US Immigration Policy Megathread

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Koos Group: Mar 6, 2013; I REFUSE TO BAN GENOCIDE DENIAL IN MY SUBFORUM BECAUSE I BELIEVE PEOPLE SHOULD DEBATE THE GENOCIDE DENIERS INSTEAD

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT OF THE FORUMS BY PURCHASING AVATARS FOR ME

PeterCat posted:

Even though there is still apparently a state of emergency at the US Border, the Biden administration is going to send CBP agents to Ukraine to facilitate US personnel and refugees fleeing the conflict.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/...C-kfZ-Ln-FsKgSI

Please try to link original sources (John Solomon in this case) when possible, rather than secondary ones creating a narrative around them.

# ? Mar 1, 2022 19:17

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# ? Apr 28, 2024 07:29

Slow News Day: Jul 4, 2007

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1502318717455441922

quote:

Deportations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement fell sharply last year under President Biden to the lowest levels in the agency�s history despite record-high border crossings, according to statistics released Friday in an annual report.

During the 2021 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, ICE recorded 59,011 deportations, down from 185,884 in 2020. The lower numbers were partly the result of enforcement changes triggered by the coronavirus pandemic that have allowed U.S. agents to rapidly expel unlawful border crossers under the Title 42 public health code, a procedure that does not count as a formal deportation.

But another gauge of ICE enforcement activity � immigration arrests in the U.S. interior � also showed a significant drop relative to historic averages. Officers working for ICE�s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) made about 74,082 administrative arrests during the 2021 fiscal year, down from 104,000 during fiscal 2020 and an average of 148,000 annually from 2017 through 2019.

Biden administration officials said the figure reflects the administration�s efforts to emphasize �quality over quantity� by directing ICE to prioritize immigrants who pose public safety and national security threats.

The report said ICE arrested 12,025 individuals last year with aggravated felony convictions, nearly double the 2020 total. The agency highlighted a targeted operation that arrested 495 �noncitizen sex offenders� from 54 different countries, more than twice the number taken into custody in 2020.

�As the annual report�s data reflects, ICE�s officers and special agents focused on cases that delivered the greatest law enforcement impact in communities across the country while upholding our values as a nation,� Tae Johnson, the agency�s acting director, said in a statement.

The 59,011 deportations reported last year were the lowest total since 1995, according to Department of Homeland Security statistics. ICE, created in 2003, has more than 20,000 employees in its civil, criminal and legal operations and an annual budget of approximately $8 billion.

Biden campaigned for president promising a break with his predecessor�s aggressive enforcement approach and unabashed enthusiasm for mass immigration arrests. After taking office, Biden ordered a �pause� on deportations that upended the agency�s operations and left officers grumbling that their agency had been eliminated by administrative means.

Since then, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has issued new guidance to officers instructing them to prioritize national security and public safety threats as well as recent border-crossers, an approach the administration says has allowed it to better focus resources on serious criminals.

Mayorkas has also met personally with teams of ICE officers to urge them to use more discretion before making an arrest and adopt a more sympathetic approach toward immigrants who are not serious criminals and have been living for years in the United States.

Republicans have hammered the Biden administration over the decline in interior immigration arrests and deportations, and blamed the surge of new arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border on his more lenient policies. U.S. Customs and Border Protection detained 1.7 million border-crossers during the 2021 fiscal year, an all-time high.

Tom Homan, an acting ICE director under President Donald Trump, said the Biden administration has curbed immigration enforcement inside the United States at the behest of �radical leftists� who would like to abolish the agency.

�From day one, this administration has pushed policies that have made it effectively impossible to detain or deport around 90% of the illegal aliens currently in the United States, while at the same time releasing tens of thousands of illegal aliens into the country in the past year,� Homan, now a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said in a statement.

States such as Texas, Louisiana and Arizona have sued over the new enforcement priorities and are awaiting court rulings that could overturn them.

Mayorkas has also stopped detaining families and withdrew ICE from two county detention facilities in Massachusetts and Georgia that he said did not meet his standards. He also told Congress last year that he was concerned about the �overuse� of detention.

