July 24 - 30Trump and Congress Overlook Job-Creating Immigrant Startup Visas
Forbes | Stuart Anderson | July 30 “The Trump administration has not promoted a job-creating visa for immigrant entrepreneurs in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, despite touting the immigration systems in those countries. In 2013, the U.S. Senate passed a startup visa included as part of a bill that did not become law, but since then has not advanced similar legislation. New research finds U.S. policymakers can learn from other nations that allow foreign nationals to gain permanent residence by starting a business that creates jobs. The visa can become part of an economic comeback from the coronavirus pandemic.” Trump’s Immigration Legacy to be Presented in Re-Election Bid Forbes | Andy J. Semotiuk | July 30 “Five years ago, President Trump declared that if he was elected president he would build a wall along the U.S. Mexico border and make Mexico pay for it. That idea was first developed in the summer of 2014 as a memorable talking point for Trump to tie his real estate developer experience to his anti-immigration policy theme. That theme was part of his isolationist, America First orientation.” Once an Immigrant Has a Green Card, Here’s What They Have to Do to Become a U.S. Citizen Miami Herald | Daniel Shoer Roth | July 29 “Becoming a United States citizen provides rights and privileges such as voting, traveling with a U.S. passport, bringing family members permanently to the United States, sponsoring citizenship for children born abroad and obtaining government benefits. Since applications for citizenship are currently taking up to two years, it is important that eligible immigrants submit their petitions as soon as they meet the requirements, immigration advocates say. The process often requires help from an immigration attorney, but some legal permanent residents try to obtain U.S. citizenship through naturalization on their own.”
0 Comments
July 17 - 23U.S. Immigration Shutdown Looms As Congress Ponders What’s Next
Forbes | Andy J. Semotiuk | July 24 “Could the U.S. immigration system come to a grinding halt shortly? There are concerns that’s exactly what could happen due to a budgetary crisis that has arisen at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). The full impact of a shortage of money and a shut down of service is hard to imagine, but it is likely to be huge. Congressional wrangling over what to include in the next major bipartisan pandemic response legislation – assuming Republicans and Democrats in Washington are able to eventually reach agreement - does not seem to include any reference to the USCIS problem so far.” More than 300,000 Immigrants May Not Become Citizens in Time to Vote as COVID-19 Stalls Process USA Today | Daniel Gonzalez (Arizona Republic) | July 21 “Alex Beric, a 44-year-old immigrant from England, applied for naturalization in May 2019. He was hoping to become a U.S. citizen in time to vote in the presidential election this November. But now he is one of more than 300,000 immigrants at risk of not becoming citizens in time to cast ballots after the federal agency in charge of processing naturalization applications suspended in-person interviews and oath ceremonies this spring amid the coronavirus pandemic.” Trump Signs Order Targeting Undocumented Immigrants in the US Census CNN | Kevin Liptak, Maegan Vazquez, Ariane de Vogue, and Catherine E. Shoichet | July 21 “President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Tuesday that would exclude undocumented immigrants from being counted in congressional districts when district lines are redrawn next year. The memorandum marks the Trump administration's latest effort to change the way US populations are counted and advance the President's immigration agenda. And like previous efforts, the issue will end up in court. "I have accordingly determined that respect for the law and protection of the integrity of the democratic process warrant the exclusion of illegal aliens from the apportionment base, to the extent feasible and to the maximum extent of the President's discretion under the law," the order states.” July 10 - 16Many Fil-Am Families in LA Support Distance Learning Despite Equity Concerns
Balitang America | Steve Angeles | July 16 “The nation’s second-largest school system will continue with online learning until further notice. While Filipino community members are concerned that students from working families will lack guidance, and those who have no access to needed technology will not be able to catch up with their studies, many Filipino families are supporting distance learning, primarily because they refuse to bring their kids back to school during the pandemic.” Coronavirus Created a Backlog of Thousands Waiting for U.S. Citizenship. Will They Get It in Time to Vote? Time | Lissandra Villa | July 16 “In February, the Pew Research Center estimated more than 23 million U.S. immigrants would be eligible to vote, comprising about 10% of the national electorate. Now, because of the pandemic, Alvarez has landed on a long list of people who are worried their citizenship won’t come through in time to vote in the high-stakes election. Critics of the Trump Administration, which has aggressively pursued an anti-immigrant agenda, believe it is not moving fast enough on that backlog in a deliberate effort to disenfranchise immigrant voters.” U.S. Reverses Student Visa Curbs After Harvard, MIT Fight Bloomberg | Clare Roth, Janella Lawrence, and Janet Lorin | July 15 “The U.S. reversed a new policy on student visas after a high-profile confrontation with Harvard University, MIT and hundreds of other colleges, ending a standoff that could have sent thousands of students back to their home countries and left schools scrambling to plan for the fall. