Tag: Immigration

Texas Border City Sues Biden Administration over Illegal Immigration

The Center Square

The Texas border city of Laredo has sued the Biden administration, hoping to halt its policy of transferring several hundred people a day into the city who have illegally entered the U.S. through two Texas Border Patrol sectors: Rio Grande Valley and Del Rio.

Assistant City Attorney Alyssa Castillon sued the Department of Homeland Security and its secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, Customs and Border Protection and its senior official, Troy Miller, and Border Patrol chief Rodney S. Scott. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Border Patrol intends to double the number of people it brings from the Rio Grande Valley sector, which has seen the largest surge of illegal border crossings in the past few months. Laredo officials estimate that every day, between three and six buses of detained refugees, immigrants and migrants (RIMs) are already being transported to Laredo from the Rio Grande Valley and Del Rio sectors, totaling between 250 and 350 people a day.

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In Suppression of First Amendment, Biden Forbids Immigration Judges from Using the Term ‘Alien’

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Biden Administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) issued an order last week demanding that immigration judges no longer use the term “alien” when referring to illegal aliens in court or in their written opinions, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

The order, first issued on July 23rd, came from a DOJ official named Jean King. King’s order applies to all 539 immigration judges in the country, and orders them to instead use more politically correct terms, such as “respondent, applicant, petitioner, beneficiary, migrant, noncitizen, or non-U.S. citizen.” “Alien” has been the correct terminology for anyone who enters the United States illegally ever since the Immigration and Nationality Act, which defines an alien as “any person not a citizen or national of the United States.”

In the order, King admitted that the DOJ decision was influenced in part by the mainstream media, citing the fact that the Associated Press first decided back in 2013 to drop the use of the term “illegal immigrant,” which led to a left-wing trend to replace the word “illegal” with “undocumented.” Since taking office in January, Biden has taken steps to remove the use of the phrases “alien” and “illegal immigrant” through several executive orders. Some radical Democrats, including Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), have advocated for passing a law to ban the use of such phrases. And in New York City, a recent law was passed to make it a crime to use the phrases “illegal” and “illegal alien.”

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Biden Admin Will Keep a Trump-Era Public Health Order Expelling Most Migrants in Place, Citing COVID-19 Variants

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Biden administration will keep a Trump-era public health order used to expel most migrants from the U.S. in place, citing COVID-19 variants, Reuters reported Thursday.

President Joe Biden reportedly planned to lift public health order Title 42 restrictions for migrant families at the end of July, according to Reuters. The administration decided not to lift the order in light of rising COVID-19 infections in Mexico and the spread of the delta variant, according to three people familiar with the matter, Reuters reported.

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Texas Starts Jailing Illegal Aliens on State Charges of Trespassing

Minnesota Sun Staff

Texas authorities announced on Thursday that state law enforcement has begun the process of arresting and jailing illegal aliens who cross the border on state trespassing charges, in a new effort to crack down on illegal immigration where the federal government is failing to do so, ABC News reports.

This latest step follows up on the promises of Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas), who first vowed in June to step up enforcement of immigration laws in the state in direct response to the Biden Administration’s open-borders approach. Abbott also declared that the state would continue building the border wall that was started by President Donald Trump, on which Biden had halted construction after taking power.

The arrested illegals are being detained at a state prison in the city of Dilley, roughly 100 miles north of the border. All of the illegals who have been arrested thus far are single adult men, who are the most likely to be a threat to society. The prison in question is capable of holding up to 950 illegals, but Abbott said in a visit to the border on Saturday that “the state jail commission has worked out a way to jail far more people than are currently being jailed.”

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Report: Biden Admin Will Keep Restrictions Allowing Border Officials to Expel Migrants for Another Month

Minnesota Sun Staff
Crowd of immigrants

The Biden administration will reportedly keep restrictions allowing border officials to expel most migrants for another month, The Monitor reported Wednesday.