ICE holds growing numbers of immigrants at private facilities despite Biden�s campaign promise to end the practice.

The average daily number of ICE detainees plunged to about 19,200 during the 2021 fiscal year, the lowest level since 1999, according to the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.

Approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants reside in the United States, and the majority have been here for more than a decade, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Congressional Democrats have attempted to pass a bill that would make them permanent residents, but their efforts have stalled in the narrowly divided Senate.

Advocates for immigrants said they welcomed many of the Biden administration�s early changes, such as ending the travel ban and increasing the number of refugees allowed into the United States. But they said the most recent spending bill increases funding for immigration enforcement and complained that Biden has not kept his campaign promise to end privately run detention, which accounts for the majority of the ICE system.

�We really want to see some shifts,� said Silky Shah, executive director of the Detention Watch Network. U.S. officials �don�t need to put people seeking asylum in detention, period,� she added.

Shah said the government should stop detaining people for civil immigration violations, especially those who have already served their time for criminal offenses. �We don�t believe anybody should be detained,� she said. �What we need to do is reduce the system.�

ICE also deported 34 �known or suspected terrorists,� according to the report. But agency officials said during a briefing with reporters that they did not have additional information about the known or suspected terrorists, nor where they were taken into custody.

ICE has not had a Senate-confirmed director since the Obama administration. Biden nominated Sheriff Ed Gonzalez of Harris County, Tex., to the position nearly a year ago, but Senate Democrats delayed his confirmation vote this week after Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said they should investigate unsubstantiated claims of domestic violence against the sheriff. Gonzalez and his wife say the allegations are false.

# ? Mar 13, 2022 13:58

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

You really missed the part of the article where they said that deportations are down because they are kicking so many people out under the auspices of Title 42.

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-releases-january-2022-monthly-operational-update

CBP January summary posted:

CBP Southwest Border Enforcement Numbers for January 2022

The large number of expulsions during the pandemic has contributed to a higher-than-usual number of migrants making multiple border crossing attempts, which means that total encounters somewhat overstate the number of unique individuals arriving at the border.

The number of unique individuals encountered in January 2022 was 111,437, an 18 percent decrease compared to the number of unique individuals encountered the prior month.

In total, there were 153,941 encounters along the southwest land border in January, a 14 percent decrease compared to December. Of those, 26 percent involved individuals who had at least one prior encounter in the previous 12 months, compared to an average one-year re-encounter rate of 14 percent for FY2014-2019.

Nearly three-fourths (73 percent) of encounters were of single adults, with 113,132 encounters in January, a 2 percent decrease compared to December.

78,486 encounters, 51 percent of the total, were processed for expulsion under Title 42. 75,455 encounters were processed under Title 8.

69,976 encounters involving single adults (62 percent of all single adult encounters) were processed for expulsion under Title 42, with 43,156 processed under Title 8.

8,333 encounters involving family unit individuals (26 percent of all family unit individuals) were processed for expulsion under Title 42, with 23,462 processed under Title 8.

# ? Mar 13, 2022 15:32

Slow News Day: Jul 4, 2007

PeterCat posted:

You really missed the part of the article where they said that deportations are down because they are kicking so many people out under the auspices of Title 42.

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-releases-january-2022-monthly-operational-update

I didn't "miss" it, it's in fact literally the second paragraph in the quote I included.

# ? Mar 13, 2022 16:57

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

Slow News Day posted:

I didn't "miss" it, it's in fact literally the second paragraph in the quote I included.

You also provided no commentary for the article and just spammed it in there.

You know exactly what you did you posted an article that gives the impression that Biden's kicking out fewer people.

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

# ? Mar 13, 2022 17:17

Ruzihm: Aug 11, 2010; Group up and push mid, proletariat!

