Joseph Caraccio

Biden Announces Executive Action Barring Asylum for Migrants Crossing the Southern Border

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President Biden has announced new executive actions to address the situation at the southern border. These actions aim to deter unlawful border crossings and manage the high volume of encounters. The key points are: Barring Asylum for Unlawful Crossings: Migrants who cross the southern border unlawfully will be ineligible for asylum, with exceptions for those who use lawful pathways or seek protection in a country they traveled through. Expedited Removal: The administration will streamline processes to remove individuals without a legal basis to remain in the U.S. more quickly. Increased Resources: Additional personnel and resources will be allocated to support border management efforts. These measures will be implemented when the number of encounters exceeds the government’s capacity to process them promptly, as is currently the case. Presumably this means that the rule will take effect immediately. The President emphasized the importance of securing the border while upholding America’s commitment to providing protection for those fleeing persecution. He also expressed disappointment over the failure of Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, which would have addressed these issues more effectively. See the White House’s Fact Sheet. There are two measures being taken to further the goal of stemming the influx of migrants at the southern border. Presidential Proclamation: This temporarily suspends the entry of noncitizens across the southern border. Joint DHS-DOJ Interim Final Rule: This restricts asylum eligibility for those who enter the U.S. irregularly across the southern border, including both the southwest land and southern coastal borders. According to the announcement, these actions aim to: Deter irregular migration: By increasing the consequences for unauthorized entry and restricting asylum eligibility, the administration hopes to discourage individuals from attempting to cross the border illegally. Manage the border: The measures are designed to help manage the high number of encounters at the southern border and ensure a more orderly process. Protect national security: The administration emphasizes the importance of border security for protecting the nation. The administration continues to call on Congress to provide additional resources and support for border security efforts. You can find more information about these measures in the official fact sheet. SEE VIDEO OF ANNOUNCEMENT

Temporary Asylum Location Opening in Oakland, California

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May 13, 2024, US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that the San Francisco Asylum Office will be opening a temporary location in Oakland, California. In announcement made on Monday, May 13, 2024:   USCIS’ San Francisco Asylum Office is opening an additional temporary location in Oakland, California. Effective May 15, 2024, asylum applicants under the jurisdiction of the San Francisco Asylum Office may receive an interview notice to appear at the asylum office located in Oakland instead of San Francisco. This additional location increases the San Francisco Asylum Office’s capacity to schedule and conduct affirmative asylum interviews more efficiently. The addresses of the new temporary Oakland-based office within the San Francisco Asylum Office’s jurisdiction are: Physical Address: 1301 Clay StreetOakland, CA 94612 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 77530San Francisco, CA 94107 Opening this additional location will not affect the operations of the current asylum office location in San Francisco. Beginning May 15, 2024, the San Francisco Asylum Office will schedule and conduct affirmative asylum interviews at both locations.

Percentage of Immigrants Represented by an Attorney in Immigration Court

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The percentage of immigrants that are represented by an attorney in removal proceedings varies substantially from city to city. Regardless of location, most immigrants that are ordered removed are not represented. COURTS WITH HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF REPRESENTED RESPONDENTS COURT % REPRESENTED Hawaii 56% California 49% New York 44% Virginia 43% Massachusetts 41% Nebraska 41% Pennsylvania 39% Maryland 38% Minnesota 37% Nevada 35% Washington 35% COURTS WITH LOWEST PERCENTAGE OF REPRESENTED RESPONDENTS COURT % REPRESENTED US TOTAL 30% UTAH 23% Oregon 22% Florida 21% Tennessee 19% Connecticut 19% Texas 18% Georgia 18% North Carolina 17% New Mexico 14% Colorado 14% Immigrants Ordered Removed & Percent With Attorney Immigration Courts with the most removal orders issued October 2023 – March 2024 IMMIGRATION COURT RANK ORDERED REMOVED # WITH ATTORNEY % WITH ATTORNEY New York City, NY 1 10,897 1,469 13% Harris County, TX (Houston) 2 8,336 1,382 17% Los Angeles County, CA 3 5963 1247 21% Dallas County, TX 4 2815 136 5% Miami-Dade County, FL 5 2521 368 15% Montgomery County, TX (Conroe)* 6 1,968 388 20% San Bernardino County, CA 7 1,703 383 22% Travis County, TX (Austin) 8 1,664 123 7% Orange County, CA (Santa Ana) 9 1,576 412 26% Cook County, IL (Chicago) 10 1,527 179 12% Ranking of Places With the Most Residents Ordered Removed in Immigration Court Proceedings During FY 2024 (October 2023 – March 2024)Data from TRAC Report* Jurisdiction of a large ICE contract detention facility owned and operated by the GEO Group (a for-profit company which runs private prisons). The Difference Having a Lawyer Makes The percentage of immigrants in removal proceedings that are represented by counsel appears to hover between 22% – 30% with 2021 being an outlier in which 52% of immigrants ordered removed were not represented. See the chart below based on TRAC Immigration Court Data-Full TRAC Report Here. Percent of Immigrants With Attorneys Ordered Removed in Immigration Court FY 2014- FY 2024 Fiscal Year Ordered Removed Had an Attorney Percent with Attorney 2014 78,538 17,063 22% 2015 81,767 17,424 21% 2016 79,720 19,567 25% 2017 101,469 27,341 27% 2018 120,343 40,428 34% 2019 187,039 58,971 32% 2020 164,430 47,985 29% 2021 38,021 19,910 52% 2022 111,830 36,038 32% 2023 236,726 47,816 20%