The Trump administration implemented public health order Title 42 prohibiting some individuals from entering the U.S. in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Border officials encountered nearly 190,000 migrants at the southern border in June and over 100,000 of those were rapidly expelled under Title 42, according to CBP.

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CBP Reports Nearly 190,000 Illegal Border Crossers Came into the U.S. from Mexico in June

Minnesota Sun Staff

Border officials encountered nearly 190,000 migrants at the southern border in June, a 5% increase over May’s numbers, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced Friday.

There was a significant increase in the number of re-encounters in June, with 34% of individuals having at least one prior encounter in the past 12 months, compared to the average one-year re-encounter rate of 14% for Fiscal Years 2014-2019, the agency said in a statement.

“The large number of expulsions during the pandemic has contributed to a larger-than-usual number of migrants making multiple border crossing attempts,” CBP said. “Which means that total encounters somewhat overstate the number of unique individuals arriving at the border.”

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ICE Won’t Detain Most Migrant Women Who Are New or Expecting Mothers for Deportation: Report

Minnesota Sun Staff

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials won’t detain most migrant women who are new or expecting mothers for deportation, The Washington Post reported Friday.

The new policy is aimed at the “health and safety” of most pregnant, nursing and postpartum migrant women, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said in a statement, according to the Post. The policy overturns a Trump-era practice where officials detained thousands of new or expecting mothers.

The policy also acknowledges “the time needed for infant development and parental bonding,” the officials said, the Post reported.

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Border Patrol’s Fentanyl Seizures Increase by 4,000 Percent Amid Crisis, Officials Say

Minnesota Sun Staff
Twitter post that states "Officers at #CBPLaredo remain at the forefront of border security operations to protect the public of lethal narcotics, as seen in this seizure of fentanyl worth $384K."

Border officials seized 4,000% more fentanyl in 2021 than in 2018 as the border crisis continues, NBC News reported Tuesday.

Cartels have taken advantage of increased federal resources allocated for migrant encounters to smuggle fentanyl into the U.S. between ports of entry, according to NBC News. Border officials have found 41 pounds of fentanyl in fiscal year 2021, compared with nine pounds in 2020, two pounds in 2019 and one pound in 2018.

“For the first time, we’re starting to see these tactics where fentanyl is being smuggled between ports of entry,” Chief Border Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez said, NBC News reported. “Cartels are very creative. They find ways to intimidate migrants and find ways to illegally have them transport that narcotic into the United States.”

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Biden Admin Looks for Ways to Track Up to 100,000 Migrants Released into the U.S.

Minnesota Sun Staff
The temporary processing facilities in Donna, Texas, February 25, 2021, constructed to safely process family units and unaccompanied alien children (UACs) encountered and in the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol. The facility will provide processing capacity in the RGV while the permanent Centralized Processing Center in McAllen is renovated. CBP photo by Jerry Glaser

The Biden administration solicited information that could help form a National Case Management Program to track up to 100,000 migrants released into the U.S. annually, documents uploaded Monday show.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would manage the program aimed at migrant adults aged 18 to 21 and other “vulnerable populations” to make sure the migrants are safe and prepared to attend their immigration court hearings, documents show. The request is solely for information gathering and does not mean the federal government will contract with any company that responds.

The program would “ensure that the program participants are safe, stable, and able to prepare for and attend their upcoming court dates and other immigration obligations and have access to legal and other services as needed while in the community,” according to the documents.

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Trump Says Southern Border Is ‘More Dangerous Than It’s Ever Been’ Under Biden

Minnesota Sun Staff

Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday the southern border is “more dangerous than it’s ever been” after the Biden administration reversed most of Trump’s immigration policies, Fox News reported.

The Biden administration ended Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program on June 1 and is eyeing an end to public health order Title 42 that allows border officials to rapidly expel most migrants to Mexico at the end of July, Axios reported June 20. Biden also said he would stop construction on the border wall, prompting Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to announce plans for the state to begin construction on its own wall, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported.