Interesting account of discrimination at the border from an attorney.

https://twitter.com/JuliaNeusner/status/1506798123305234432
https://twitter.com/JuliaNeusner/status/1506798126387982340

quote:

Today at the San Ysidro port of entry in Tijuana I watched as MX and US authorities allowed 26 Ukrainian asylum seekers to enter the U.S. and turned away a Mexican family who'd been waiting alongside them, saying they couldn't seek asylum bc of Title 42 and would have to wait.
A Mexican municipal police officer asked the group their county of origin. When they told him they were Ukrainian, he counted them and reported the number by radio. The officer told us MX municipal police are now monitoring the POE at all times to coordinate entry of Ukrainians.
The Mexican family with young children who was waiting with the Ukrainians fled death threats by an organized criminal group who'd brutally murdered their family members. The mom told the same officer through tears that they were afraid to be in MX. He sent them away from the POE
It was great to see the US welcome Ukrainian refugees at the border. But continuing to use T42 to turn away all other asylum seekers on the increasingly absurd pretext of protecting public health is shameful and violates US and international law. It's past time to end Title 42.

For more info on Title 42, check out our latest factsheet! https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/sites/default/files/TwoYearsofSuffering.pdf

Is the CDC's 2020 regulation concerning Title 42 established under Trump a racist one? Why has it remained under Biden? I think these are important questions to ask ourselves if we are to seriously confront racism in this country.

# ? Mar 24, 2022 17:01

Slow News Day: Jul 4, 2007

The Biden administration is ending Title 42.

https://www.vox.com/23006820/title-42-border-pandemic-biden

quote:

The Biden administration announced Friday that it�s lifting controversial pandemic-related border restrictions under which the US has expelled thousands of migrants without giving them access to their legal right to apply for asylum.

The so-called Title 42 policy, first enacted by the Trump administration in March 2020 at the outset of the pandemic, will end on May 23. It has allowed the US to expel migrants without a hearing before an immigration judge more than 1.7 million times, with many being caught trying to cross the border multiple times. The policy has been a source of internal strife at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where scientists initially opposed its implementation; it even spurred a senior State Department official, Harold Koh, to rebuke the administration as he left his job.

The CDC says in its Friday order that preventing migrants from entering the US is �no longer necessary to protect the public health,� though public health experts outside the agency have long argued that it was never necessary. It�s a seismic change in US policy for migrants who have been stranded in northern Mexico for years, where they have been targets of violence and extortion.

It also brings challenges for Biden administration officials, who face the enormous task of safely and humanely processing what will likely be a sharp increase in the number of migrants arriving on the southern border in the coming months. The administration is preparing for a worst-case scenario of as many as 18,000 migrants arriving daily after Title 42 is lifted, up from an average of about 5,900 in February. Meanwhile, officials will also have to fend off inevitable attacks from Republicans eager to falsely depict President Joe Biden as an �open borders� Democrat ahead of the midterm elections.

[...]

# ? Apr 4, 2022 22:58

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

Here is the Secretary of Homeland Security's statement regarding the termination of the Title 42 Order.

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2022/04/01/statement-secretary-mayorkas-cdcs-title-42-order-termination

Secretary Mayorkas posted:

WASHINGTON � Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas released the following statement in response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention�s (CDC) determination that it will, effective May 23, 2022, terminate its Title 42 public health Order. Pursuant to its Title 42 authority, the CDC has, since March 2020, required the expulsion of unauthorized single adults and family units arriving at the land borders in order to protect against the spread of COVID-19.

�Title 42 is not an immigration authority, but rather a public health authority used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to protect against the spread of communicable disease. Title 42 remains in place until May 23 and, until then, DHS will continue to expel single adults and families encountered at the Southwest border.

�Once the Title 42 Order is no longer in place, DHS will process individuals encountered at the border pursuant to Title 8, which is the standard procedure we use to place individuals in removal proceedings. Nonetheless, we know that smugglers will spread misinformation to take advantage of vulnerable migrants. Let me be clear: those unable to establish a legal basis to remain in the United States will be removed.

