New Sanctuary Coalition

Sara Mendez-Morales, 33, is an indigenous Guatemalan woman who doesn't know if or when she'll be released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention in Butler County Jail near Cincinnati, where she's been since August. Or if she'll ever again see her younger children, 4- and 12-year-old girls, now in foster care. https://www.dispatch.com//guatemalan-mother-tr/4926375001/

Join the NYC Rally & Tweetstorm for #CameroonianTPS #NYC4CameroonianTPS 11am EST-6/18-163 W. 125th Street-Harlem- Congressman Adriano Espaillat’s Office on African Square-In front of the Adam Clayton Powell Building Join the Rally for #CameroonianTPS... On Juneteenth 2020, a group of Cameroonian asylum seekers at Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center risked retaliation from guards and courts, and recorded a video protest detailing the abuse they faced while detained. They were denied parole repeatedly, and any evidence or parole documents were rejected. They went on a hunger strike to protest in March 2021, and they were placed in solitary confinement in retaliation. They faced a COVID-19 outbreak in an overcrowded detention center. In the spirit of Black August, these men went on hunger strike again, and faced physical retaliation from guards. In 2021, CAC needs your support to escalate #CameroonianTPS advocacy with Congress and the Biden/Harris administration. This #CameroonTPS advocacy escalation would halt ICE deportations to Cameroon and provide much needed immigration relief to tens of thousands of Cameroonians fleeing 5 armed conflicts in Cameroon. #nodetention #nodeportations #FreeThemAll

Black immigrants make up 5.4% of the undocumented population in the US, but make up 20.3% of immigrants facing removal on the basis of a criminal conviction. To create a pardon process focused on racial equity, immigration consequences MUST be considered. National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild... https://nipnlg.org/PDFs/2021_02June_Pardon-Power-Letter.pdf

Some very good immigration news. Survivors of domestic and gang violence have better odds of getting asylum in the U.S. as the Justice Department reverses controversial rulings from the Trump administration. In a pair of decisions announced Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland is vacating several controversial legal rulings issued by his predecessors in effect, restoring the possibility of asylum protections for women fleeing from domestic violence in other countrie...s, and families targeted by violent gangs. ‘These decisions involve important questions about the meaning of our Nation's asylum laws, which reflect America's commitment to providing refuge to some of the world's most vulnerable people,’ Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta wrote in a memo explaining the decisions to the country's immigration judges. https://www.npr.org//the-justice-department-overturns-rule

During this week of action, groups across the country are coming together to ask their Representative of Congress to co-sponsor the New Way Forward Act, bold legislation that rejects criminalization and envisions an immigation system that is rooted in compassion, justice, and second chances. The New Way Forward Act was first introduced in 2019 and re-introduced in early 2021. The legislation currently has 41 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives. https://docs.google.com//1mcukHMHueSDMTC5TPmK3/mobilebasic

Call your Senators: Pass permanent residency for all TPS holders NOW! https://bit.ly/3wrXHcC

President Joe Biden on Friday shot down a Trump proclamation that blocked potential immigrants deemed to be a ‘financial burden’ on the nation’s health care system from coming to the United States, saying it didn’t align with U.S. interests. https://www.politico.com//biden-trump-immigration-health-c

"We were only depending on one income, and we couldn’t go to the government for any federal help, says Quijada. We couldn’t ask for any aid at all. I don’t qualify for anything not even my brother, who’s a citizen, was able to receive any aid. https://www.teenvogue.com//undocumented-immigrants-covid-j

Carrying dusty backpacks and dreams of new jobs in new cities, the unauthorized migrants did not sprint across the road to hide in the vast alfalfa fields, as so many border crossers have in the past. Many of them walked toward the agent, arms raised in surrender, confident that they would not be turned away. Javier Gomez fell to his knees and prayed, his daughter, Maria, by his side. ‘We sold our house, everything, to come,’ said Mr. Gomez, an itinerant salesman whose family left Venezuela three months ago to make the journey northward over land. ‘We are blessed to have made it.’ https://www.nytimes.com//migrants-border-coronavirus-pande