“There has never been a border so secure as the southern border that we had, and now it’s opened up,” Trump said, according to Fox News. “Now we have an open, really dangerous, border. More dangerous than it’s ever been in the history of our country, and we better go back fast.”

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Commentary: Biden’s Reversal of Border COVID Rules Is an Act of Sabotage

Minnesota Sun Staff
Joe Biden

Since the Biden Administration assumed power in January, many Americans could be forgiven for feeling like they’re being held hostage, tied up in the trunk of a car, and driven to a place they do not want to go. Nowhere is this more evident than on the immigration problem, where Biden has reversed numerous policies that kept American safe, and it seems he has done so for no other reason than because Donald Trump is the one who put them in place.

Because he is beholden to the radical Left for his ascension to the White House, Biden predictably has adopted the usual anti-borders agenda including catch-and-release, demoralizing ICE, and defunding border wall construction. His expected next move, the reversal of Trump-era rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19 into the United States, is nothing short of political sabotage.

While COVID-19 may be on the decline in the United States, thanks in large part to the Trump Administration’s work on Operation Warp Speed, the same cannot be said for many of the poverty-stricken, underdeveloped countries from which those who most often show up at our doorstep originate. Just as our nation is turning the corner on a deadly global pandemic, it makes absolutely no sense at this moment to ease up on health restrictions on foreign nationals seeking entry. Only someone with Machiavellian political motives would propose such lunacy.

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Border Patrol Chief to Step Down

Minnesota Sun Staff
Rodney Scott

Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott will step down after more than 29 years with Customs and Border Protection, he announced Wednesday.

Scott will remain in his position for around 60 days as the agency transitions, he said in a private Facebook post. A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shared a screenshot of Scott’s Facebook message with the Daily Caller News Foundation and said the agency would make a formal announcement.

“I received my 3R letter today. For those not familiar, that is Federal government slang for the letter issued to (senior executive staff) level employees informing them of a directed reassignment,” Scott said in the post. “The recipient has 3 options – relocate, resign or retire. No rationale or reason is required, nor is it disciplinary.”

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Biden Admin Considering Ending the Public Heath Order Allowing Officials to Expel Migrants Next Month

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Biden administration is considering ending a Trump-era public health order that’s allowed border officials to rapidly expel most migrants from Mexico on July 21, Axios reported Sunday.

The public health order, Title 42, was implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and border officials have expelled tens of thousands of migrants under the rule, according to Axios. Immigration advocacy groups and Democrats have criticized the Biden administration for the policy and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials protested using the order to expel migrants arriving at the border, Axios reported.

“It’s not a tool of immigration policy,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said of Title 42 during a trip to Mexico City Tuesday, Reuters reported. He added that the order would remain in effect as long as it would benefit public health.

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Immigration Cases Have Doubled Since 2017

Minnesota Sun Staff
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Immigration cases deciding if migrants will be legally allowed to stay in the U.S. have doubled since 2017, according to migration data released Monday.

Over 1.3 million cases are pending, with more than 110,000 pending in New York courts alone, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). Migrants wait an average of two and a half years for a judge to decide their case, Axios reported Monday.

“The number of pending deportation cases more than doubled during the Trump administration, but the court backlog still continues to grow under the Biden administration,” TRAC Assistant Professor Austin Kocher told the Daily Caller News Foundation Tuesday.

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New Immigration Policy Will Expand Access to Work Permits and Provide Deportation Relief for Crime Victims

Minnesota Sun Staff

Some immigrants who were victims of crimes will be able to more easily apply for work permits and allowed relief from deportation, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Monday.

The new process will allow immigrants with U visas, granted to migrants who are victims of criminal activity, expedited access to work permits if their claims are found to be made in good faith and they aren’t trying to defraud the immigration system, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced.

For a petition to be considered bona fide, the applicant must have properly filed their forms and a personal statement describing their situation with the agency along with necessary biometric data.

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Illegal Border Crossings Surge to Highest Rates in Over 10 Years

Minnesota Sun Staff
Illegal Aliens apprehended by Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents with assistance from agents from Air and Marine Operations, Tucson Air Branch.