�We have put in place a comprehensive, whole-of-government strategy to manage any potential increase in the number of migrants encountered at our border. We are increasing our capacity to process new arrivals, evaluate asylum requests, and quickly remove those who do not qualify for protection. We will increase personnel and resources as needed and have already redeployed more than 600 law enforcement officers to the border. We are referring smugglers and certain border crossers for criminal prosecution. Over the next two months, we are putting in place additional, appropriate COVID-19 protocols, including ramping up our vaccination program.

�The root causes fueling irregular migration predate today�s announcement, and we have experienced increases in migration over the past decade and long before. DHS is always preparing for the ebb and flow of migration patterns. We will continue to work with countries throughout the Western Hemisphere to offer safe and legal pathways for migrants seeking protection or resettlement, streamline repatriations, address root causes, and take enforcement actions against the smuggling networks that entice migrants to take the dangerous and often deadly journey to our land borders.

�The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to pursuing every avenue within our authority to secure our borders, enforce our laws, and stay true to our values. Yet a long-term solution can only come from comprehensive legislation that brings lasting reform to a fundamentally broken system.�

Per the CBP's February report, here are the number of people processed under Title 42 vs Title 8.

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-releases-february-2022-monthly-operational-update

164,973 Total encounters in February, 2022.

126,151 single adults
-83,553, single adults, expelled under Title 42. 66%
-42,598, single adults, processed under Title 8. 34%

26,582 Family Units.
-7,773 expelled under Title 42. 29%
-18,809 processed under Title 8. 71%

PeterCat fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Apr 5, 2022

# ? Apr 5, 2022 21:10

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

Here is a link to the October, 2020 Title 42 Order. It's too long to post the whole thing, though it's short enough that I encourage people to read it.

tl:dr; Congregating people in CBP facilities for the amount of time necessary to process them under Title 8 creates a risk of spreading Covid to other immigrants, to the CBP agents, and therefore the US population as a whole, the CBP is authorized, under Title 42, to rapidly remove people from the US and return them to the country they crossed from or their place of origin, Mexico being one of the countries that people can be rapidly returned to.

https://www.federalregister.gov/doc...a-quarantinable

# ? Apr 5, 2022 21:34

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

Here is the original March, 2020 order.

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-03-26/pdf/2020-06327.pdf

page 29 of the Pdf.

# ? Apr 5, 2022 22:24

Timeless Appeal: May 28, 2006

Hey, I know I don't regularly post in this thread, but I think I've seen a lot of discussion kind of break down to the intent and heart and soul of the Biden administration vs what is power within institutional power.

The Times posted a pretty in-depth article about the inner-workings of the administration. I will post the whole article below, but the big takeaway is that:

-- The Administration was incredibly frustrated and annoyed with the influx of immigrants
-- Biden's bias does apparently seem to be with actually being more humane at the border, but a lot of administration felt that rolling back a bunch of Trump policies would lead to them being crushed in November which is kinda bullshit.
-- I think most significant, Biden gave very tepid approval to exploring maintaining the Remain in Mexico policy before the courts forced his hand. The article does make it seem like his bias was against doing so, but he opened the door to it, and basically told his people that it could never get to the media that he let them explore it.
-- Biden is basically the old Phil Hartman impersonation of Reagan.

Anyway, I thought it would be of interest to people

The Paper of Record posted:

Disagreement and Delay: How Infighting Over the Border Divided the White House
The Biden administration has furiously debated how � and whether � to unravel Trump-era immigration policies.

WASHINGTON � President Biden was livid.

He had been in office only two months and there was already a crisis at the southwest border. Thousands of migrant children were jammed into unsanitary Border Patrol stations. Republicans were accusing Mr. Biden of flinging open the borders. And his aides were blaming one another.

Facing his bickering staff in the Oval Office that day in late March 2021, Mr. Biden grew so angry at their attempts to duck responsibility that he erupted.

Who do I need to fire, he demanded, to fix this?

Mr. Biden came into office promising to dismantle what he described as the inhumane immigration policies of President Donald J. Trump. But the episode, recounted by several people who attended or were briefed on the meeting, helps explain why that effort remains incomplete: For much of Mr. Biden�s presidency so far, the White House has been divided by furious debates over how � and whether � to proceed in the face of a surge of migrants crossing the southwest border.

