Today’s worst immigration story: At the border and inside detention facilities, immigration agents are telling asylum applicants that asylum no longer exists, that applications will not be accepted. That’s a violation of both U.S. and international law.
A close runner-up: Inside the United States, Unauthorized immigrants are making temporary guardianship arrangements for their U.S. citizen children. Both parents and children live in fear that one day, when the kids come home from school, their parents will be gone.
In Their Search For Asylum, Central Americans Find The U.S. Is Closing Its Doors (NPR, 3/13/17)
“In January, eight immigrants’ rights organizations filed a formal complaint with the inspector general of the Homeland Security Department. The grievance alleges that CBP officers have been illegally turning away asylum seekers for months now.
“They’re being told President Trump no longer wants immigrants. They’re being told that there is no more asylum in the United States, there’s no more asylum specifically for mothers, which is a terrifying thing I heard recently,” says Elena Alderman, who works with CARA, a pro bono legal group that advises detained immigrants seeking asylum.”
Fearful parents sign papers for friends to care for kids in case they’re deported (Los Angeles Times, 3/13/17)
“Larry Love, who leads a Mormon stake in Salt Lake City, said many like Napola are going a step further: finding trusted people to sign power of attorney papers to ensure their U.S.-born children could continue to thrive in the country if they’re deported.
“Love said in his church of fewer than 200, more than 20 people have signed power of attorney papers with friends or clergy since Trump was inaugurated….
Trump’s season of fear: inside the devastation left by immigration raids (The Guardian, 3/13/17)
“Among the expanded powers that Trump’s executive orders and accompanying memos have given law enforcement since his inauguration, undocumented immigrants can be arrested and deported on mere suspicion of a broad array of offenses. According to immigrant advocates, that might include selling DVDs on the street, lingering in a park by nightfall or walking through an open gate in the subway.
Fearing Deportation, Families Plan For The Worst (NPR, 3/13/17)
“The mother says she’s given her two oldest boys instructions on what to do and who to call. She also put a notarized letter in the binder giving her cousin, an American citizen, legal authority to take care of all of her children until they can be reunited with her in Mexico.
“Her 7-year-old daughter doesn’t really know about any of this. …She’s mostly unaware of the panic seeping in around her.”
“Natalia Margolis, a developer at Huge, created an app called Notifica that allows people detained for deportation to send out an alert to family, friends and lawyers with just the push of a button.”
Daniel Ramirez Medina: I’m a ‘dreamer,’ but immigration agents detained me anyway (Washington Post, 3/13/17)
Here’s why law enforcement groups are divided on legislation to turn California into a ‘sanctuary state’ (Los Angeles Times, 3/12/17)
A Pause in International Students? (The Atlantic, 3/13/17) Declining application numbers for September 2016 have colleges worried.
Trump’s plans to vet visa applicants using social media are flawed, a watchdog says (Los Angeles Times, 3/10/17) According to a report released February 27 by the Office of the Inspector General, the year-old pilot program has not included criteria for evaluating effectiveness.
The True Costs of the Wall: Reduced Security (Lawfare, 3/12/17) Cutting funding for the Coast Guard, TSA and FEMA will endanger national security.
The Border Patrol Is Setting Itself Up to Hire Some Bad Hombres (Mother Jones, 3/13/17) Trump’s plan to quickly hire an additional 5,000 Border Patrol agents and 10,000 ICE agents is headed for the same problems that plagued the early 2000 build-up when hiring “17,000 agents over six years—meant CBP couldn’t properly vet its new employees, and it led to a flood of corruption cases and allegations of excessive use of force.”
Is a ‘Merit-Based’ Immigration System a Good Idea? (The Atlantic, 3/11/17)
Trump’s immigration executive orders create flood of cases for Minnesota’s congressional offices — and a chance to help (MinnPost, 3/13/17)
For Refugees In Germany, Hope And Frustration Mark Path Toward Integration (NPR, 3/13/17)
Legal matters
Lawfare blog presents an extended legal analysis of the latest executive order stopping refugee admissions and admissions from six specific Muslim-majority countries. The first two installments address the legal bases for the executive order and a due process analysis. The third will look at the Establishment Clause (religious discrimination) analysis.
A four-part series, which began today, focuses on legal issues of Trump’s threats to do something to sanctuary cities, however those may be defined.
The Legality of the 3/6/17 Executive Order, Part I: The Statutory and Separation of Powers Analyses (Lawfare, 3/11/17)
The Legality of the 3/6/17 Executive Order, Part II: The Due Process Clause Analysis (Lawfare, 3/12/17)
Sanctuary 101, Part I: What Trump’s Executive Order Doesn’t Do, Cannot Do, and Has Little To Do With (Lawfare, 3/13/17)
Immigration news 