Wednesday, May 17, 2023

TRAC Releases New Data Tool for Federal Immigration Prosecutions

TRAC released a new resource on their immigration quick facts page that provides data on immigration prosecutions in federal court. The page is updated monthly with data obtained through FOIA on prosecutions filed by US Attorney offices in federal courts around the country.

The page includes four data points: the total number of immigration prosecutions, the total number of referrals from CBP and ICE, the percent of immigration convictions out of all convictions for the most recent month, and the state with the largest percentage of immigration convictions out of all convictions. 

TRAC's new Immigration Prosecutions page is available online here: https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/quickfacts/criminal.html. TRAC's two other quick facts pages include recent data on immigrant detention and immigration court cases.

-Austin Kocher

May 17, 2023 in Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (0)

Monday, May 15, 2023

Data on knowledge of AAPI politics and history

Adding to ImmigrationProf blog's prior list of recently-released demographic data on the AAPI population, this Pew Survey contains information specifically about Asian American politics and Asian American history.

Asian American History

Despite the long history of Asian Americans in the US -- spanning the Chinese laborers who helped build the first transcontinental railroad, Vietnamese refugees following wars in Southeast Asia, and the arrival of more than 14.7 million immigrants from Asia since 1965 -- only one-in-four Asian adults (24%) say they are extremely or very informed about U.S. Asian history, according to the new survey of Asian Americans. Half say they are somewhat informed about U.S. Asian history, while another quarter (24%) say they are little or not at all informed.

Not surprisingly, U.S.-born Asian adults (28%) are slightly more likely than those who are immigrants (23%) to say they are substantially informed about Asian history in the U.S. Among immigrants, how many years they have lived in the U.S. is also related to differences in knowledge of U.S. Asian history. More surprisingly, older Asian Americans are more informed than youth 18-29 years old.

Among those who say they are at least a little informed about U.S. Asian history, most say they learned it from the internet (82%) or media (75%), while 63% say they learned from family and friends. Fewer Asian adults say they learned about it in a classroom setting, with 37% saying they learned in their college or university years and 33% while they attended K-12 school. 

 Pew survey APA history 5-15-2023

Asian American Politics

Asian Americans represent some of the fastest growing parts of the electorate across the country. A majority of Asian adults who are registered to vote think of themselves as Democrats or lean Democratic (62%) rather than as Republicans or Republican leaners (34%).

Across origin groups, about two-in-three Filipino (68%), Indian (68%) and Korean (67%) registered voters identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party. A slightly smaller majority of Chinese registered voters (56%) identify as or lean Democratic, while about half of Vietnamese registered voters (51%) identify with or lean to the Republican Party

More information on AAPI politics can be found at APIA Vote (including a fascinating newsletter last week on the high number of Tongan immigrants in Utah) and AAPI Data. For Pew's full report, see here.

MHC 

May 15, 2023 in Current Affairs, Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday, May 11, 2023

New research and Demographic snapshots of the AAPI Population

AAPI Heritage Month profiles include fascinating new data on Asian Americans and subethnic groups. Several useful studies are featured in this blogpost and in this Bloomberg News compilation.

This Pew Research Center chart shows a well-known trend: that AAPIs are the fastest growing racial group and will be on track to exceed 35 million by 2060.

AAPI growth - pew 2021

 

Pew's recent survey (administered July 2022 to January 2023) is more granular, highlighting the self-identification patterns of AAPIs. According to the survey of Asian adults living in the US, slightly more than half (52%) say they most often use ethnic labels such as "Chinese" or "Chinese American" to reflect their heritage, either alone or together with American. Roughly the same number (51%) describe themselves with labels containing "American," such as "Asian American" or American on its own. A quarter (28%) use "Asian," alone or in combinatoin with American. Others prefer regional names, like "South Asian" or "Southeast Asian" (6%). A fascinating spotlight on Vietnamese Americans in Louisiana appears here.

Striking is that usage of the labels differ when being used to identify a group versus one's self. 

AAPI labels - pew 2023

Notwithstanding the diversity, Asian Americans described shared experienced or what political scientist Michael Dawson has called linked fate. The internal coherence speaks to the meaningfulness of what is widely acknowledged as a socially-and governmentally-constructed category. More detailed analysis of issue and candidate support by subethnic groups are contained on the AAPI Data site's sections on surveys and reports.

