ImmigrationProf Blog

Immigrants are Becoming US Citizens at Fastest Clip in Years

The NY Times reports that immigrants are becoming US citizens at fastest clip in years. Government data shows average wait times under five months, which is on a par with 2013 and 2014 and half the time taken in fiscal 2021. In total, 3.3 million immigrants have become citizens in the current administration.

As the article explains, the increased numbers and heightened pace results from a concerted push in the USCIS. In particular, policies to promote naturalization included:

• An executive order that called for action to “substantially reduce current naturalization processing times” with the goal of strengthening integration of new Americans
• New technology and additional staff in 2022 to reduce the pending caseload of citizenship applications, which had ballooned because of heightened scrutiny by the Trump administration and protracted pandemic-related delays in conducting the swearing-in ceremonies.
• Streamlined naturalization forms, with shorter naturalization applications (14 pages, down from 20) and easier waivers for low-income people to qualify for a discount on the fees ($710, up from $640 to compensate for fiscal impacts of the improvements).

While the electoral consequences of the enlarged voter-eligible population is unclear -- many live in "safe" districts, not all immigrants vote the same way -- it is noteworthy as a signal of rising civic engagement and could transform policy to be more responsive to the will of the people. 

MHC

1 million Mexican Americans were deported a century ago. A new L.A. audio tour explores this 'hidden' history

 

For years, I had been visiting Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles for many years before I learned of the Mexican "repatriation" and mass removals of Mexican ancestry who were arrested near Olvera Street.  Although largely forgotten, the repatriation every so often makes the news. 

Today, I ran across this story in the Los Angeles Times:

"Olvera Street . . . did not always look as vibrant as it does today. While the historic pedestrian street and El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument attract about 2 million tourists annually, many don’t know how the area came to be or that it was the site of the first public immigration raid in Los Angeles.

A new self-guided audio tour, presented by the California Migration Museum, explores both the origin of this storied area and the “hidden” history of the La Placita raid that ultimately led to the deportation of as many as 1.8 million Mexican Americans across the country in the 1930s."

KJ

Empirical Studies on Migrants and Crime

Trump's speech last week, accepting the RNC's nomination, was riddled with assertions that the country's "illegal immigration crisis" has "spread... crime."

Empirical studies on migrants and crime tell a different story. The following paragraphs are adapted from section 1.2 of my new crimmigration casebook wherein I address the myth of noncitizen criminality:

***

Alex Nowrasteh, the vice president for economic and social policy studies of the libertarian thinktank the CATO Institute, published a study in 2018 based on data from the Texas Department of Public Safety. Nowrasteh found that “For all criminal convictions in Texas in 2015, illegal immigrants had a criminal conviction rate 50 percent below that of native-born Americans. Legal immigrants had a criminal conviction rate 66 percent below that of native-born Americans.” See Criminal Immigrants in Texas: Illegal Immigrant Conviction and Arrest Rates for Homicide, Sex Crimes, Larceny, and Other Crimes (2018). https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/irpb-4-updated.pdf.

Sociologists Michael T. Light and Ty Miller published a broader, longitudinal study of immigration and crime in 2018. Light and Miller combined “newly developed estimates of the unauthorized population with multiple data sources to capture the criminal, socioeconomic, and demographic context of all 50 states and Washington, DC, from 1990 to 2014.” They found that “Increases in the undocumented immigrant population within states are associated with significant decreases in the prevalence of violence.” See Michael T. Light & Ty Miller, Does Undocumented Immigration Increase Violent Crime, 56 Criminology 370 (2018), https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30464356/.

Criminologists Charis Kubrin and Graham Ousey published a book on noncitizen criminality in 2023 titled Immigration and Crime: Taking Stock. Looking at numerous studies, they found either no connection between immigration and crime or a “negative association” between immigrants and crime. In other words, they found that more immigration corresponds with less crime. As the authors told CNN, crimes committed by noncitizens that become “high profile incidents” and the focus of media and politicians are “not the norm. They’re the outlier.” 

