24,000 people from the crisis-wracked country while deporting all those who cross the southern border illegally, Agence France-Presse reports. US Policy Prompts Some Venezuelan Migrants to Change Route Venezuelan Gilbert Fernandez still plans to cross the dangerous Darien jungle into Panama and head toward the United States over land, despite a U.S. announcement that it will grant conditional humanitarian permits only to 24,000 Venezuelan migrants arriving by air, The Associated Press reports. New York City Opens Tent Shelter for Hundreds of Migrant Men New York City Wednesday opened an emergency tent shelter to alleviate some of the …
Alaska Asylum Seekers are Indigenous Siberians From Russia
Two Russian Indigenous Siberians were so scared of having to fight the war in Ukraine, they chanced everything to take a small boat across the treacherous Bering Sea to reach American soil, Alaska’s senior U.S. senator said after talking with the two. The two, identified as males by a resident, landed earlier this month near Gambell, on Alaska’s St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Strait, where they asked for asylum. “They feared for their lives because of Russia, who is targeting minority populations, for conscription into service in Ukraine,” Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Saturday during a candidate forum at the Alaska Federation of Natives conference in Anchorage. “It is very clear to me that these individuals were in fear, so much in fear of their own government that they risked their lives and took a 15-foot (5-meter) skiff across those open waters,” Murkowski said when answering a question about Arctic policy. “It is clear that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is focused on a military conquest at the expense of his own people,” Murkowski said. “He’s got one hand on Ukraine and he’s got the other on the Arctic, so we have to be eyes wide open on the …
Immigrant or Refugee? In Canada, All Are ‘Newcomers’
Where is an immigrant not an immigrant? Increasingly, in Canada, where the federal and regional governments, along with companies and private support groups, are adopting the word “newcomer” as a more inclusive term that avoids the stigma sometimes attached to the words “immigrant” and “refugee.” The term can be found wherever immigration issues are discussed, including on the website of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the federal agency dealing with such matters, which hosts a page titled “Newcomer Services.” Provincial governments like those in Ontario and New Brunswick similarly offer webpages welcoming “newcomers.” And the Royal Bank of Canada offers financial advice to immigrants on a webpage titled “Newcomers to Canada.” Newcomers Canada is also the name of a private employment service that bills itself as “the largest network of new Canadians in the country — a place where both newcomers and employers come to map their routes ahead.” The precise definition of newcomer remains vague. According to the website of the volunteer group Access Alliance, it can vary “from someone who arrived in the last three years, to someone who arrived a decade ago. … Some immigrants refuse to be labelled a ‘newcomer,’ while others never feel established enough …
Illegal Border Crossings to US From Mexico Hit Annual High
A surge in migration from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua in September brought the number of illegal crossings to the highest level ever recorded in a fiscal year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The year-end numbers reflect deteriorating economic and political conditions in some countries, the relative strength of the U.S. economy and uneven enforcement of Trump-era asylum restrictions. Migrants were stopped 227,547 times in September at the U.S. border with Mexico, the third-highest month of Joe Biden’s presidency. It was up 11.5% from 204,087 times in August and 18.5% from 192,001 times in September 2021. In the fiscal year that ended September 30, migrants were stopped 2.38 million times, up 37% from 1.73 million times the year before, according to figures released late Friday night. The annual total surpassed 2 million for the first time in August and is more than twice the highest level during Donald Trump’s presidency in 2019. Nearly 78,000 migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua were stopped in September, compared to about 58,000 from Mexico and three countries of northern Central America that have historically accounted for most of the flow. The remarkable geographic shift is at least partly a result of Title 42, …
US Grants Temporary Protected Status to Ethiopians Who Fled Conflict
The U.S. government on Friday granted Temporary Protected Status for 18 months for Ethiopians currently residing in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security said. “The United States recognizes the ongoing armed conflict and the extraordinary and temporary conditions engulfing Ethiopia, and DHS is committed to providing temporary protection to those in need,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement announcing the designation. The Ethiopian military and allies including troops from neighboring Eritrea have been battling forces from the northern region of Tigray on and off for two years. The conflict has killed thousands, displaced millions and left hundreds of thousands on the brink of famine. An estimated 27,000 Ethiopians in the United States will be eligible for TPS under the new designation, a Homeland Security department spokesperson said. To qualify for the program, Ethiopians in the United States will have to show they have been continuously resided in the United States since Oct. 20, 2022, and those who attempt to travel to the United States after that date would not be eligible, the department said. …
New York City Opens Tent Shelter for Hundreds of Migrant Men