Additional studies, highlighted in Bloomberg:

  • State of Chinese Americans Survey (Columbia School of Social Work and Committee of 100)
  • STAATUS Index (Asian American Foundation)
  • New York's 18% Campaign

MHC

May 11, 2023 in Current Affairs, Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tuesday, May 9, 2023

From the Bookshelves: Green Card Soldier by Sofya Aptekar

Sociologist Sofya Aptekar, at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, has published a book about noncitizens in the military. Her book, Green Card Soldier: Between Model Immigrant and Security Threat (Penguin Random House 2023), draws on interviews with more than 70 immigrants from 23 countries. She finds that many serve the US military only to feel let down by their experience in wartime and civilian life, including some who find themselves deported despite their service.

The book is summarized as providing an "in-depth and troubling look at a little-known group of immigrants -- noncitizen soldiers who enlist in the military -- and abstracted here.

Aptekar book event

May 9, 2023 in Books, Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (0)

Noncitizens undercounted in census, confirming worries and jeoparding public benefits

The Fourteenth Amendment commands a full count of the American people every ten years. This Constitutional command has long been interpreted to include citizens and noncitizens, and it is used to apportion congressional seats and disperse $1.5 trillion a year in public benefits. In 2020, the headcount was esconsed in political drama encompassing a federal lawsuit, executive order, and Congressional hearings into President Trump and the GOP's efforts to exclude noncitizens from that count. Academics, government officials, and activists worried that the proposed counts -- and the tumult surrounding them -- would scare off participation from noncitizens worried about immigration enforcement or otherwise mistrustful of the federal government. They were right.

The Census Bureau released a report saying that the 2020 census missed a substantial share of noncitizen residents. Despite their best efforts to halt the executive order and stymie its negative spillover effects, a tally of U.S. administrative records showed a 2.3% gap compared to the census count. That means more than 5 million people were potentially missing. The report concludes, there is a "possibility that the 2020 Census did not succeed in collecting data for a significant fraction of noncitizens residing in the United States."

NPRs census reporter, Hansi Lo Wang, interviewed researchers who attribute most of the gap to noncitizen residents, particularly those of "unknown legal status." This is because 19.7% of noncitizens counted in the simulated count of administrative records could not be matched with actual persons counted in the official census count.

Earlier simulations run by the census predicted a similar result, as did the findings in focus groups for the census' outreach efforts following the Trump administration's stalled effort to include a question about citizenship status on the census form and to subtract undocumented immigrants from the enumerated totals presented to the US Congress on the eve of President Biden's inauguration in January 2020.

Other findings from the report indicate that men, Black and White Latino, and Latinos were overcounted and that Asian Americans were undercounted. For more on the significance of the census count for Asian and Latino communities in particular, see my prior writing here.

MHC 

May 9, 2023 in Current Affairs, Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday, May 4, 2023

New Special Report by the American Immigration Council

This week the American Immigration Council released a new report, Beyond a Border Solution: How to Build a Humanitarian Protection System That Won’t Break,” that outlines recommendations for creating a flexible and modern system. 

These recommendations include: 

• Establishing a Center for Migrant Coordination within DHS to work with receiving communities.
image from www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org
• Surging resources to ports of entry to provide migrants with a safer and easier alternative.

• Expanding lawful pathways for migration.

• Revamping asylum processing at USCIS.

• Creating an Emergency Migration Fund for times of high migration.

• Focusing on clearing immigration court backlogs.

IE

May 4, 2023 in Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Stop AAPI Hate Report: Righting Wrongs: How Civil Rights Can Protect Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

The latest Stop AAPI Hate report, Righting Wrongs: How Civil Rights Can Protect Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Against Racism is a timely release for AAPI Heritage Month. Stop AAPI Hate commissioned the nonpartisan and independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago to conduct a nationally representative survey of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders regarding discrimination and civil rights enforcement. You can read the full report here, and the website has the executive summary in English, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Vietnamese, Korean, and Samoan. 

Here are some of the key findings:

  1. Nearly half (49%) of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders nationwide have experienced discrimination or unfair treatment that may be illegal. 