EOIR plans to resume non-detained hearings on July 6 at the following immigration courts: Dallas, El Paso, Ft. Snelling, Harlingen, Houston, Houston S. Gessner Road, Houston Greenspoint Park Drive, Kansas City, Memphis, New York Broadway, New York Federal Plaza, New York Varick, Portland, San Antonio, and San Juan. Hearings in non-detained cases that are scheduled at the aforementioned courts are postponed through July 3. Noncitizens (or representatives who have en...tered an appearance with the court) who have not received a notice of reset hearing by June 22 should expect scheduled hearings to proceed. As of July 6, 2021, all immigration courts will be holding limited hearings, applying relevant Federal best practices related to communicable disease. EOIR plans to resume non-detained hearings on July 6 at the following immigration courts: Dallas, El Paso, Ft. Snelling, Harlingen, Houston, Houston S. Gessner Road, Houston Greenspoint Park Drive, Kansas City, Memphis, New York Broadway, New York Federal Plaza, New York Varick, Portland, San Antonio, and San Juan. Hearings in non-detained cases that are scheduled at the aforementioned courts are postponed through July 3. Noncitizens (or representatives who have entered an appearance with the court) who have not received a notice of reset hearing by June 22 should expect scheduled hearings to proceed. As of July 6, 2021, all immigration courts will be holding limited hearings, applying relevant Federal best practices related to communicable disease. For cases scheduled from July 6 through July 30, parties (or their representatives who have entered an appearance with the court in a case) who have not received notice of a reset hearing by June 22 should plan to attend their hearing as scheduled. All parties, including those with cases scheduled after July 30, should continue to rely on official notices from the immigration court as the best source for information regarding their hearings. https://www.justice.gov/eoir-operational-status

Please bear in mind that a huge portion of people in the immigration court backlog are NOT migrants, they are people that ICE arrested inside the United States. These long-time residents caught in the deportation system are often ignored when talking about the immigration courts. @ReichlinMelnick on Twitter https://www.axios.com/immigration-case-court-backlog-judges

Paramedics were called regularly to treat children suffering from panic attacks so severe their hands would constrict into balls and their bodies would shake. The outbursts often occurred after other children were taken away to be reunited with families, dashing the hopes of those left behind at the largest emergency shelter set up by the Biden administration to hold minors who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border alone. The conditions described by a federal volunteer who spen...t two weeks in May at the shelter at Fort Bliss Army Base in El Paso, Texas, highlight the desperation and stress of thousands of children held at unlicensed facilities, waiting to reunite with relatives. Some had marks on their arms indicating self-harm, and federal volunteers were ordered to keep out scissors, pencils or even toothbrushes that could be used as a weapon. While girls made origami and braided friendship bracelets, a large number of the children spent the day sleeping, the volunteer said. Some had been there nearly two months.

During his presidential campaign, U.S. President Joe Biden promised to end cruel Trump-era immigration policies and honor U.S. legal and moral responsibilities to protect refugees. But he has failed to end a policy of mandatory expulsion that seals the border under the pretext of public health. This policy turns away asylum-seekers and separates children from their parents, relegating even the youngest children to the horrors of facing detention alone. Adult asylum-seekers and families are precluded from asserting their claims for protection and are instead forced to remain in Mexico in squalid and dangerous border towns. https://foreignpolicy.com//biden-title-42-immigration-bor/

The Biden administration dismissed a government office created to assist victims of crimes committed by immigrants. Former President Donald Trump created the Victim of Immigration Crime Engagement Office in January 2017. The Victims Engagement and Services Line will replace the office, and will provide services such as a system to report abuse in immigration detention centers and a notification system for lawyers and others interested in immigration cases. In the last three months of 2018, the Trump-era program received 781 calls, and 256 of those who called were provided with services. https://documented.lt.acemlnb.com/Prod/link-tracker

Let’s stop detaining and deporting people. Then, there will be no more overworked judges. $2 Billion Redirected From Border Wall Construction, Biden Terminates Trump-Era Office, Immigration Judges Say They’re Overworked and Under Pressure After the Trump administration shifted $2 billion in military spending to border wall construction, the Biden administration is redirecting it back. When he stepped into office, Biden quickly paused wall construction pending a review of th...e project. According to the White House Office of Management and Budget, this move will restore funds for on-base schools, hangars, housing and facilities, including over $10 million for missile expansion and $79 million for elementary school for U.S. military children in Germany. ‘Building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border and costs American taxpayers billions of dollars is not a serious policy solution or responsible use of Federal funds,’ said OMB in its fact sheet. https://www.cnn.com//p/border-wall-return-funds/index.html

