This week in immigration news — June 20, 2019
On Tuesday, President Trump claimed that next week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will begin rounding up millions of immigrants in cities across the country to deport them.
For its part, ICE has said that it will continue to perform routine enforcement. Immigration experts say that it would be impossible for ICE to deport people at the rate that Trump has claimed would happen. They also point to the president’s rhetoric as part of a pattern of sowing fear among immigrant communities, as immigration enforcement has been a core part of both his 2016 campaign and his current re-election campaign.
New York has become the 13th state to allow undocumented people to receive driver’s licenses.
The measure was approved by the State Senate on Monday and signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo on the same day. We were glad to see New York making changes that will help integrate more aspiring Americans into everyday society.
As part of an agreement with Mexico to expand its “Remain in Mexico” program—where asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their claims are adjudicated in the United States—the Trump administration is considering building temporary courts along the border to expedite deportation proceedings.
This past May, the United States deported around 6,000 people to Mexico to wait out the duration of their asylum case. Advocates say this policy puts migrants, who are predominantly from the Northern Triangle of Central America—El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—in danger.