Senior aides have been battling one another over how quickly to roll back the most restrictive policies and what kind of system would best replace them.

Now, Mr. Biden finds himself the target of attacks from all sides: Immigration activists accuse him of failing to prioritize the human rights of millions of immigrants. Conservatives have pointed to surges of migrants at the border as evidence that the president is weak and ineffective. And even some moderate Democrats now fear that lifting Trump-era border restrictions could hurt them politically.

Officials from the Department of Homeland Security expect record numbers of migrants to cross the border this summer, just months ahead of the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress and help shape the arc of Mr. Biden�s presidency for the next two years.

This account of the Biden administration�s handling of the border over the past 15 months is based on interviews with 20 current and former officials, lawmakers and activists, most of whom requested anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

Mr. Biden came into office with high hopes, saying he wanted a system that would allow the United States to determine, in a more compassionate way, which migrants should be allowed to stay in the country. He recruited a team of immigration advocates and others eager to put in place the humane system they had envisioned for years. But the slow pace of change has left some of Mr. Biden�s longtime allies doubting his commitment and wondering whether he is more interested in keeping the highly charged issue from dominating his presidency.

Virtually all of the aides who came on board early in the administration have left the White House, frustrated by what they describe as repeated fights with some of the president�s most senior advisers over whether to lift Trump-era policies. Even some of Mr. Biden�s more enforcement-minded aides have departed.

White House officials did not dispute the internal disagreements over immigration. Vedant Patel, a spokesman for Mr. Biden, said the president understood that changing an outdated system was not �going to happen overnight,� though he said Mr. Biden was �working every day to secure our border and use the power we do have to build a fair, orderly and humane immigration system.�

But the border has been a constant headache for Mr. Biden � one that ballooned into a series of crises even as he tried to stay focused on the pandemic, the economy, Afghanistan and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

�Our old debates about border security and deterrence and open borders are not capturing the actual policy challenge at hand,� said Andrea R. Flores, who resigned as the director for border management at the National Security Council, disillusioned and frustrated by senior aides and �the opportunities I saw them not take.�

�This is an inflection point,� she said.

Debates and Clashes
Ron Klain issued a warning to his staff last summer.

Mr. Klain, the White House chief of staff, gathered senior aides, including Susan Rice, the president�s domestic policy adviser; Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, the homeland security adviser; and Amy Pope, the top migration adviser, in the Roosevelt Room. Mr. Klain told them that they needed to make sure the administration was not pandering to people who wanted an immediate end to Trump-era border restrictions, according to two people familiar with his comments.

If they did not find a way to deter soaring illegal crossings at the southwest border, he said, accusations about border chaos would grow worse, anger moderate voters and potentially sink the party during the 2022 midterms.

Mr. Klain was channeling his boss, who had complained to top aides about the intensifying attacks from Republicans characterizing him as an open-borders president, according to a person familiar with Mr. Biden�s comments.

But the source of the president�s frustration was as much from inside his administration as it was from outside. As border crossings increased, disagreements erupted over how quickly to dismantle Mr. Trump�s anti-immigrant policies and what to replace them with.

An unaccompanied 6-year-old girl from Honduras in La Joya, Texas, in February. Mr. Biden has taken a series of actions to reverse his predecessor�s policies, including halting construction of the border wall.

Record numbers of migrants, including people driven out of their homes in Central America by the economic effects of the pandemic, gangs and natural disasters, surged to the border last summer, in part enticed by Mr. Biden�s promise of a less harsh approach to immigration than that of his predecessor. About 214,000 migrants were taken into custody in July of last year � the first time that many people had been apprehended in a single month in more than two decades.

Mr. Biden has taken a series of actions to reverse his predecessor�s policies. He halted construction of the border wall, created a task force to reunite families separated at the border and reversed Mr. Trump�s ban on considering domestic violence or gang violence as a basis for asylum. He also proposed sweeping legislation to overhaul the nation�s immigration system, though it has stalled in Congress.