We MUST end detention Women detainees at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, run by for-profit prison operator GEO Group, were put on a communication lockdown after they protested unsafe medical communications. Six detainees told The Intercept that staff informed a woman at the facility she tested positive for tuberculosis and would have to go into quarantine. The news caused panic within the detention facility. Tuberculosis is extremely rare in the U.S. but is more common in ICE facilities than in the general U.S. population. https://documented.lt.acemlnb.com/Prod/link-tracker

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced the state is planning on building a wall at the southern border with Mexico. Texas will also construct its own detention center and $1 billion of the state’s budget will be put toward border security. More undocumented immigrants will be arrested by state and local law enforcement and sent to local jails instead of to ICE, Abbott said. It’s unclear if Texas has permission to build a border wall after Biden cancelled the original project. Immigrant advocates argue Abbott’s claims of the dangers posed by migrants are false and that his actions have done little to address migration concerns. https://www.theguardian.com//texas-border-wall-greg-abbott

According to a report by Amnesty International, U.S. officials are sending unaccompanied migrant children who cross the southern border back to Mexico without screening them to see if they need protection. The report also alleged U.S. border policy treats children from Mexico different from children of other nationalities. About 95 percent Mexican children caught by Border Patrol were sent back without seeing the Office of Refugee Resettlement between November and April, according to the report, even though they are legally required to receive ORR screenings. These screenings are meant to ensure children are not facing potential human trafficking if they’re sent back. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com//mexican-migrant-chil

Carlos Rios, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Mexico, is suing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for holding him in a detention center even after he showed a U.S. passport and insisted he was American. Rios, who identified as a native of Mexicali, has been in the U.S. since the 1980s and became a citizen in 2000. According to the lawsuit, Rios was pulled over on his motorcycle in November 2019 on suspicion of driving under the influence. The next day, two ICE officers who didn’t identify themselves allegedly seized him and brought him to the Northwest immigration jail in Tacoma, Washington. A week after Rios was detained, ICE officials took his biometric information and realized he was a U.S. citizen. https://apnews.com//government-and-politics-tacoma-immigra

Last month, President Joe Biden signed a presidential memorandum to expand access to legal representation for low-income people, immigrants and asylum seekers. The New York Immigrant Family Unity Project, a program that provides publicly funded lawyers to detained or incarcerated immigrants in the state, could potentially be a model for the Biden administration. The project began with a $500,000 grant from the New York City Council in 2013 and now receives $16.6 million in public funding to support over 100 staff, including attorneys, paralegals, social workers and administrators who work to better immigrants’ case outcomes. Advocates and experts believe the New York project has encouraged similar local efforts throughout the U.S.Vox https://documented.lt.acemlnb.com/Prod/link-tracker

Former advocates now in the administration are 'all in a bit of an identity crisis,' according to an official who spoke about the emotional difficulty of implementing policies that they would have fought against just months earlier" https://www.reuters.com//us-usa-immigration-border-insight

We need to take away children. https://www.buzzfeednews.com//justice-department-immigrant

The Trump administration and then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions barreled forward with their ‘zero tolerance’ border crackdown in 2018 knowing that the policy would separate migrant children from their parents and despite warnings that the government was ill-prepared to deal with the consequences, according to a long-awaited report issued Thursday by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General. The report called the Justice Department and the attorney general’s office a ‘driving force’ in making sure the Department of Homeland Security aggressively prosecuted adults arriving with children, findings that cast doubt on statements made by Sessions that the government ‘never really intended’ to separate families. https://www.washingtonpost.com//b283093a-567a-11eb-89bc-7f

No child was too young to be in court or prosecuted. This is who the U.S. is. #FamiliesBelongTogether & free.... https://twitter.com/newsanctuar/status/1349772128254652428

"We haven’t been bothering to learn the names of the political appointees for months now, anticipating that they will all be short-term," one ICE official said. https://www.buzzfeednews.com//ice-leader-resigns-after-two

Lawyers say they still have not reached parents of 611 kids separated by Trump, per tonight's court filing. That number breaks down this way: Parents of 392 were deported Parents of 201 are likely in U.S. Trump admin has no contact info for parents of 18 kids ... -Jacob Soboroff https://twitter.com/jacobsoboro/status/1349523881241976833