This week in immigration news – September 5, 2019

The Trump administration on Monday walked back an earlier announcement that immigrants with deferred action who are receiving life-saving medical care would lose their status.

While the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency has indicated that they will be reopening the deferred action cases, it is still unclear if this will apply to the cases that were not renewed before the notice of termination went out on August 7.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced that their new “public charge” rule would be going into effect on October 15 of this year.

Community leaders, like UnidosUS Affiliate TODEC Legal Center, have reported that families have been disenrolling from public benefits, even though the rule will not apply retroactively.

Some green card-holders and naturalized citizens have also disenrolled from these benefits, even though this rule does not apply to their status.

The Trump administration is defending its choice to redirect $155 million from FEMA’s disaster relief fund.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan claims that this is not a significant portion of FEMA’s budget, and would not affect the agency’s ability to respond to any disaster.