But despite those actions, the infighting among the president�s aides was on full display during the Oval Office meeting last March.

Xavier Becerra, the secretary of health and human services, whose department runs shelters for migrant children, said the Department of Homeland Security needed to be more aggressive in turning away older teenagers, which would have changed Mr. Biden�s policy of letting all unaccompanied migrant children into the country. Ms. Rice repeatedly said Mr. Becerra should provide more shelters. Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, said the Department of Health and Human Services needed to move the children more quickly out of overcrowded Border Patrol stations.

Mr. Klain tried to play mediator, to little effect.

For months, aides clashed over an effort intended to speed up consideration of asylum cases at the border by allowing immigration officers to decide the claims rather than overburdened judges. The goal was to streamline a court process that currently takes an average of five years to reach a decision for asylum seekers.

Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, told aides that they needed to make sure the administration was not pandering to people who wanted an immediate end to Trump-era border restrictions.

Some of the former immigration advocates in the West Wing, including Ms. Rice�s deputy for immigration, Esther Olavarria, worried that rushing through the new process would limit due process for migrants. Ms. Rice, Mr. Klain and others argued that processing claims faster � and swiftly deporting migrants who fail to win asylum � was an important way to ease the burden on the system and deter illegal crossings.

As the year went on, Mr. Biden grew annoyed by the delays in putting the asylum changes into practice along the border. In meetings on immigration with his top aides, he often asked what resources and funding the team of former advocates and immigration veterans needed for the policy.

The administration did not release the final language for the new policy until last month. And because of staffing and funding issues, the plan will be rolled out slowly and not in time to offer significant help with the expected spike in migrants seeking asylum later this spring.

One of the most fraught debates inside the West Wing over the last year has been what to do about Mr. Trump�s �Remain in Mexico� policy, which forced migrants seeking asylum to wait south of the border until their cases were decided. Human rights advocates assailed the conditions in Mexico, where migrants often stayed in squalid camps where they had no legal representation and were at risk of assault. As a candidate, Mr. Biden had condemned the program. Once in office, he quickly terminated it.

But it was one program that had been effective at keeping some migrants out of border detention facilities. During a meeting last summer convened to discuss options for dealing with the record numbers of migrants at the border, Ms. Sherwood-Randall raised the possibility of restoring the program, with some additional protections for migrants, according to two people familiar with the matter.

That idea horrified immigration advocates inside the administration, who viewed it not only as a breach of Mr. Biden�s campaign pledge, but also as a retreat from the promise of a more humane immigration system.

Mr. Biden, too, appeared uncomfortable with the idea, according to a person who was in the room for the meeting.

The president told his team he would not forbid them to explore whether it was worth restoring the Remain in Mexico policy. But he made it clear that he did not want the idea leaking to the news media � and he did not want his name attached to it. (The Supreme Court would later force the administration to restore the policy.)

Polling by the White House and Democratic groups suggests Mr. Biden is right to be wary of the border issue.

�Republicans are trying to make the case Democrats are the party of chaos,� said Lanae Erickson, a senior vice president at Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank.

Tensions and Departures
The internal battles over immigration have not been limited to the immigration agencies.

In a meeting last summer, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Mr. Biden�s top aides that it was not clear there was still a public health rationale for keeping the border shut to most migrants, according to three people who attended or were briefed on the discussion.

The Trump administration had seized on a section of federal law called Title 42 to justify turning away most migrants at the border. When Mr. Biden took office, he said he would not apply the policy to unaccompanied minors, a change from the previous administration. In practice, many families were also let into the United States in spite of the policy.

But by last summer, the coronavirus, including the Delta variant, was spreading wildly throughout the country. Top C.D.C. officials said it was not clear that keeping out migrants, including asylum seekers, would do much to prevent the spread of a variant that was already in the United States.

That was not what some in the White House wanted to hear. Publicly, Mr. Biden and his top aides had always deferred to the C.D.C. when asked about the public health rule, saying it was entirely up to the health agency to decide how long to leave it in place.