  2. Discrimination negatively affects the mental health and well-being of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

  3. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders know they have rights and want accountability for unlawful discrimination, yet only 1 in 5 who experienced discrimination reported it.

  4. A majority of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders want a better understanding of how to enforce their rights and want new laws to protect their civil rights.

The report also includes policy recommendations for all levels of government and sample federal bill language, and is accompanied by resources like a 50-state summary of anti-discrimination laws.

 

Stop AAPI Hate is hosting a virtual briefing for the new report, and you and your colleagues and students are invited! You can register here:

MHC

May 3, 2023 in Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

AAPI Heritage Month begins May 1

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. During this month, we pay tribute to the contributions and impact of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans on the history, culture, and achievements of the United States. 

We also want to recognize that while the last few years have been particularly difficult for our communities, we have made significant achievements as well. The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act was signed into law, numerous states and local jurisdictions mandated Asian American history into school curriculums, numerous states heavily invested into local AAPI-serving organizations – and most notably, AAPIs turned out in historic numbers in 2020 and played a pivotal role in deciding who controlled Congress and the White House. AAPIs have the momentum to create impact, and we are especially excited about what lies ahead.

This NPR story explains why May is the chosen month -- namely, that May 7, 1843 marked the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to the US and May 10, 1869 marks the completion of the transcontinental railroad built by many Chinese workers.

This US Census site includes a feature story and links to demographic data about the Asian American population. (AAPI Data has more statistical profiles and survey reports.)

This post will be updated with more suggestions on how to celebrate AAPI Heritage month. Feel free to drop ideas in the comments.

MHC

May 2, 2023 in Current Affairs, Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Anti-Immigrant Fox News Anchor Out

 

Tucker Carlson is out as the news anchor face of Fox News. As NBC News put it,

"Fox News said Monday it is parting ways with firebrand anchor Tucker Carlson, the network's most popular prime-time host and a leading voice in the modern conservative movement known for his conspiratorial rhetoric and culture-warrior provocations.

The network announced the stunning news days after it agreed to pay nearly $800 million to Dominion Voting Systems to avert a high-stakes defamation trial that had cast a shadow over the future of the network."

He was no fan of immigrants.  Jose Antonio Vargas, a news personality who is undocumented, referred to Carlson as "[t]he most anti-immigrant broadcaster on television."  People describes Carlson's controversial December 2018 suggestion on the air that immigrants make the country 'poorer and dirtier."  Several major advertisers left Fox after that comment.

 

KJ

April 26, 2023 in Current Affairs, Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday, April 13, 2023

From the Bookshelves: The Rhetoric of Judging Well: The Conflicted Legacy of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy by David Frank & Francis J. Mootz II editors

Here is the publisher's pitch of the book: 

"Known as the `wing justice,' Justice Anthony M. Kennedy provided the key vote determining which way the Supreme Court would decide on some of the most controversial cases in US history. Though criticized for his unpredictable rulings, Kennedy also gained a reputation for his opinion writing and, more so, for his legal rhetoric.

This book examines Justice Kennedy’s legacy through the lenses of rhetoric, linguistics, and constitutional law. Essays analyze Kennedy’s opinion writing in landmark cases such as Romer v. EvansObergefell v. Hodges, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Using the Justice’s rhetoric as an entry point into his legal philosophy, this volume reveals Kennedy as a justice with contradictions and blind spots―especially on race, women’s rights, and immigration―but also as a man of empathy deeply committed to American citizenship.

A sophisticated assessment of Justice Kennedy’s jurisprudence, this book provides new insight into Kennedy’s legacy on the Court and into the role that rhetoric plays in judging and in communicating judgment."

Besides the editors, Ashutosh Bhagwat, Elizabeth C. Britt, Martin Camper, Michael Gagarin, James A. Gardner, Eugene Garver, Leslie Gielow Jacobs, Sean Patrick O’Rourke, Susan E. Provenzano, Clarke Rountree, Leticia M. Saucedo, Darien Shanske, Kathryn Stanchi, and Rebecca E. Zietlow contribute chapters. to The Rhetoric of Judging Well.  Blok readers may be interested in Leticia Saucedo's chapter on Justice Kennedy's immigration opinions.