After less than 6 months, the number of illegal border crossings into the United States has spiked to a record not seen in well over a decade, according to Axios.

From October 1st, 2020, to May 31st of this year, almost 900,000 illegal aliens were stopped at the border by authorities. In the month of May, there were over 170,000 apprehensions of illegals, following the trends set by the months of March and April, which themselves marked 20-year highs in the number of illegal alien apprehensions.

Despite Joe Biden’s reversals of many of President Donald Trump’s successful immigration policies, the Border Patrol continues to turn away many illegals due to the ongoing threat of the COVID-19 virus. However, as Axios notes, illegals who are turned away for this particular reason often make several attempts to cross the border, with each failure counted as a separate rejection rather than a repeat offense, adding to the overall number.

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Biden Administration Threatens to Sue If Texas Governor Closes Migrant Detention Centers

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Biden administration threatened to sue Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott if the state follows through with plans to stop working with the federal government to detain migrant minors, according to a letter from federal officials Monday.

Abbott issued a disaster declaration on May 31 that ordered all facilities operating on federal contracts to house migrants who entered the country illegally to close. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said Abbott’s declaration illegally discriminates against the federal government’s 52 state-licensed facilities operating in Texas to house unaccompanied migrant minors.

“The May 31 Proclamation discriminates against the Federal government by targeting the licenses held only by those entities providing shelter to ‘unlawful immigrants or other individuals not lawfully present in the United States under a contract with the federal government,’” according to HHS.

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Advocacy Groups Ask Biden Admin to Stop Surveilling Approximately 100,000 Immigrants

Minnesota Sun Staff
Close the camps protest, dated 2019

Immigration advocacy groups asked the Biden administration to end an Immigration and Customs Enforcement digital program surveilling approximately 100,000 immigrants, The Guardian reported Tuesday.

Latino social justice movement Mijente and immigrant rights group Just Futures Law released “Ice Digital Prisons,” a report explaining how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) monitors immigrants using ankle monitors, facial recognition and digital applications, according to The Guardian.

The report asserts that the strategies currently in use “do more harm and inhibit any true progress in providing the social and economic tools for immigrants to thrive in their communities,” The Guardian reported.

The technology used by ICE criminalizes immigrants and can negatively impact their quality of life, the report claims.

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Senators Propose $1 Billion to Aid DHS in Addressing Future Migrant Surges

Minnesota Sun Staff
Members of Galveston County S.W.A.T. work with with Customs and Border Protection Agents during Maritime Tactical Operations Group vessel boarding training in the Houston Ship Channel, Aug. 23, 2016.

Senators introduced legislation that would require federal agencies tasked with managing migration at the border to make strategic plans and allow access to $1 billion in contingency funding, lawmakers announced Friday.

Republican Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and Democratic Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly introduced the Border Response Resilience Act that would establish a $1 billion “Irregular Migration Border Response Fund” for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide food, clothing, blankets, and transportation for unaccompanied migrant minors and family members without having to transfer funding allocated to border security, according to the lawmakers. The act would require federal officials to make plans and “conduct exercises to improve the federal response to increased migration at the border.”

“DHS has been unprepared for unlawful migrant surges at our southern border in 2014, 2019, and again during the current crisis. This is unacceptable. DHS and other federal agencies must be able to respond immediately to the need for shelter for migrants as well as additional personnel to handle surging numbers of unlawful migrants at our border,” Portman said in a statement.

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Biden Admin Plans to Direct $861 Million to Central American Countries So That Their People Won’t Invade the Border

Minnesota Sun Staff
Kamala Harris talking to Administration about immigration policy

The Biden administration aims to send $861 million to Central American countries to address causes of mass migration to the U.S., according to the budget released Friday.

The administration plans to provide $861 million in federal aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico in order to “address the root causes of irregular migration,” according to the proposed budget for 2022. Vice President Kamala Harris asked private sector companies to “make new, significant commitments” to create sustainable economic opportunities aimed at ending the migration crisis at the southern border on Thursday, according to the White House.

