A federal court in Texas blocked the Biden-Harris administration’s attempt to pause removals for 100 days pending a review of enforcement practices. Texas v. United States, No. 6:21-cv-00003 (S.D. Tex. January 26, 2021). Handing a major win to the Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, Trump appointee Drew Tipton granted a temporary restraining order blocking DHS from implementing the 100-day deportation pause. The TRO applies for 14 days. An appeal is likely. As a preliminary matter, the court found that Texas has standing to sue because it provided evidence “of damage to its public fisc by [...]
Biden-Harris immigration priorities signal big shift, raise many questions
Late yesterday, the Biden-Harris administration ended its first day in office signaling that campaign promises to restructure immigration policy were more than empty words. In a series of executive actions signed by President Biden and a memo issued by the temporary head of the Department of Homeland Security, the incoming administration announced a 100-day pause on removals and new enforcement priorities. President Biden set the stage for the new administration’s meaningful immigration policy shift by rescinding his predecessor’s own prioritization scheme. Making good on a campaign [...]
Biden’s Migration Policy Options
After four years of President Donald J. Trump’s virulent rhetorical attacks on migrants and his administration’s heavy-handed policies, the United States is on the verge of experiencing multiple shifts in the politics of migration and its policies toward migrants. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris reject the abrasive, racist rhetoric that propelled President Trump into office and which he embraced throughout his tenure. But while the new administration is sure to adopt a dramatically different tenor toward migrants, there remain important questions about the [...]
Migrating to Prison, one year later
After arriving in the United States in October 2015 with his mother Wendy hoping to find safe harbor, one-year-old Diego was quickly moved to an immigration prison in Pennsylvania. Six hundred fifty days later, Diego and Wendy were still there. “Diego’s situation is alarming, but it’s not unique,” I wrote in Migrating to Prison: America’s Obsession with Locking Up Immigrants. Less than two months from Inauguration Day, change is in the air. Just as winter’s bareness recently overtook fall’s bright colors, Biden’s calm humanity will soon replace Trump’s selfish abrasiveness. One year after [...]
With Biden returning to White House, private prison stock falls
As the outcome of Tuesday’s presidential election began pointing toward a Biden-Harris administration, private prison companies took a financial hit. Over a few days, CoreCivic and GEO Group, the two largest private prison companies in the United States, saw their stock prices drop substantially. Both companies had benefited from the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies. Noticias Telemundo. November 7, 2020. In just a few days, though, investors seem to have grown concerned about the future of the private prison industry under a Biden presidency. From November 3 to [...]
Justice Dept pushes Supreme Court to Imperil Families
By Manuel D. Vargas Against the backdrop of an unprecedented global pandemic endangering the health and well-being of families across the nation and the world, the Supreme Court will hear argument on October 14 in Pereida v. Barr,an immigration case in which Justice Department lawyers are taking an aggressive position that, if adopted by the Court, would further imperil families with immigrant members. The stakes in the Pereida case are high, now more than ever. The petitioner, Clemente Avelino Pereida, has lived in the United States with his family for twenty-five years, working and [...]
Scholar Strike – Race, Immigration, Imprisonment
I am a lawyer by training, an academic by trade, and an intellectual by calling. For years I have devoted myself to understanding and challenging immigration policing in the United States. As part of #ScholarStrike, I'm sharing a lecture I delivered in 2015 at the University of Denver linking race, immigration, and imprisonment. May the story that I told in 2015 one day be nothing more than a nightmare from which we have awaken. [...]
Defund Police, Limit ICE
By the time Antonio Arceo answered a call from his wife’s cell phone and heard a stranger’s voice asking if he knew Roxana García, a simple run-in with the police was plunging their family into a nightmare. The stranger was a sheriff’s deputy who had stopped García for speeding, then arrested her for not carrying a license. She spent one night at a county jail about an hour west of Chicago, then federal immigration officers took her. Soon García would be deported. What began as an ordinary run-in with local cops ended in a family’s separation. Every day, local police are the entry point [...]
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