Finally, Stanford economist Ran Abramitzky took a different approach to examining noncitizen criminality in his 2023 study with co-authors Leah Platt Boustan, Elisa Jácome, Santiago Pérez, and Juan David Torres. They looked at incarceration data from 1870 to 2020 and found that “immigrants have had lower incarceration rates than the US-born for 150 years.” They also found that immigrants today are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than US-born individuals. See Law-Abiding Immigrants: The Incarceration Gap Between Immigrants and the US-born, 1870-2020 (2023), https://www.cato.org/research-briefs-economic-policy/law-abiding-immigrants-incarceration-gap-between-immigrants-us-born.

***

Just a few cites to bring to the table for when you're next debating the issue of noncitizen criminality.

-KitJ

TRAC Publishes New Data on Immigration Prosecutions in Federal Court

Latest announcement from TRAC here: "Immigration Prosecutions Increase With New Push for Border Enforcement"

Criminal prosecution of immigration crimes has grown since the start of the Biden administration. Figures for the latest available three months covering February-April 2024 show a pronounced jump up 21 percent over the comparable period a year ago. While case-by-case records reflect month-to-month fluctuations, the overall rise from three years ago after Biden assumed office show prosecution levels are now up by 65 percent. These increases may continue given the Department of Justice’s announcement in May 2024 to step up efforts to prosecute human trafficking and immigration-related crimes along the U.S.-Mexico border.

However, the policy of immediately expelling immigrants under Title 42 which started under the Trump administration and had continued under Biden until their lifting in May of last year had brought immigration prosecution levels to historic lows. Prosecutions for illegal entry had virtually disappeared. At one time, illegal entry was the most frequently prosecuted immigration offense. Indeed, a high of over 12,000 monthly unlawful entry prosecutions occurred during the Trump-era “Zero Tolerance Policy” (see TRAC’s previous report here). Not surprisingly these misdemeanor filings now after the end of Title 42 have posted the largest relative gains.

Increases have also occurred for criminal prosecution of illegal reentry – up 57 percent between the first and latest three month period of the Biden presidency. These offenses have consistently made up the largest share, and now account for about two-thirds of all immigration criminal prosecutions. New prosecutions for unlawful reentry reached their highest levels in April 2024. The Western District of Texas drove the largest portion of the recent jump in these misdemeanor filings, followed by Arizona. The other three districts—the Southern District of Texas, the District of New Mexico, and the Southern District of California—have remained relatively low.

Harboring prosecutions ramped up at the beginning of 2021 but have remained on average relatively steady more recently (consistent with longer historical patterns), typically between 300 and 600 per month. Harboring has been used broadly to prosecute not only people who provide physical shelter to immigrants, but also people who provide other forms of aid or assist in evading law enforcement.

https://trac.syr.edu/reports/745/

New Report: “No Human Being Should Be Held Here”: The Mistreatment of LGBTQ and HIV-Positive People in Federal Immigration Jails

Important new report published this month by Immigration Equality, the NIJC, and Human Rights First: “No Human Being Should Be Held Here”: The Mistreatment of LGBTQ and HIV-Positive People in Federal Immigration Jails.

Based on interviews with people held in ICE and CBP custody who identified as LGBTQ and HIV-positive, researchers found:

• One third reported sexual abuse, physical assaults or sexual harassment;
• A majority received inadequate medical care or were denied care altogether, including the majority of individuals living with HIV;
• About half reported new or increased mental health symptoms while in detention;
• Nearly all reported verbal abuse or threats of violence and assault that were homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, or racist;
• Many struggled to access counsel.

IE

New Report by UCLA's Immigrants' Rights Policy Clinic

UCLA Law's Immigrants' Rights Policy Clinic has issued a new report: Cruel Indifference: Family Separation at the U.S.-Mexico Border Before and After Zero Tolerance.

The report addresses the common misconceptions that family separation started under the Trump administration and ended under President Biden.

The report follows on the heels of Biden’s newly-announced executive actions that promise to keep some families already in the United States together, while doubling down on policies that tear families apart at the border. 

IE

New Publication: A Guide to Obtaining Release from Immigration Detention

Don't miss the National Immigration Project's new resource,  A Guide to Obtaining Release from Immigration Detention.

