Musings on Immigration

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 25, 2017, outlining a series of actions he directs the DHS, DOJ and related agencies to take in regards to internal enforcement of U.S. immigration law and to border security.  Many of these actions are already part of federal law, but many others will require congressional approval and appropriation of funds to carry out.   Much of what President Trump did today in this specific Executive Order (not the one on visa processing and refugees), will have an immediate impact on people's lives, but will not do anything to solve the problem of a broken immigration system. Here is what this Order does: 1.  Calls for planning, designing and constructing a wall on our international border with Mexico. This will require extensive funding from Congress (e.g. the American Taxpayer) for the immediate cost of about $25 Billion Dollars (give or take a few billion).   He also called for maintaining the wall (more billi...

I had the pleasure and blessing to work with a man from El Salvador who used to work as an officer of the National Civil Police (or Policía Nacional Civil—in Spanish). He arrived to the U.S. (without documentation) after fleeing El Salvador following death threats and several encounters where he was shot by members of the Mara gang. After litigating the case for several months, my client had his final trial this past Friday, March 11, in Lumpkin, GA, where the Immigration Judge decided that he will get to remain in the U.S. This man, who was detained in Stewart Detention Center (Lumpkin, GA) had suffered great harm in El Salvador before coming the U.S.: he was threatened to death constantly by gang members he would arrest and testify against, and on two occasions, he was shot at by gang members—the last incident resulting in a bullet wound, which made him realize he either fled his country, or he would surely die. If a foreign national suffers harm abroad and/or fears he will ...

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency in charge of enforcing our country’s immigration laws, just launched a series of raids in North Carolina, Texas, and Georgia, to deport people (including young children and mothers) who, among other things, entered as undocumented after Jan. 1, 2014, or were ordered removed after Jan. 1, 2014. We have heard (from clients and friends) that young children and mothers are being places in custody and are being pushed to be removed quickly. Many—if not most—of these people are immigrants from Central America who fled their countries starting 2014 because of the violence caused by drugs,  gangs like the MS-13, and the inability of local police to stop these increasing threats. These immigrants fled to the United States, not because they are criminals, but because they have become refugees fleeing their war-torn countries where they sincerely fear they will be killed. The ICE raids that have just started this past weekend will...

After I got my undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill I had no idea what I was going to do with my life. I moved to San Diego, learned how to surf and worked with the San Diego Counsel on Literacy. While I was in San Diego I heard the executive director of the Tahirih Justice Center, Layli Miller-Muro, talk about applying for asylum based on female genital mutilation at the San Diego Baha’i Center. Now, prior to this talk I had no idea what asylum or female genital mutilation was all about. But after Layli was done talking about it I could not believe what I was hearing was actually true and that it went on in certain parts of the world. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the removal of part, or all, of the female genitalia. FGM may refer to clitoridectomy (removal of the clitoris), excision (removal of the labia minora), or infibulation (removal of the clitoris, labia minora and majora, and stitching together). The procedure is usually performed in u...

Matter of M-A-S, 24I&N Dec. 762 (BIA 2009), a new case was decided by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“Board”) on March 19, 2009, holds that, “[a]n Immigration Judge may order an alien detained until departure as a condition of a grant of voluntary departure”. In this case, the respondent was denied his claim for asylum and as a condition of voluntary departure was ordered detained until his departure. What’s worse is that the respondent appealed this decision to the Board and has been detained for almost a year awaiting adjudication of his appeal! The respondent argued that only DHS, not an Immigration Judge, has the authority to refuse bond and grant voluntary departure under safeguards. Voluntary departure under safeguards, by definition, means that an individual is given permission to voluntarily depart the United States, but they will not be released from detention before doing so. They will remain detained until they are removed under the order. They are not permitted relea...