New York City on Wednesday opened an emergency tent shelter to alleviate some of the strain the city has felt recently from the steady stream of migrants who have arrived on buses sent by officials in Texas and other Southern U.S. states. The Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center on Randall’s Island, east of Manhattan, will be the temporary home for 500 single migrant men who arrived in the city after their long journeys that began in Venezuela and other places south of the U.S. border. “The history of this country has always been tied to welcoming those who are fleeing harm,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a video on Wednesday about the facility. “New York City has always been a role model on how to effectively use our infrastructure to address a crisis and make sure we treat people in a humane way, and that is what we have done,” he added. The need for the facility comes as the most populous city in the United States continues to receive buses full of migrants from Texas and other Southern states as part of a high-profile campaign by governors to put a spotlight on the record crossings …
Canadian High Court Weighs Immigration Agreement With US
Canada’s highest court is deliberating whether to overturn a nearly 20-year-old immigration agreement with the United States on the grounds that asylum-seekers cannot safely be returned to Canada’s southern neighbor. Canadian immigration experts have argued before the Supreme Court of Canada that the Safe Third Country Agreement should be repealed because of what they describe as “unconscionable” conditions that migrants face when returned to the United States. The agreement was signed in 2002 and went into effect in December 2004. In it, the United States and Canada agreed to turn back travelers at legal land crossings who claim asylum or refugee status in one country after having been in the other. Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, is one of the groups fighting the agreement in the Supreme Court. “What the evidence shows and what we hear from people who’ve experienced it, as well as independent investigations of the situations, is that it is really very abusive conditions of detention, where people spend long periods in conditions that are really atrocious,” she said to VOA. Advocates for scrapping the agreement say it violates Canada’s constitutionally guaranteed rights to “life, liberty and the security of the person” …
US Policy Prompts Some Venezuelan Migrants to Change Route
Venezuelan Gilbert Fernandez still plans to cross the dangerous Darien jungle into Panama and head toward the United States over land, despite a U.S. announcement that it will grant conditional humanitarian permits only to 24,000 Venezuelan migrants arriving by air. “The news hit us like a bucket of cold water,” Fernandez said Thursday, a day after the announcement, which also stated that Venezuelans arriving by land at the Mexico-U.S. border would be returned to Mexico. Fernandez spoke to The Associated Press on a beach in Necocli, a Colombian town where about 9,000 people, mostly Venezuelans, waited to board a boat to take them to the entrance of the Darien Gap connecting the South American country to Panama. From there, migrants head by land through Central America and Mexico toward the U.S. Some on the Colombian beach said they would seek other routes into the United States or give up the voyage after hearing the news. Critics noted that the announced number of humanitarian visas is just a fraction of the number of Venezuelans seeking to enter the United States. No turning back But for Fernandez it was too late to turn back. He said he sold his car and his …
Venezuelan Migrants in Mexico Protest New US Border Policy
Venezuelan migrants hoping to enter the United States from Mexico on Friday protested a new U.S. program granting legal entry to 24,000 people from the crisis-wracked country while deporting all those who cross the southern border illegally. In Matamoros, a Mexican city across the border from Brownsville, Texas, some 70 Venezuelans with their hands painted white marched in chains on the Gateway International Bridge, asking to be allowed on U.S. soil. The demonstrators, part of the first group of deportees under the new immigration rules, wore the uniforms of the detention centers where they were held before being transferred back to Mexico. Washington and Mexico City on Wednesday announced an agreement that would allow 24,000 Venezuelans to enter the United States if they can prove they have sponsorship, and only if they fly into the country. As part of the deal, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden said it would immediately return to Mexico any Venezuelans caught crossing the border illegally. Until now, they had been granted exceptions due to Washington’s distrust of the hard-left regime in Caracas, which it says punishes political opponents. The program — launched a month ahead of elections — is a bid by Biden …
VOA Immigration Weekly Recap, October 9–15
Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com. Documents: Florida Migrant Transport Planning Began in July Florida officials began planning to transport migrants to other states in July and told potential contractors their task would be to relocate them on a voluntary basis, according to state documents, The Associated Press reports. Bedrock of Legal US Immigration Leaves Millions Waiting for Years For decades, sponsorship through immediate families has been significantly backlogged, which immigration advocates say presents barriers to family reunification. Immigration researchers shared with VOA that it would take “some pretty ambitious legislators to change the status quo.” VOA’s immigration reporter Aline Barros reports. US, Mexico OK Ukraine-Type Relief for Venezuelan Migrants The Biden administration agreed to accept up to 24,000 Venezuelan migrants who arrive at U.S. airports, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted since Russia’s invasion, while Mexico has agreed to take back Venezuelans who come to the U.S. illegally over land, the U.S. and Mexico said Wednesday. Effective immediately, Venezuelans who walk or swim across the border will be immediately returned to Mexico under a pandemic rule known as Title 42 authority, which suspends …
Judge Rules New DACA Program Can Continue Temporarily