“Our comprehensive strategy to address the root causes of migration will involve significant commitments of U.S. government resources to support the long-term development of the region—including efforts to foster economic opportunity, strengthen governance, combat corruption, and improve security,” the White House said in a statement.

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Big Banks Support Biden Amnesty Plan

Minnesota Sun Staff
Joe Biden at desk, looking over documents

The CEOs of six of the nation’s largest banks all voiced their support for Joe Biden’s plans to give blanket amnesty to as many as 22 million illegal aliens, Breitbart reports.

The chiefs of Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo all said as such during a Senate Banking Committee hearing. When asked about such an amnesty plan, the CEOs agreed that mass amnesty “would ultimately help us build a more robust, stronger economy,” even though there is no evidence to support such a claim.

It was Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) who asked the question of the CEOs, and subsequently bragged about their answers on social media after the hearing. Referring to it as “good news for my colleagues who won’t take any action unless their friends on Wall Street give them the OK.”

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Thousands of Migrants Biden Said Would Be Allowed to Enter the U.S. Turned Back to Mexico

Minnesota Sun Staff

Thousands of migrants ordered to remain in Mexico as their asylum cases were processed were returned to the country indefinitely despite the Biden administration admitting most of the remaining cases into the U.S., the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

President Joe Biden ended former President Donald Trump’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) requiring migrants to “Remain in Mexico” and has admitted thousands of the 26,000 migrants with active cases into the U.S., the AP reported. Judges have terminated proceedings in nearly 6,700 MPP cases, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).

“Things have changed under the Biden administration and we’ve seen a little over 8,000 individuals previously in MPP have their cases transferred out of an MPP court, which suggests that they have been allowed into the US under the more standard asylum processing procedures,” Syracuse University Assistant Research Professor Dr. Austin Kocher told the Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday.

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Commentary: How the Biden-Harris Migration ‘Fix’ Would Throw Good Billions After Bad

Minnesota Sun Staff

The journey of Central American migrants to the U.S. border—a perilous trip across thousands of miles of mountains and deserts—starts in places like the dry corridor in western Honduras.

Many of the region’s one million small farmers still live in adobe huts with no running water. Corrupt Honduran officials have invested too little in stabilizing or modernizing the region, allowing violent gangs to extort families. Recent droughts and hurricanes have created widespread hunger.

These longstanding problems throughout Central America are driving the current crisis on the southern U.S. border, where more than 170,000 migrants arrived in March in search of jobs and asylum. As the Biden Administration grapples with this mounting surge, it’s proposing a $4 billion long-term plan (the biggest ever for the region) to attack the root causes of migration—corruption, violence, and poverty—in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

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Biden Admin to Close ICE Detention Centers Where Officials Allegedly Performed Unnecessary Hysterectomies and Used Excessive Force Against Detainees

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Biden administration plans to close two Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers after allegations of medical and physical abuse against detainees, CNN reported Thursday.

A doctor allegedly performed unauthorized hysterectomies and neglected other detainees at the privately operated Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, while it is alleged that officials exercised excessive use of force against peaceful detainees at the C. Carlos Carreiro Immigration Detention Center in Bristol County, Massachusetts, both facilities are expected to close, according to CNN.

“We have an obligation to make lasting improvements to our civil immigration detention system,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement, CNN reported. “This marks an important first step to realizing that goal.”

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Commentary: Two Studies on Immigration and Race, with Surprising Details

Minnesota Sun Staff
Group of people holding small American flags

Two mainstream think tanks have published new studies on immigration and race in America that come to the typical, safe conclusions. But a look at the data inside shows something more interesting.

A new Cato Institute report defending immigration begins by contending that immigrants are unlikely to negatively affect states’ fiscal health. But within the study’s findings, Cato may have inadvertently provided a new reason to oppose immigration.