The Guide provides detailed coverage of the range of legal and procedural issues that arise in bond proceedings in U.S. immigration courts, including:

• legal authorities governing immigration detention
• strategies for seeking release
• bond hearing procedures
• how to prepare for a bond hearing
• appellate issues

The Guide was first published in 2018 by Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) before being updated by the National Immigration Project this year.

IE

 

New Research on EU Migration Featured in The Conversation

Natalia Letki, Dawid Walentek, Peter Thisted Dinesen, and Ulf Liebe have published an essay in the Conversation highlighting their recent research on EU Migration, "We polled EU citizens on what they want asylum policy to look like – their answers may surprise you."

Their research finds that citizens in the EU "are not as polarized" on the migration issue as their governments. Instead, "[a]cross member states, people have remarkably similar preferences, including being strongly in favor of asylum seekers being allowed to work."

They also find that in the countries with the highest rates of new asylum applicants--such as Germany and Spain--citizens express an interest in being "able to relocate new applicants to less burdened countries."

Those interested in learning more can read the full article, published in West European Politics.

IE

Fewer of Canada's Recent Immigrants Are Over-educated For Their Jobs

Here's an interesting statistic reported by the Toronto Star: The latest Canadian census revealed that just 26.7% of the country's recent immigrants were over-educated for their jobs in 2021, a reduction from the 31.1% of recent immigrants reported to be over-educated for their jobs according to the 2016 census. Over-education was defined by researchers as the employment of an individual with a bachelor’s degree in a position requiring only a high school education. As for the figure, 26.7%, it is not only lower than the 2016 figure, it is the lowest reported percentage in some 20 years.

The paper's reporting draws from this in-depth analysis by Statistics Canada.

-KitJ

Report: Raiding the Genome: How the United States Government Is Abusing Its Immigration Powers to Amass DNA for Future Policing

Sponk, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Today, the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy and Technology published a new (108 page!) report entitled Raiding the Genome: How the United States Government Is Abusing Its Immigration Powers to Amass DNA for Future Policing. Here are the one-sentence versions of their seven key takeaways:

1. Since 2020, DHS has added more than 1.5 million DNA profiles to a national law enforcement database.
2. DHS misleads and intimidates people to get them to submit to DNA collection.
3. DHS is collecting DNA primarily from people of color, creating new risks for already overpoliced communities.
4. This massive expansion of federal DNA-collecting power is the result of several low-profile administrative sleights of hand.
5. The government is exploiting its immigration powers to collect genetic material for policing at a pace that would not be possible using criminal policing powers.
6. DHS’s DNA collection program violates the Fourth Amendment.
7. Indefinite government retention of DNA samples poses major risks to individual rights and democratic self governance, given rapidly advancing technology and political instability in the U.S.

I am making my way through the full report. Looks like some excellent new material to include in my fall crimmigration course.

-KitJ

Policy Brief: Expanding the possibilities of working holidays

Caitlin Katsiaficas & Justyna Segeš Frelak have just published a policy brief entitled Expanding the possibilities of working holidays.

Here's the introduction:

Working holiday programmes and other youth mobility schemes offer a chance to live, work, travel, potentially train or study the local language, and more generally acquire experience in another country. Many working holiday programmes emphasise cultural exchange and tourism as their raison d’être, offering a chance for youth to gain international experience with the possibility of working to help finance their stay and travel. Other youth mobility schemes have a different focus, such as education or employability. Targeted at young people, these schemes can offer a range of benefits to participants, employers, destination countries, and origin countries alike. However, while EU Member States have initiatives in place to support such schemes, particularly work and travel, these remain limited in scope and scale. By contrast, programmes in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States are far larger in terms of participating countries, participating youth, and concurrently impact. Against this backdrop, this paper explores the potential benefits of strategically expanding mobility opportunities for third-country national youth to the EU and maps different options for making this possible. It additionally presents the potential trade- offs when it comes to programme goals and design and highlights key considerations for those looking to develop and launch new youth mobility schemes.

It comes with infographics. I love a good infographic.