RECORD NUMBER OF DEPORTATIONS IN 2024

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U.S. immigration judges issued a staggering 136,623 deportation orders during the initial six months of Fiscal Year 2024, according to an analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a nonpartisan, nonprofit data research center affiliated with the Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University. This is a significant surge in removal orders compared to the previous peak in removals observed in FY 2019 under the Donald Trump administration and the peak in FY2011 – FY2012 under the Obama administration. The current pace of removal orders have soared by 50 percent. This surge coincides with the expansion of immigration judges during the current administration. New York City emerged as the epicenter of deportations, with just under 11,000 removal orders issued to immigrants residing there. Following closely behind was Harris County, TN, which witnessed more than 8,000 removal orders, and Los Angeles County, CA, with nearly 6,000 removal orders. Despite the prominence of those three top regions, Dallas County, TA, and Miami-Dade County, FL, also witnessed substantial deportation figures. The disparity becomes evident when looking at Miami-Dade County, which has only one-fourth of the removal orders of New York City and less than half of Los Angeles. Analysts also found that as immigration judges accelerate the issuance of removal orders, fewer immigrants ordered for removal manage to secure legal representation to advocate their cases. ATRAC examination of year-by-year trends over the past decade reveals a nuanced trajectory according to an article in the Amsterdam News. Between 2016 and 2019, the total number of removal decisions saw a modest increase, but there were notable improvements in representation rates. However, the onset of partial government COVID-19 shutdowns precipitated a sharp decline in decisions, coinciding with a surprising uptick in the likelihood of finding legal representation. This anomaly probably stemmed from the decreased demand for immigration attorneys due to the reduced number of court hearings, subsequently alleviating supply constraints, TRAC found. Since Fiscal Year (FY) 2021, the rate of legal representation for immigrants facing removal proceedings has sharply declined. Last year, representation rates dropped to just 20 percent. In FY 2024, this decline continued, with only 15 percent of immigrants ordered for removal able to secure legal representation. Interestingly, this contrasts significantly with the current representation rate of 30 percent for all immigrants in the court’s backlog. The implications are clear: Immigrants without legal representation face significantly higher odds of being ordered for removal. This underscores the urgency of addressing the challenges encountered by immigrants navigating the legal intricacies of deportation proceedings in the United States. Ranking of Places With the Most Residents Ordered Removed in Immigration Court Whether Immigrant was Represented when Removal Ordered Proceedings During FY 2024 (October 2023 – March 2024) Rank Ordered Removed Had An Attorney Percent with Attorney New York City, NY 1 10,897 1,469 13% Harris County, TX (Houston) 2 8,336 1,382 17% Los Angeles County, CA 3 5963 1247 21% Dallas County, TX 4 2815 136 5% Miami-Dade County, FL 5 2521 368 15% From TRAC Report

A TRUMP SECOND TERM

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A Trump Second Term is bad for Immigrants