Using state budgets as a proxy for the quality of economic institutions from 1970-2010, the authors of the Cato study assert that “a larger share of immigrants at the state level is correlated with slower state revenue and spending growth in the short-term, measured by total per capita government revenue and expenditure growth.” In other words, the more immigrants there are in a state, the less the state tends to take in in taxes and the less it spends on services. This is hardly groundbreaking; we have always known that immigration is linked to welfare chauvinism.

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ACLU Asks Biden Admin to Shut Down ICE Detention Facilities

Minnesota Sun Staff
Illegal immigration

The American Civil Liberties Union asked the Biden administration to close 39 Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities in a letter Wednesday.

People in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody reportedly experienced sexual abuse, forced sterilization, increased use of force and solitary confinement, according to the organization. The ACLU wants ICE facilities with previous reports of inhumane treatment and those located in remote locations to be closed.

“Closing detention sites should be an easy decision. Millions of taxpayer dollars are being wasted to maintain thousands of empty beds and keep asylum seekers and immigrants in inhumane and life-threatening conditions,” ACLU Senior Advocacy and Policy Counsel Naureen Shah said in a statemen

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‘This is What Open Borders Agenda Looks Like,’ Trump’s ICE Chief Says

Minnesota Sun Staff
U.S. Border Patrol

Tom Homan, former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said Monday that President Joe Biden sacrificed the U.S.’ safety at the southern border in order to win the 2020 election.

“This is open borders agenda, Joe Biden sold out this country and our border security to win the election, he wanted to win over the progressive left, have an open borders agenda, Homan said on “Fox and Friends First.” Biden called the border situation on Saturday a “crisis” for the first time while discussing the refugee cap.

“We’re going to increase the number [of refugees allowed into the country]. The problem was that the refugee part was working on the crisis that ended up on the border with young people,” Biden said. “We couldn’t do two things at once. But now we are going to increase the number.”

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Illegal Immigrants Repeatedly Denied COVID-19 Vaccine in Florida: Report

Minnesota Sun Staff
COVID Vaccine

Undocumented immigrants in Florida have been routinely denied access to the COVID-19 vaccine, the Miami Herald reported Thursday.

A valid Florida driver’s license or government-issued I.D., utility bill or rental agreement is required to receive the vaccine, the Herald reported. Other undocumented immigrants who worked as essential workers across the U.S. haven’t been able to receive the vaccine, though some local governments are advocating for other proofs of residency so they will have access.

“What we feel is that they don’t want immigrants vaccinated,” Doris Mejia, an undocumented immigrant living in Florida told the Herald. “They see us as less, yet we work the most.”

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Commentary: Radical New Rules for Post-America

Minnesota Sun Staff
Crowd with woman covered by the American Flag

There are 10 new ideas that are changing America, maybe permanently.  

1) Money is a construct. It can be created from thin air. Annual deficits and aggregate national debt no longer matter much. 

Prior presidents ran up huge annual deficits. But at least there were some concessions that the money was real and had to be paid back. 

Not now. As we near $30 trillion in national debt and 110 percent of annual GDP, our elites either believe permanent zero interest rates make the cascading obligation irrelevant, or the larger the debt, the more likely we will be forced to address needed income redistribution. 

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Poll: By Sizable Margin, Voters Blame Biden not Trump for Border Crisis

Minnesota Sun Staff

By a decisive margin, voters blame Joe Biden instead of Donald Trump for the current crisis at the southern border, according to a new Just The News Daily Poll with Scott Rasmussen.

Forty percent of respondents pointed to Biden when asked: “Which of the following do you believe is the most responsible for the current migration crisis at the southern border?”

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Biden Admin Won’t Consider Limiting Immigration for Migrants Who Will Depend on Government Benefits

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Biden administration told the Supreme Court Tuesday it will not seek to expand the Trump-era decision to limit immigration for migrants who will depend on government benefits, NBC News reported.

The Department of Homeland Security under the Trump administration was working to expand the definition of “public charge” to include denying admission to migrants who might rely primarily on government benefits as a source of income, NBC News reported. Any migrant needing government assistance for over one year in any three-year period would have been included in the expanded definition.