But privately, Ms. Rice, Mr. Klain and others were worried that lifting the restriction would invite even more migrants to the southwest border and could be seen as premature if another variant emerged. White House officials also argued that Title 42 was needed to prevent the spread of the virus along the border.

For the immigration advocates working inside the White House, it was all maddening. They had come to work for Mr. Biden to dismantle the worst policies put in place by Mr. Trump. Now they were being asked to make arguments for continuing them.

Some officials at the C.D.C. resented being blamed for keeping in place what many activists saw as a regressive border policy, according to several people familiar with their complaints.

White House aides also clashed over whether to vaccinate migrants who were let into the United States. Last summer, a plan to administer the coronavirus vaccine was blocked by Ms. Rice and others at the White House, who feared it would encourage more migrants to swarm toward the border seeking a shot.

That was the last thing some advisers � Ms. Rice in particular � wanted, according to several officials who participated in meetings with her on the topic.

Several officials insisted that the frequent and often heated debates about immigration helped them reach better solutions.

�The administration was faced with a thousand cruel policies that were put in place during the last four years,� said Tyler Moran, Mr. Biden�s former senior adviser for migration. �But the administration had its eye on the prize on meaningful policy change.�

However, the fighting inside the administration took a toll on the staff.

In January, Ms. Olavarria, a veteran of decades of immigration debates in Washington and a fierce advocate for migrants, left her job as Ms. Rice�s deputy for immigration. Ms. Moran, who had worked on immigration policy for President Barack Obama and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, also left the White House. Ms. Flores left in the fall of last year.

Two longtime immigration experts who had agreed to short-term assignments � Ms. Pope, a former Obama administration official, and Roberta S. Jacobson, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico � left after a few months. An official at the Department of Homeland Security, David Shahoulian, who served as the go-between with the White House, left in September.

The C.D.C. finally announced at the beginning of April that it would lift its public health border restrictions on May 23, around the time of the year when migration typically increases.

But this past week, the issue of Title 42 flared up again as Republicans and some Democrats in Congress held up Covid funding in an effort to protest the administration�s decision to lift the health rule.

Bracing for More
A few days ago in Eagle Pass, Texas, two Nicaraguan women climbed shoeless up the reedy bank of the United States side of the Rio Grande, having just crossed about 250 feet through frigid water. One said she almost drowned.

The women were among more than 8,000 undocumented migrants who crossed the border on Tuesday, many calmly walking up to border officials to turn themselves in. They are the leading edge of what officials believe could be another record-breaking spike this summer.

Crossings are even higher than they were last year, and officials are planning for up to 18,000 migrants a day when the public health rule is lifted � more than twice as many as have been crossing recently.

Homeland Security officials recently released a plan for responding to that spike. An official from the Federal Emergency Management Agency is leading the operation, which aims to swiftly and humanely get migrants through border processing and into immigration detention or to their final destination.

The Border Patrol has been adding large temporary facilities that hold about 500 migrants to use as processing centers. In Eagle Pass and Yuma, Ariz., centers were recently expanded. Another center was built in Laredo, Texas, last year.

Officials say they are prepared.

�This for us, it�s just another variable,� Jason D. Owens, the chief Border Patrol agent in charge of the 245 miles of border in and around Del Rio, Texas, said about the upcoming end to the public health order. �It�s just another thing we have to adapt and adjust to.�

# ? Apr 10, 2022 14:54

Slow News Day: Jul 4, 2007

Yeah, I read that story, and it's pretty embarrassing. The number of refugees coming to the Southern border will only increase over time, especially as climate disasters get worse. It seems that something has to give. I just don't know what.

# ? Apr 10, 2022 17:34

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

This part stuck out to me as being particularly heinous:

article posted:

White House aides also clashed over whether to vaccinate migrants who were let into the United States. Last summer, a plan to administer the coronavirus vaccine was blocked by Ms. Rice and others at the White House, who feared it would encourage more migrants to swarm toward the border seeking a shot.

That was the last thing some advisers � Ms. Rice in particular � wanted, according to several officials who participated in meetings with her on the topic.