-KitJ

New TRAC Report: Two-Thirds of Court Asylum Applicants Over Past Decade Found Legally Entitled to Remain

A new report published by TRAC today finds that over the past decade, 66% of all immigrants in removal proceedings who filed asylum applications were entitled to remain in the United States. This includes people who were granted asylum, but also others whose cases were closed in other ways.

The report finds: The latest Immigrant Court records show that over the past decade (FY 2014 to April 2024) Immigration Judges have adjudicated just over one million removal cases in which the immigrant filed an asylum application. Out of these 1,047,134 cases, Judges determined that 685,956 immigrants were legally entitled to remain in the United States because they merited asylum or another form of relief from deportation. Another 332,552 immigrants were ordered removed, and an additional 28,626 immigrants were issued voluntary departure orders. Thus, in total, only about a third (34%) of immigrants in removal proceedings who filed asylum applications were ordered deported while two-thirds (66%) were allowed to remain in the country."

See the latest report here: https://trac.syr.edu/reports/742/

 

New Database of Commissary Pricing

Attention immprofs who are researching/writing on issues related to immigration detention.  The Appeal, a nonprofit news organization, has created the first national database of prison commissary lists. They've written up some of their findings in a piece called Locked In, Priced Out: How Prison Commissary Price-Gouging Preys on the Incarcerated.

Given that immigration detention facilities routinely outsource commissary services (see here and here), this database may be rich for future research.

-KitJ

New TRAC Data: Nearly 1.3 Million Asylum Cases Now Pending in Immigration Court

As of April 2024, TRAC at Syracuse University reveals that the immigration court system is experiencing unprecedented levels, with nearly 1.3 million immigrants filing asylum applications amidst a total backlog of 3.6 million cases.

This year has seen a significant influx of over 1.3 million new cases, challenging immigration judges who have managed to complete 517,675 cases so far. Despite the judges' efforts to pace with the growing backlog, they are set to complete a record number of cases by year-end.

However, only 35.7% of cases result in removal or voluntary departure orders, and notably, just 13.9% of those ordered deported in April, including unaccompanied children, had legal representation. This data underscores the critical issues facing the immigration court system and the urgent need for legal support for immigrants. 

See TRAC's announcement with updated immigration court data here: https://trac.syr.edu/whatsnew/email.240510.html.

• Immigration Courts recorded receiving 1,305,443 new cases so far in FY 2024 as of April 2024. This compares with 517,675 cases that the court completed during this period.
• According to court records, only 0.38% of FY 2024 new cases sought deportation orders based on any alleged criminal activity of the immigrant, apart from possible illegal entry.
• At the end of April 2024, 3,596,317 active cases were pending before the Immigration Court.
• At the end of April 2024, out of the total backlog of 3,596,317 cases, 1,278,654 immigrants have already filed formal asylum applications and are now waiting for asylum hearings or decisions in Immigration Court.
• Miami-Dade County, FL, has the most residents with pending Immigration Court deportation cases (as of the end of April 2024).
• So far this fiscal year (through April 2024), immigration judges have issued removal and voluntary departure orders in 35.7% of completed cases, totaling 170,165 deportation orders.
• Among Immigration Court cases completed in April 2024, immigrants in Colorado had the highest proportion ordered removed. Vermont residents had the lowest proportion ordered removed.
• So far in FY 2024 (through April 2024), immigrants from Honduras top list of nationalities with largest number ordered deported.
• Only 13.9% of immigrants, including unaccompanied children, had an attorney to assist them in Immigration Court cases when a removal order was issued in April 2024.
• Immigration judges have held 15,548 bond hearings so far in FY 2024 (through April 2024). Of these 4,644 were granted bond.

New Report: Expanding Temporary Protected Status

A new report from fwd.us: "Expanding Temporary Protected Status Significantly Benefits U.S. Citizen Family Members."

The report argues that TPS is "vital for the future well-being of U.S. citizen family members." The report cites research by Cecilia Menjívar, a Professor of Sociology at UCLA and FWD.us immigration fellow, that reveals "that TPS can lift U.S. citizen family members out of poverty, provide new educational opportunities, and improve physical and mental well-being. This is because TPS offers increased security from the threat of deportation while also providing better economic opportunities through work permits for TPS holders."

