Last month President Trump signed an executive order that ends the separation of children from their parents under the zero-tolerance policy, which criminally prosecutes immigrants that cross the border without documentation. While President Trump made it clear that the zero-tolerance policy will remain in effect, the executive order states that it is now the administration’s intention to keep immigrant families together throughout the criminal proceedings process. “I didn’t like the sight or the feeling of families being separated,” Trump said at the signing. “At the same time, we are keeping a very powerful border, but continue to be zero tolerance.”
Read moreTime: “Children ‘Don’t Need Jail.’ Immigration Advocates Say President Trump’s Executive Order Creates Even More Problems”
Fundamentally Important
The Washington Post: “’They just took them?’ Frantic parents separated from their kids fill courts on the border”
Under the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy, federal courts across Texas have become flooded with undocumented immigrant mothers and fathers that have been separated from their children and criminally charged for illegally crossing the US border. This new policy shift has become an increasingly popular tactic amongst border patrol officials as a way to stop undocumented immigrants and their families from entering the US. “If you’re smuggling a child, then we’re going to prosecute you, and that child will be separated from you,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions says. “If you don’t want your child to be separated, then don’t bring him across the border illegally.”
Read moreI Could Be That Child
Univision: “In Trump era, immigration lawyers recommend everyone carry ID, no matter your status”
After a Border Patrol agent questioned two US citizens in Montana because they were speaking Spanish, legal experts are now recommending that naturalized citizens, legal permanent residents, and undocumented individuals carry identification with them in the event that it is requested by authorities. While the women were able to demonstrate to the officer that they were US citizens and were not arrested, many immigration advocates found the encounter disturbing. Jaime Barrón, an immigration attorney in Dallas, Texas, says that “simply speaking in another language cannot be an illegal act, that could be discrimination.”
Read moreThe Washington Post: “Immigration crackdown shifts to employers as audits surge”
Under the Trump administration, immigration officials have substantially increased audits on companies to verify that employees are authorized to legally work in the US. The increased efforts are focusing on both building criminal cases against noncompliant employers as well as removing employees working in the US without legal documentation. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reports that there were 2,282 employer audits opened between October 1, 2017 and May 4, 2018, a sixty percent jump from the 1,360 audits opened between October 2016 and September 2017. Derek Benner, head of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit, tells the Associated Press that planned audits for this summer would push the total “well over” 5,000 by September 30. Comparably, in 2013 there were 3,127 ICE audits.
Read moreA Little Bit of Something
Who We Are
The Washington Post: “Federal Judge: Trump administration must accept new DACA applications”
A federal judge in Washington D.C. has ordered the government to continue the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and allow new applicants to apply, calling the Trump administration’s decision to rescind the program for the hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children “virtually unexplained” and “unlawful." In his decision, US District Judge John D. Bates writes that the Trump administration's decision “was arbitrary and capricious because the Department failed adequately to explain its conclusion that the program was unlawful" and that "each day that the agency delays is a day that aliens who might otherwise be eligible for initial grants of DACA benefits are exposed to removal because of an unlawful agency action.” Even so, Judge Bates has stayed his ruling for ninety days to give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) time to provide a more detailed reason for ending the program; otherwise, the judge will rescind the memo that ended the DACA program and allow for new applicants.
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