A federal judge ruled Friday that the current version of a federal policy that prevents the deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. as children can continue, at least temporarily. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen — who last year declared the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program illegal — said that the policy, which is set to proceed under new regulations at the end of the month, can continue with limitations that he previously set. Those limitations say there can be no new applicants for DACA and that those who are already in the program can continue to be in it and renew their applications. During a court hearing Friday, Hanen ordered attorneys for the federal government to provide more information on the new rule and said he expects additional legal arguments related to it, but there was no timetable set for future hearings. It’s also unclear when Hanen will give his final decision on the case, which is expected to end up at the U.S. Supreme Court. “The legality of the new DACA regulation … is now the task before this court,” said Nina Perales, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational …
US, Mexico OK Ukraine-Type Relief for Venezuelan Migrants
The Biden administration agreed to accept up to 24,000 Venezuelan migrants who arrive at U.S. airports, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted since Russia’s invasion, while Mexico has agreed to take back Venezuelans who come to the U.S. illegally over land, the U.S. and Mexico said Wednesday. Effective immediately, Venezuelans who walk or swim across the border will be immediately returned to Mexico under a pandemic rule known as Title 42 authority, which suspends rights to seek asylum under U.S. and international law on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. Any Venezuelan who illegally enters Mexico or Panama after Wednesday will also be ineligible to come to the U.S. under the offer. The U.S. offer of parole for up to 24,000 Venezuelans is modeled on a similar program for Ukrainians who fled Russia’s invasion and will hinge on Mexico “keeping in place its independent but parallel effort” to take back Venezuelans who come illegally, the Department of Homeland Security said. The moves are a response to a dramatic increase in migration from Venezuela, which leapt over Guatemala and Honduras in August to become the second largest nationality arriving at the U.S. border after Mexico. “These actions make clear …
Bedrock of Legal US Immigration Leaves Millions Waiting for Years
Julie Hirsch, a Florida resident, has lived in the U.S. since 1987. “I came with a student visa,” she said of her time studying in New York. Her family moved to the United States from China a decade after the Cultural Revolution, a period of violent upheaval in which an estimated 2 million people died. “[We] are survivors, you know,” she said. Hirsch said her father, Joseph Ying Cheng, worked with the U.S. Navy during the early 1940s and through his military connections later brought his family to the United States. “Basically, [one of his Navy friends] convinced him to come to the United States. … My father came in 1980. After that, he brought us here,” she said. Hirsch told VOA that after her father became a U.S. citizen, he sponsored his two unmarried adult children. But a third child, the oldest, was married and decided to stay in Shanghai, China. “My older brother was a businessman. He did not want to come here. He only wanted to visit,” she said. But in 2005, Hirsch said her father applied to sponsor her older brother, Dejian Cheng, anyway, through the family-based immigration avenues available under U.S. immigration law. “ ‘You …
Documents: Florida Migrant Transport Planning Began in July
Florida officials began planning to transport migrants to other states in July and told potential contractors their task would be to relocate them on a voluntary basis, according to state documents. The documents released Friday night to The Associated Press and other news organizations provide new details about the program that culminated in the September 14 flight of 48 mostly Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha’s Vineyard, an island off Massachusetts. The flight has spawned an investigation by a Texas sheriff and two lawsuits amid criticism that the program was a political stunt by Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to appeal to his conservative base. DeSantis is running for reelection this year and is frequently mentioned as a potential 2024 presidential candidate. His office did not immediately respond to an email Saturday seeking comment about the document release. According to the documents, the program as outlined in July was intended to “assist in the voluntary relocation of Unauthorized Aliens who are found in Florida and have agreed to be relocated” elsewhere in the country. It made no mention of finding migrants in Texas. One Florida-based bidder that was not chosen, Gun Girls Procurement Solutions Inc., quoted a price …
VOA Immigration Weekly Recap, October 2–8
Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com. US Immigration Family Sponsorship For decades, sponsorship through immediate families has been significantly backlogged, which immigration advocates say presents barriers to family reunification. An immigration researcher told VOA that it would take “some pretty ambitious legislators to change the status quo.” Story by VOA’s immigration reporter Aline Barros. US Appeals Court Sends DACA Case Back to Lower Court A federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that a program that has protected hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation was unlawful but said current enrollees could renew their status and sent the case back to a lower court to consider a new Biden administration regulation. The court allowed for the current 594,000 DACA enrollees to maintain their status but continues to block new applications. Reuters reports. 2 Russians Seek Asylum in US After Reaching Remote Alaska Island Two Russians who said they fled their country to avoid military service have requested asylum in the U.S. after landing in a small boat on a remote Alaska island in the Bering Sea, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s …
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