The full report is available here.

IE

TRAC Announcement: Number of Immigrant Detainees Arrested by ICE Continues to Increase

TRAC updated its quick facts immigrant detention tools today. Their press release is available below:

The number of immigrants in ICE detention who were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (typically representing 'interior enforcement') instead of Customs and Border Protection (typically at or near the US borders) has grown steadily to now over 12,000 for the first time since November 2020. In that month, similar data released by ICE reported 11,503 detainees at that time were arrested by ICE.

According to the latest data released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), out of the 34,373 detainees held in detention, 12,083 (or 35%) were arrested by ICE. The rise in total number of ICE-arrested detainees comes even as the overall numbers of detainees nationally has fallen slightly from two weeks ago to 34,373, driven by fewer numbers of CBP arrests that result in detention.

The number of migrants who are electronically monitored by ICE's alternatives to detention (ATD) program remains remarkably steady and currently totals 184,318. Notably, however, the agency's use GPS smartwatches continues to increase, and now reaches a total of 1,441—up from under 1,000 two weeks ago. GPS ankle monitors, which had declined to under 5,000 in June 2023, also continues to increase and now stands at over 20,000 for the first time since May 2022.

Among all of ICE's areas of responsibility (AORs), the number of migrants monitored on ATD in El Paso has jumped most significantly since the end of last fiscal year. While many AORs—such as Miami, San Antonio, and Washington, D.C.—are monitoring fewer migrants than before, the El Paso AOR increased from a total of 2,935 migrants at end of September 2023 to 7,644 in the most recent data. This is much lower than the AOR's with most immigrants monitoring, including San Francisco at 18,630 and Chicago at 17,215, but represents a significant relative increase.

Note TRAC's previous reports that raise concerns about the quality of ICE's public ATD data, specifically related to the accuracy of data on the number of migrants on GPS ankle monitors.

Highlights from data updated in TRAC's Detention Quick Facts tool show that:

• Immigration and Customs Enforcement held 34,373 in ICE detention according to data current as of April 21, 2024.

• 20,852 out of 34,373—or 60.7%—held in ICE detention have no criminal record, according to data current as of April 21, 2024. Many more have only minor offenses, including traffic violations.

• ICE relied on detention facilities in Texas to house the most people during FY 2024, according to data current as of April 15, 2024.

• ICE arrested 7,544 and CBP arrested 14,557 of the 22,101 people booked into detention by ICE during March 2024.

• South Texas Fam Residential Center in Dilley, Texas held the largest number of ICE detainees so far in FY 2024, averaging 1,829 per day (as of April 2024).

• ICE Alternatives to Detention (ATD) programs are currently monitoring 184,318 families and single individuals, according to data current as of April 20, 2024.

• San Francisco's area office has highest number in ICE's Alternatives to Detention (ATD) monitoring programs, according to data current as of April 20, 2024.

For more information, see TRAC's Quick Facts tools here or click here to learn more about TRAC's entire suite of immigration tools.

New TRAC Analysis of Growing Deportation Orders

In the latest report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), significant trends in immigration court deportations are detailed, emphasizing the increased number of removal orders and varying rates of legal representation among immigrants. Here’s a brief overview of the essential findings:

• Increased Removal Orders: Over the first half of FY 2024, immigration judges issued 136,623 deportation orders, a 50% increase compared to the peak in FY 2019.

• Top Locations for Deportations: New York City, Harris County (Houston), and Los Angeles County saw the highest numbers of immigrants ordered deported, with significant activities also in Dallas and Miami-Dade counties.

• Representation Rates: Only 15% of immigrants ordered removed had legal representation, significantly affecting their ability to contest removals effectively.

• Long Case Durations: Immigration court cases, especially those resulting in deportations, are taking longer, averaging over two and a half years to conclude.

• Impact of Legal Representation: Immigrants with legal representation have markedly better outcomes, with a significant portion of represented individuals avoiding deportation, particularly among those filing for asylum.