Kj

April 13, 2023 in Books, Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (0)

Monday, April 10, 2023

Child poverty in immigrant families

From NY Times newsletter Race/Race Related:

Children of immigrants, the fastest-growing group of American youths, have poverty rates more than twice those of other children. That is partly because their families earn less than native workers, but also because they face more barriers to government support. The barriers are largest for children of undocumented immigrants, but families of legal immigrants face obstacles, too.

More than 40 percent of the country’s poor children are children of immigrants. While most are American citizens, about half have an undocumented parent, which bars the whole household from some government benefits. For parents who immigrated legally, obstacles to aid include waiting periods, language barriers and lack of program knowledge.

Both legal immigrants and undocumented parents face hurdles in getting aid. The problem has grown more acute as children of immigrants account for a growing share of young people.

More demographic information on immigrant families at Pew Research, including data on poverty rates, and UC Davis Center for Poverty and Inequality. The full story is here.

MHC

April 10, 2023 in Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (0)

Survival of minority languages

The cultural assimilation of immigrant groups can lead to loss of languages over time. This oft-repeated trend is behind the Catalan culture in Spain, French Montreal and Quebec in Anglophonic Canada, Taiwanese in the Republic of China, and also Scots. The same is true for Scots in Scotland.

Scots

Apparently, the Scots language has distinct roots from other offshoots of Norwegian or Germanic inflected-English that are considered accents or dialects. Written about years ago, the debate about the distinctiveness of Scots as a language has flared since Brexit has threatened to remove Scotland from the European Union along with the rest of the United Kingdom. As a 2020 article from the Economist says (and a 2022 article from Euronews confirms):

Naturally, the case for independence plays up characteristics that differentiate Scotland from England. Among them is language, which diverges from the talk south of the border in two main ways. One is Gaelic, a Celtic language impenetrable to outsiders (it is related closely to Irish and Manx but only distantly to English), which, however, is spoken only by around 50,000 people, or about 1% of Scotland’s population. The bigger difference is Scots—though quite how different it is remains a matter of debate.

NM lang

Beyond Europe, New Mexico's indigenous Spanish is fading as well. As the New York Times reports, "The dialect has managed to survive for the nearly two centuries since the United States took possession of New Mexico in 1848, making it the oldest continuously transmitted variety of Spanish in the country. Still, in an era when immigration from Latin America has boosted the number of hispanohablantes in the United States to more than 41 million, the fortunes of New Mexican Spanish — and the region where it once flourished — have been going in another direction." 

 

MHC                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

April 10, 2023 in Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Immigrant innovators outpace American inventors

Past research points to the significant role immigrants play in American innovation. Studies have shown that immigrants represent nearly a quarter of the U.S. workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. They comprise more than a quarter of the nation’s Nobel Prize winners. A recent study by Professor Rebecca Diamond of Stanford and her colleagues, Abhisit Jiranaphawiboon, a PhD student at Stanford GSB; Beatriz Pousadaopen in new window, a PhD student at Stanford; Shai Bernsteinopen in new window of Harvard Business School; and Timothy McQuadeopen in new window of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, directly measure the output of patents from foreign-born inventors living in the US in their working paper. Their conclusion: "The average immigrant is substantially more productive than the average U.S.-born inventor."

The researchers started with an understanding of how social security numbers work: their first numbers contain the year of birth. In their database, they identified 300 million adults who had lived in the country between 1990 and 2016 and then used Social Security numbers to identify those who had immigrated after age 19. Using names and address history, the researchers matched individuals in the database to those listed as inventors with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Their findings show that immigrants generate patents across a broad swath of sectors, including computers, electronics, chemicals, and medicine. They also discovered that, while all inventors reach peak productivity in their late 30s and early 40s, immigrants decline from that peak at a slower rate than U.S.-born inventors over the rest of their careers.

Why? Some of the trend can be explained by self-selection since the types of people who migrate to the U.S. on high-skilled visas are likely to be successful. Another factor is the positive effect of diversity: collaboration with inventors in other countries and use of foreign technologies in their patented products seemed to yield productivity. Whatever the causes, the effects redound to U.S. scientists and society. The authors say the policy implication is:

The U.S. has done an amazing job of attracting the best and the brightest immigrants. Any policy that would revamp the visa process might want to consider how big a deal immigrants are in our innovation output.

