This week in immigration news – August 20, 2020
In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration’s decision to end DACA in September 2017 was “arbitrary and capricious.” Although they did not rule on whether the program was legal, the attorney general is arguing that they required the Department of Homeland Security to continue accepting applications. By contrast, since the Supreme Court’s decision, the Trump administration has only been accepting renewals from existing DACA holders and shortened the renewal period from two years to one year. The outcome of this case could affect more than 600,000 young people who have DACA.
Los Angeles County Sherriff’s Department Bans ICE Transfers
The Los Angeles County Sherriff this week announced a moratorium on transferring people who are arrested in the county to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s custody, in light of the conditions that advocates have highlighted in nearby facilities during the coronavirus pandemic. This moratorium applies to immigrants whose only violation is entering the country without papers.
While ICE has claimed that the move by the Sherriff’s Department could endanger public safety, the Sherriff fired back by saying that a bigger threat to public safety is when undocumented immigrants don’t report witnessing crime because they’re afraid of being deported.
Coronavirus Contact Tracers Struggle with Fear and Language Barriers Among Immigrants
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues across the United States, contact tracers, who were hired to trace the spread of the coronavirus, are finding that not only are language barriers making their work more difficult, but also fear from immigrant communities about being contacted by someone working for the government.
