This week in immigration news – January 16, 2020

A new study from Harvard has found that when people believe that their country has a lot of immigrants, they are less likely to support policies that strengthen that country’s social safety net.

The research also found that when people who held anti-immigrant views were confronted with accurate information about immigrants and immigration, they became more entrenched in their views. The authors of the report caution that the study should only be viewed as a descriptive analysis of how people may form opinions.

Conversely, other studies have shown that Americans overall strongly support both immigrants and immigration.

The United States has seen a drop in the number of legal immigrants coming from China, India, and Mexico.

There are several Trump administration policies that are thought to be responsible for the drop, which was tracked from fiscal years 2016 to 2018.

These include the “travel ban” that restricts immigration from five majority-Muslim countries, and a rule restricting close family members from sponsoring visas for relatives abroad. An October 2019 presidential proclamation barring immigrants from entering the United States without health insurance could lead to further drops in the number of legal immigrants entering the country.

The Trump administration has gone to the Supreme Court to ask if they will lift the nationwide injunction against the administration’s public charge proposal.

“The courts have blocked the administration’s public charge rule and presidential proclamation barring immigrants from entering the United States without health insurance up to now. But these proposals could lead to a decline in the number of legal immigrants entering the country if enacted.