MHC

March 22, 2023 in Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

New Research from TRAC: Immigration Judges Overturn Negative Credible Fear Findings in 25% of Cases

A new research report finds that, on average, slightly over 25 percent of IJ decisions over the last 25 years have found that migrants had established having a credible fear of persecution or torture after an asylum officer initially denied the claim. 

The report examines over 100,000 credible fear cases have been heard by Immigration Judges. These cases determine whether the migrant has a credible fear of persecution or torture if returned to their home country. Given their critical nature, these cases receive priority on the Court’s docket and go to the head of the line. There they are speedily decided. On average, these decisions are made within ten days. Last month in February 2023, cases took an average of just five days.

The number of credible fear cases has generally been rising. It wasn’t until FY 2010 that cases climbed above 1,000 per year. In FY 2014, cases jumped to over 6,000 and they rose above 12,000 during FY 2019. This rise in large part reflects the increasing number of persons seeking asylum in this country, particularly along the US-Mexico border.

Nationality is a significant determinant in asylum decisions, so it is not surprising that IJs’ credible fear decisions also vary by country.

For example, Court records during the Biden years show Armenians, although relatively small in number (47) had the highest rate of establishing credible fear in their hearings before an Immigration Judge. Their rate was 70 percent. This was followed by individuals from Cameroon (68%), and Syria (65%). Nationalities with the least success in establishing credible fear during FY 2021 – February 2023 were migrants from Brazil (16%), Costa Rica (16%), and the Dominican Republic (19%).

See the whole report here: https://trac.syr.edu/reports/712/.

Figure2

March 14, 2023 in Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday, March 10, 2023

Belonging Barometer

Nichole Argo and Hammad Sheikh have jointly created a Belonging Barometer as a tool to empirically measure the components of belonging. The relationship between belonging and health, democracy, and intergroup relationships in family, work, and community is studied using the tool.  Policy interventions are suggested based on the data from the report.

The report describes its purposes and proposed uses of the tool in this way:

One purpose of this report is to call attention to belonging as a factor that matters deeply for leaders and stakeholders across diverse sectors. We make the case for including belonging in the design and implementation of programs and policies across all areas of life in the United States. A second purpose is to propose a nuanced new tool for measuring belonging—the Belonging Barometer—that is robust, accessible, and readily deployable in the service of efforts to advance the common good. As with any new tool, it is our hope that the Belonging Barometer can and should be refined and improved upon over time. We offer it up to changemakers across the world and welcome feedback and collaboration.

Key findings from the report:

  • Belonging is measurably multifaceted
  • Belonging is vital for American society
  • A majority of Americans report non-belonging in the workplace, their community, or the nation. Socioeconomic factors are strongly associated with levels of reported belonging across spheres of life. Other factors include age, gender, sexuality, race, religion, and immigration status in some settings.
  • Belonging and diversity are interdependent, with Americans who have friends from other races or living in multiracial neighborhoods feeling a greater sense of belonging and more openess to continuing demographic change. Unfortunately, many Americans lack these kinds of relationships.

The overall recommendation of the report is to recognize that belonging is attainable. Policy interventions can be designed to cultivate improved outcomes on the belonging barometer.

Over Zero, Center for Inclusion and Belonging, American Immigration Council worked together to produce the report. 

MHC

March 10, 2023 in Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (1)

Thursday, March 9, 2023

UCLA Report: Anti-AAPI Racism in Immigration and Criminal Law

UCLA Center for Immigration law and Policy Fellow Astghik Hairapetian and Professor Hiroshi Motomura co-author a new report, Anti-AAPI Racism in Immigration and Criminal Law. The report examines the foundation for discrimination, hate, and violence against Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities laid by immigration laws that cast AAPI communities as “foreign” or less than fully American. In its own words: "The report sheds light on the intersection of criminal and immigration law and the anti-AAPI origins of laws that remain at the core of this country’s immigration and criminal legal frameworks."

The key findings in the report:

  • Immigration laws containing criminal provisions were explicitly racist from 1873-1990, with persistent effects from even after federal laws moved toward racially neutral language. Part of the reason is the retention of Crimes involving moral turpitude and controlled substance violations as a basis for exclusion and deportation.
  • State laws amplify racist federal laws, even in progressive states like California
    •  State and local enforcement permit transfers to ICE and some local enforcement agencies may use their resources for immigration enforcement
    • Attorney representation is not universally available. Where it is available, funds often cannot be used to represent individuals in removing proceedings with criminal convictions.
    • Gang databases mark certain individuals in a manner that carries adverse immigration consequences. The databases often have significant errors.
  • The impacts on AAPI communities include emotional and financial devastation when families are split and single parents are left to care for children following deportation.