In an interview with Time Magazine on April 30, 2024, Trump discussed his agenda for a second term, which includes deporting millions of people using the military. Trump envisions a series of mass deportation camps that would require military support. “I think in terms of the National Guard. But if I thought things were getting out of control, I would have no problem using the military, per se,” Trump said. “We have to have safety in our country. We have to have law and order in our country. And whichever gets us there, but I think the National Guard will do the job.” During Trump’s first term, the Department of Homeland Security considered using National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants but the plans ultimately never came to fruition. “The Posse Comitatus Act says that you can’t deploy the U.S. military against civilians,” Cortellessa noted. “Would you override that?” “Well, these aren’t civilians,” Trump responded. “These are people that aren’t legally in our country. This is an invasion of our country — an invasion like probably no country has ever seen before. They’re coming in by the millions. I believe we have 15 million now. And I think you’ll have 20 million by the time this ends. And that’s bigger than almost every state.” Trump has made cracking down on immigration a centerpiece of his reelection campaign, repeating a strategy that worked for him when he first ran for office. He’s accused migrants of “poisoning the blood of the country” and referred to people in the U.S. illegally who are suspected of committing crimes as “animals.” Trump explained some of his plans that he wants to put in place on day one, January 20, 2025, if he wins reelection—a suite of aggressive actions on the border and on immigration—a massive deportation operation. Trump explained, “So if you look back into the 1950s, Dwight Eisenhower, he’s not known for that, you know, you don’t think of him that way. Because you see, Ike, but Dwight Eisenhower was very big on illegal immigration not coming into our country. And he did a massive deportation of people. He was doing it for a long time. He got very proficient at it. He was bringing them just to the other side of the border. And they would be back in the country within a matter of days. And then he started bringing them 3,000 miles away—” How Would He Get Local Law Enforcement Onboard? When asked about how he would get local law enforcement to participate in his massive deportation operations he stated his willingness to you use funding incentives. He was asked, “Does that mean you would create funding incentives from the federal government for state and local police departments?” Trump: “It could very well be. I want to give police immunity from prosecution because the liberal groups or the progressive groups, depending on what they want to be called, somewhat liberal, somewhat progressive, but they are—they’re very strong on the fact that they want to leave everybody in, I guess, I don’t know. You know, sanctuary cities are failing all over the place.”  PROTECTING POLICE? In a strange statement, even for Trump, he stated that he wanted to protect police from prosecution for their actions. Trump said: We want to protect police from prosecution. Trump: Police have been—their authority has been taken away. If something happens with them, even if they’re doing a very good job, they take away their house, they take away their pension, they take away their, I mean, essentially, they end up losing their families over it. They take away everything. They prosecute people. And we have to give the police back the power and respect that they deserve. Donald Trump in Times Magazine Interview https://time.com/6972022/donald-trump-transcript-2024-election/ One thing seems abundantly clear when it comes to a possible Trump second term, it is not going to be good for immigrants in the United States.

Check Your Immigration Court Case Status Online

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Automated Case Status System Check the status of your EOIR case online. You can use the Automated Case Status System to find out the date & time of your next Immigration Court hearing, the location of your hearing, the Immigration Judge assigned to your case, and other important information about your case. You can find the online ACSS at the url: https://acis.eoir.justice.gov/en/     STEP STEP 1 Go to the Automated Case Status System Website Go to the automated case status system website at: https://acis.eoir.justice.gov/en/ Have your A Number because that is how you will lookup your case.  STEP STEP 2 Click ACCEPT You will be greeted with a pop-up disclaimer message. Read the disclaimer and click accept (the blue button on the bottom left of the pop-up) in order to proceed. STEP STEP 3 Enter your A Number There will be 9 text boxes where you can enter one digit per box. This is where you will enter your A Number putting one number in each box.  Make sure you watch as you are typing to be sure that each box has one number and that when you are done it matches your A Number as it appears on your paperwork.    STEP STEP 4 Click Submit After you enter your A Number and confirm it is accurate then click the large blue “Submit” button below the number.  STEP STEP 5 No Case Found? If it seems like nothing happened look to see if there is some red text that appeared above the “SUBMIT” button.  If it reads “No case found for this A Number” then the A Number you entered in not in the system, meaning that A Number has not yet been scheduled for a hearing or isn’t in Court. If you have a Notice to Appear with an A Number that matches what you entered and you get this message then it is possible that it is just too soon and it hasn’t been entered into the system yet. You can try again in a few days or call the Court if you are unsure.  STEP STEP 6 Case Information If the A Number does match a case in the system then a new screen will load with information about the case.  It will have your next hearing date & time, the type of hearing, whether it is in-person or virtual, and the name of the Judge. If a decision was already made on your case or your case was dismissed you will find that information there as well.  Case Status What?