This week in immigration news — August 29, 2019

As Tropical Storm Dorian approaches Puerto Rico, the Trump administration is diverting at least $155 million in funds away from FEMA.

In total, the Department of Homeland Security has informed Congress that it plans to divert $271 million from other areas in the department to fund the administration’s immigration priorities.

The Trump administration has decided to eliminate a provision that allows families to receive stays of deportation while one of their relatives receives life-saving medical care.

Around 1,000 people have some form of medical deferral.

While a spokeswoman from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency has said that families will be able to seek another deferral from another agency, families in Boston that received notices of deportation weren’t told that they would have the opportunity to do so, just that they would have to leave the country within 33 days or face deportation.

Critics of the decision charge that this move is a “new low” for the administration.

After the Trump administration announced that they planned to end the Flores Amendment, which prohibits the indefinite detention of minors, they were sued by 19 states, led by California and Massachusetts.

Both California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Xavier Becerra have sharply criticized the president for failing to follow a previous court order that limited the detention of minors to 20 days or fewer. California is also the state with the largest immigrant population and has clashed frequently with the administration. This marks their 57th lawsuit against the administration.