Recommendations to correct the broader history of anti-AAPI racism and curb lingering effects include:

  • Stop transfers to ICE
  • Provide universal representation for all immigrants
  • Discontinue gang databases
  • Amend state criminal laws to eliminate or mitigate immigration consequences

The Center is directed by Motomura and Ahilan Arulunantham. UCLA has conducted many other reports on anti-AAPI violence, including the creation of this interactive map.

MHC

March 9, 2023 in Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

ICE Contractor That Manages Alternatives to Detention Reported False Data to Government TRAC Report Shows

A new report from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University finds that BI, the company that runs ICE's Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program reported inaccurate data to the government for months in 2022.

Data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show that the number of immigrants on GPS ankle monitors was inflated, possibly with financial consequences. The report states:

Misreporting involved more than the use of monitoring technologies. Substantial public funds may also be at stake. Comparing the supposedly “corrected” FY 2022 year-end report with the original version showed that ATD costs and presumably payments due the contractor also had substantially been inflated.

About 1 in 9 of the individuals BI had reported “monitoring” now showed up under the heading “no technology” with no charges due. Daily costs reported also dropped because use of GPS ankle monitors result in payments that were nearly 3 times higher per participant than use of SmartLINK. All in all, payments due BI were apparently inflated by 31 percent as a result of these reporting errors."

Read the rest of the report title "False Reporting by Contractor on Alternatives to Technology Activities" here: https://trac.syr.edu/reports/710/.

- Austin Kocher

March 7, 2023 in Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wednesday, February 22, 2023

New Report: The Everywhere Border

image from www.tni.org

Check out the new report by Mizue Aizeki, Laura Bingham, and Santiago Narváez: The Everywhere Border: Digital Migration Control Infrastructure in the Americas.

Here is the abstract:

The US is building a digital border infrastructure in neighbouring countries that expands and deepens surveillance, while hiding state violence. The implications of this new infrastructure will be long-lasting and need to be integrated into strategies of resistance of migrant justice movements worldwide.

IE

February 22, 2023 in Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (3)

TRAC Finds Immigration Judges Working Faster, Still Can't Keep Up With New Cases

Immigration Court dispositions are reaching record highs. In FY 2023, Court closures are on pace to grow to nearly half a million cases disposed of by Immigration Judges. Case dispositions in FY 2022 were a record 47 percent higher than the previous high set during FY 2019. During the first four months of FY 2023 (Oct 2022-Jan 2023), Court closures reached 172,180, 85 percent higher than a comparable period during 2019.

However, if the pace of new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) filings in Immigration Court continues, FY 2023 may also reach a new record for incoming cases. During the same four months of FY 2023, a total of 329,380 Notices to Appear (NTAs) issued by the DHS were recorded in Immigration Court case-by-case records. Thus, the Court is on pace this year to receive nearly a million new NTAs seeking to deport immigrants.

TRAC's full report is available here: https://trac.syr.edu/reports/709/.

CleanShot 2023-02-22 at 08.31.00@2x

 

-AK

February 22, 2023 in Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (0)

Monday, February 6, 2023

Why Not a Humanitarian Climate Visa?

image from climate.law.columbia.eduThe latest episode on the Changing Climate, Changing Migration podcast of the Migration Policy Institute features Ama Francis, a climate displacement strategist with the International Refugee Assistance Project and Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.

One interesting idea advocated by Ama Francis on the podcast is a Humanitarian Climate visa for climate displaced people from climate vulnerable areas. The visa could have two-step eligibility that asks, first, if the person is from an area particularly prone to climate impact. Second, the visa could evaluate vulnerability. As Francis points out, there is an example of such a visa from Argentina, which in 2022 approved a new humanitarian visa to enable people displaced regionally by climate disasters (in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean) to access the visa.

You can listen to the full episode here.

IE

February 6, 2023 in Data and Research | Permalink | Comments (0)