For a detailed read on the topic, visit the TRAC report.

US Census Categories to include MENA, change Hispanic ethnicity

The US census will change its demographic categories to include a Middle Eastern / North African (MENA) category, separate from white / caucasian, and to classify as Hispanic / Latinx identity as a race and an ethnicity.

Reporting from Hansi Lo Wang, NPR, shows the questionnaire in the OMB statistical directive.

The Biden administration has approved proposals for a new response option for "Middle Eastern or North African" and a "Hispanic or Latino" box that appears under a reformatted question that asks: "What is your race and/or ethnicity?"

Going forward, participants in federal surveys will be presented with at least seven "race and/or ethnicity" categories, along with instructions that say: "Select all that apply."

The changes are responsive to community advocates and recommendations from data equity working groups seeking to monitor government programs that serve racial minority and other marginalized groups. The years of research and discussion by federal officials goes back to 2014 and was announced in a Federal Register notice before its official publication.

MHC

College applicants with immigrant parents caught in chaos of college admissions

The college admissions students brings perennial stress to high school seniors and their families. This year a snag with financial aid forms caused additional chaos and put families in the difficult position of needing to commit to attending schools without full information about the price tag for tuition, which is easily $50,000 / year at private schools.

A particular difficulty arose for student applicants from mixed status families, where US-born children have immigrant parents lacking a social security. The Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form is used by many schools to calculate eligibility for student loans and school-sponsored or private aid that makes up the tuition difference. The new online portal for FAFSA did not allow for submissions without signatures from a parent with a social security number. (In the past, signature forms could be mailed in after completing the rest of the form online.) Advocacy groups estimate that a half-million U.S. citizen students wit hundocumented parents are applying and could be megatively impacted.

The Education Department provided a nine-step workaround for the signature requirement alongside student eligibility requirements, but the new procedure would override paper applications already submitted and replace the earlier recorded date of submission.

The Wall Street Journal shares a story of Emannuel, a 17-year old student from Denver whose parents immigrated from Mexico in the 1990s and lack this information. In the story, Emannuel lamented that the delay updating his forms could mean that his state scholarship applications, that rely on FAFSA information even without funding, could be harmed by late processing.

MHC

Immigrants Paid $2 Billion in ICE Bonds Since FY 2017

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) often requires immigrants to pay a bond before releasing them from immigrant detention centers. In addition to Alternatives to Detention (ATD) monitoring, ICE uses bonds as a way of ensuring that immigrants attend their immigration court hearings and follow additional requirements set by ICE. Once a bond is posted, detained immigrants are typically released.

Based on new data obtained by TRAC through Freedom of Information Act requests, between the start of FY 2017 (October 2016) and the end of December 2023, immigrants or their supporters posted more than a quarter of a million bonds and paid Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) just over $2 billion in bond money. The median immigration bond paid was $6,000. Use of bonds peaked during FY 2019. Of the $2 billion, about one-fourth was posted during just that one year.

The number of bonds posted per month varied over time, but was not driven entirely by the total detained population. The total number of bonds and the aggregate bond amounts increased from FY 2017 to FY 2019, the first three years of the Trump administration, a time when detention numbers were also on the rise. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a decline in detention numbers overall as well as a decline in bonds posted.

However, the total bonds posted remained mostly low until February 2022 when they began to increase from around 1,000 per month to over 2,000 per month and peaked at over 3,600 in August 2022. Over this period, ICE’s detained population increased, but not enough to account for the increase in bonds. By the start of 2023, the total numbers of bonds dropped to just over 1,000 per month where they mostly remained throughout 2023, even though detention numbers substantially increased.

Typically, immigration bonds must be posted at one of ICE’s field offices. The location with the most detention bonds posted is ICE’s detention facility in Eloy, Arizona where over 22,500 bonds have been posted since FY 2017 for a total of nearly $185 million. The ICE office in Adelanto, California, received over 10,000 bonds in total. This was on par with other facilities in Miami, Oakdale, and Florence, but what made Adelanto stand out was the median bond amount of $15,000—far higher than at other facilities.

See the full report here: https://trac.syr.edu/reports/738/