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs announced at an online hearing on Tuesday that the government had agreed to rescind last week’s requirement that international students take at least one in-person class, even amid the resurgent coronavirus pandemic and as colleges prepare online-only coursework. But she said the case isn’t closed, raising questions about the nature of the agreement and whether U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had abandoned its position or was retreating and regrouping to fight another day.” July 3 - 9How the Trump Administration is Turning Legal Immigrants into Undocumented Ones
The Washington Post | Catherine Rampell | July 9 “The Trump administration is turning legal immigrants into undocumented ones. That is, the “show me your papers” administration has literally switched off printers needed to generate those “papers.” Without telling Congress, the administration has scaled back the printing of documents it has already promised to immigrants — including green cards, the wallet-size I.D.’s legal permanent residents must carry everywhere to prove they are in the United States lawfully." Trump is Now Blocking Most of the Legal Paths to Immigrate to the US CNN | Priscilla Alvarez and Catherine E. Schoichet | July 9 “As the coronavirus spreads around the world, the Trump administration has steadily choked off most avenues for legal immigration to the United States -- effectively shutting down the system that brings in hundreds of thousands of immigrants annually. In a span of four months, people who legally migrated to the United States -- or are trying to -- have had their lives uprooted amid a litany of changes attributed to the pandemic. The abrupt changes have left immigrants and their families in limbo -- confused, frustrated and scrambling to sort out their next steps. The reasons provided by the Trump administration vary, from protecting American workers at a time when the unemployment rate is high to putting public health first.” Trump Visa Rules Seen as Way to Pressure Colleges on Reopening New York Times | Miriam Jordan, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Dan Levin | July 7 “A directive by the Trump administration that would strip international college students of their U.S. visas if their coursework was entirely online prompted widespread confusion on Tuesday as students scrambled to clarify their statuses and universities reassessed their fall reopening policies amid the coronavirus pandemic. The White House measure, announced on Monday, was seen as an effort to pressure universities into reopening their gates and abandoning the cautious approaches that many have announced they would adopt to reduce Covid-19 transmission. The effect may be to dramatically reduce the number of international students enrolling in the fall. Together with delays in processing visas as a result of the pandemic, immigrant advocates say the new rules, which must still be finalized this month, might discourage many overseas students from attending American universities, where they often pay full tuition.” June 26 - July 2$1 Billion Shortfall, Furloughs Could Bring US Immigration System to a Halt
CNN | Geneva Sands and Priscilla Alvarez | July 2 “The federal agency responsible for granting citizenship, providing immigration benefits, and processing visa applications is bracing to furlough over 13,000 employees next month -- a move that could grind the US immigration system to a halt. US Citizenship and Immigration Services, a fee-funded agency, says it's in the hole after having to close offices and put services on pause during the pandemic. Over recent weeks, the agency has been preparing to furlough more than half of its workforce unless Congress provides additional funding. The agency has asked for $1.2 billion.” Drive-Through Naturalizations Make New U.S. Citizens in the COVID-19 Era NPR | Max Rivlin-Nadler | July 2 “In El Cajon, Calif., a procession of cars carrying 600 soon-to-be U.S. citizens from 68 countries passed through a series of stations behind a local community center earlier this week, where they were asked a series of final questions: "Any coronavirus symptoms? Have you been arrested since your interview? No tickets, nothing like that?" After that, they were asked to surrender their green card and given a small U.S. flag. Driving a little farther forward, an immigration officer wearing a face cover administered the oath of allegiance 6 feet from the car's window. And in a matter of minutes, years of uncertainty were over — hundreds of people became U.S. citizens over the course of the day.” It Took Me 19 Years to Become a US Citizen. Here’s How My Journey Compares to the Average Immigrant Business Insider | Shayanne Gal | July 1 “In August 1998, when I was five years old, my family immigrated to the United States...In March 2017, almost 19 years later, I became a naturalized citizen at 24. Like so many naturalized citizens, my family's journey through the immigration process was a lengthy struggle that cost us thousands of dollars, required access to legal resources, and caused us a ton of stress and uncertainty about the future. It was 19 years of registrations, visa renewals, applications, and interviews.” |
Archives
January 2023
Categories
All
|