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Biden Administration Signals Open Borders Policy

Minnesota Sun Staff

President Joe Biden’s proposed immigration policies that would grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, placed a hold on certain deportations and a temporary hold on Migrant Protection Protocols without increasing border security, according to a draft of the proposal.

Critics of Biden’s proposed legislation say the policies will lead to open borders and ultimately harm Americans while supporters say that the administration is unlikely to implement drastic policies as it works toward broader immigration reforms.

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Commentary: Biden’s Immigration Agenda

Minnesota Sun Staff

A lasting legacy of President Trump’s immigration policies will be his administration’s willingness to acknowledge and address the broad scope and wide spectrum of how immigration—both legal and illegal—impacts American life.

Our political debates tend to regress into entrenched and cyclical discussions of border security and amnesty for illegal populations, a polarized framing that ignores how significantly our labor policies, law enforcement practices, and even the shape of our congressional representation, are affected by the choices we make concerning immigration.

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Commentary: Illegal Immigration is Costing Michiganders Jobs

Minnesota Sun Staff

This November, Michigan voters would be wise to recognize the connection between their top concern — the economy — and illegal immigration. Study after study shows that illegal immigration puts downward pressure on wages and takes away Americans’ job opportunities.

That doesn’t seem to bother Democrats. Joe Biden’s immigration plans, which Democratic senators including Gary Peters support, would put the screws to America’s working class. His agenda includes an amnesty for 11 million illegal immigrants already here. In addition, Biden wants to suspend all deportations during his first 100 days in office and relax the rules for claiming asylum.

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Over 30 Illegal Immigrants in Texas Who ‘Threaten Public Safety’ Arrested in One Week

Minnesota Sun Staff

A five-day operation in south Texas resulted in 0ver 30 arrests of illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds deemed possible public security threats, border officials announced Thursday.

The operation targeted illegal immigrants who allegedly pose a threat to public safety and are subject to deportation, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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Guatemala Says it Will Detain Around 2,000 Migrants Bound for the U.S.

Minnesota Sun Staff

Guatemala says it will detain and return a migrant caravan of around 2,000 that entered the country from Honduras on Thursday, the Associated Press reported Friday.

Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei vowed the caravan would be sent back to Honduras over concerns about coronavirus, the AP reported. The caravan overpowered Guatemalan border guards who reportedly made little attempt to control the situation, according to the AP.

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Trump to Slash Refugee Admissions to Record Low

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Trump administration said on Wednesday it intends to further slash the number of refugees the U.S accepts to resettle from 18,000 to 15,000 in the 2021 fiscal year, setting another record low in the history of the modern refugee program, ABC News reports.

The notice was sent to Congress late Wednesday, just 34 minutes before a statutory deadline to do so. The state department said the proposal reflected the Trump administration’s prioritizing of the “safety and well-being of Americans, especially in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.”

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Up to 52 Million New Immigrants Could Settle in the US Under the Biden-Harris Plan, Analysis Finds

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Biden-Harris immigration plan could allow up to 52 million new immigrants to settle in the U.S., according to a Federation for American Immigration Reform analysis provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“This dramatic increase would eclipse the entire current foreign-born population of the country,” the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a nonprofit that advocates for reduced immigration, stated.

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United States Has Revoked Over 1,000 Visas for ‘Security Risks’ from China

Minnesota Sun Staff

Since June, over 1,000 Chinese nationals located in the United States have had their visas revoked after being labeled national security risks, as reported by CNN.
The State Department released a statement on Wednesday addressing the matter, revealing that the initiative had specifically targeted “graduate students and research scholars” at various American universities who had been determined to be “high-risk,” and were thus removed from the country.

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House Republicans Seek Probe of Chinese Communist Party Investment in US Visa Program

Minnesota Sun Staff

The top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee is asking the Government Accountability Office to review whether members of the Chinese Communist Party have exploited a program that allows foreigners to obtain green cards by investing in businesses in the United States.

Reps. Jim Jordan and Guy Reschenthaler sent a letter Monday to Gene Dodaro, the comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office, inquiring whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its members have used the EB-5 program to gain a foothold in the United States.

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Trump Administration Proposes Sweeping Asylum Restrictions

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed sweeping restrictions on asylum, seeking to align a legal framework with the president’s efforts to limit immigration to the United States.

The moves are only the latest in a series of measures that Trump has taken to limit asylum — this time aimed at changing complicated guidelines and procedures governing immigration courts.

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First Person in ICE Detention Dies of Coronavirus Complications

Minnesota Sun Staff
CBP detainee

A 57-year-old man from El Salvador became the first individual in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody to die from COVID-19 complications.

Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia passed away early Wednesday morning after being hospitalized and on a ventilator for roughly a week, The San Diego Union-Tribune first reported. Escobar Mejia, a detainee at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, was one of hundreds of individuals in ICE custody who have contracted the novel coronavirus.

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Commentary: Will the Republican Establishment Survive the Coronavirus?

Minnesota Sun Staff

President Trump will run whatever campaign he likes, but the playbook has practically been written for him: double down on the pro-worker, anti-globalization politics that won him his first term. Joe Biden, a barely conscious, Wall Street plutocrat – and a stooge for China, no less – is an obvious and easy foil.

Whatever happens this November, it is questionable whether the establishment politics that came before Trump will survive an unprecedented pandemic that is already testing the GOP’s commitment to “limited government.” The coronavirus has unleashed an enormous bi-partisan appetite for spending that is not likely to subside when the immediate health threat goes away.

The meltdown is only just getting started, but the signs of devastation are sobering.

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Americans Overwhelmingly Favor a Pause on Immigration During Coronavirus Pandemic

Minnesota Sun Staff

A vast majority of Americans – 8 in 10 – now favor dramatic restrictions on immigration amid the coronavirus pandemic, a new survey has found.

American attitudes about the coronavirus and its impact on our way of life has changed dramatically over the course of one month, a USA Today/ Ipsos poll discovered. The survey had asked voters questions about their feelings on the coronavirus March, when the virus first began spreading through the U.S., and then posed the same questions roughly one month later.

With more than 95% of the country under lockdown orders, millions filing for unemployment benefits, and more than 22,000 deaths from the virus, the U.S. population is, by leaps and bounds, more willing to implement strong measures to combat the pandemic.

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Dems Ask That Public Charge Rule Not Apply to Immigrant Coronavirus Treatment, Which It Already Doesn’t

Minnesota Sun Staff

A group of House Democrats is asking the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) not to penalize green card applicants for seeking medical care for coronavirus, but the government already made clear it wouldn’t.

Thirty-eight House Democrats signed a letter delivered to acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on Tuesday, asking him to remove any assistance for COVID-19 care as part of the recently-enacted public charge rule. The rule takes into account a migrant’s past use of government-funded assistance when they apply for permanent status.

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Trump Administration Extends Delay of Court Hearings for Asylum Seekers

Admin

The Trump administration, citing continuing complications brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, is extending a delay of Migrant Protection Protocol hearings for asylum seekers in Mexico.

Foreign nationals under Migrant Protection Protocols, a program that holds asylum seekers in Mexico for the duration of their court proceedings, will have to wait longer before they can make their case before an immigration judge. All hearings scheduled through May 1 will be postponed, according to a statement by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) on Wednesday.

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The Trump Administration’s Public Charge Rule for Immigrants Officially Goes Into Effect Following Supreme Court Victories

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Trump administration officially implemented its public charge rule for foreign nationals seeking permanent status, following two key victories in the nation’s highest court.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Monday put into effect the administration’s new public charge rule, which takes into account a foreign national’s past use of taxpayer-funded benefits when determining whether that individual qualifies for a green card. The rule, which the White House first introduced in 2019, survived a lawsuit that reached all the way to the Supreme Court.

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