As it currently stands, migrants are given the option of receiving the vaccine, though they are not removed from the country if they refuse it. People wishing to legally immigrate to the country are barred unless they can show proof of vaccination.

# ? Apr 10, 2022 22:46

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2022-04-13/hassan-and-pappas-fight-to-preserve-trump-era-policy-that-helped-deport-thousands-of-migrants

The New Hampshire Democratic delegation supports continuing Title 42 removals.

https://twitter.com/SenatorHassan/status/1513627143745548299

In a move that will have no influence on anyone, but looks good to Abbott's campaign, the state of Texas is using tax funds to bus migrants to Washington D.C.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/13/politics/texas-migrants-arrive-in-dc/index.html

The idea that Congress would actually give a poo poo about anyone showing up outside of the Capitol is funny, though if the migrants stormed the building it would probably see some immediate action from Congress. Homeless people in the Capitol don't get any attention from Congress, marches on the Mall don't, why would a few migrants matter?

# ? Apr 16, 2022 00:13

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

CBP March 2022 update.

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-releases-march-2022-monthly-operational-update

update posted:

Release Date: April 18, 2022
WASHINGTON � U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) today released operational statistics for March 2022, which can be viewed online here.

�CBP continues to enforce the CDC�s Title 42 Public Health Order. Half of migrants encountered in March were processed for expulsion under Title 42, and those who were not processed under Title 42 continue to be processed for removal under Title 8, the same authorities CBP has used throughout our history,� said CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus. �While we may likely see an increase in encounters after the CDC�s Title 42 Public Health Order is terminated on May 23rd, CBP continues to execute this Administration�s comprehensive strategy to safely, orderly, and humanely manage our borders. CBP is surging personnel and resources to the border, increasing processing capacity, securing more ground and air transportation, and increasing medical supplies, food, water, and other resources to ensure a humane environment for those being processed.�

...

Preparations for a Potential Increase in Migration

CBP works to secure and manage our borders while building a fair and orderly immigration system. The CDC has announced that, on May 23, 2022, its Title 42 public health Order will be terminated. As a result, beginning on May 23, 2022, DHS will no longer process families and single adults for expulsion pursuant to Title 42. Instead, DHS will process them for removal under Title 8. Until May 23, 2022, the CDC�s Title 42 Order remains in place, and DHS will continue to process families and single adults for expulsion pursuant to the Order.

Under Title 8, those who attempt to enter the United States without authorization, and who are unable to establish a legal basis to remain in the United States (such as a valid asylum claim), will be quickly removed. Individuals who have been removed are also subject to additional long-term consequences beyond removal from the United States, including bars to future immigration benefits.

DHS is implementing a comprehensive strategy to address a potential increase in the number of border encounters. The strategy includes: 1) Acquiring and deploying resources to address increased volumes; 2) Delivering a more efficient and fair immigration process; 3) Processing and removing those who do not have valid claims; and 4) Working with other countries in the Western Hemisphere to manage migration and address root causes. Read more here.

-221,303 encounters along the SWB, up 33% from February.
101,549 processed for expulsion under Title 42.
111,754 were processed under Title 8.

Of those 159,900 were unique encounters, up 37% from February.

-169,092 of the encounters were single adults.
101,539 processed under Title 42
67,523 processed under Title 8.

-37,818 family unit encounters, up 42% from February.
7,802 processed under Title 42
30,016 processed under Title 8.

-14,167 unaccompanied children encountered, up 18% from February.

# ? Apr 20, 2022 02:46

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

Ruzihm posted:

Is the CDC's 2020 regulation concerning Title 42 established under Trump a racist one? Why has it remained under Biden? I think these are important questions to ask ourselves if we are to seriously confront racism in this country.

Given that the number of migrants coming across the border is increasing, and that the evidence of preferential treatment of Ukrainians is anecdotal at best, I do not see any reason to say that the policy is particularly racist as much as it was used as an expedient by the Trump administration and perpetuated by the Biden administration.

Outside of a small minority of political thinkers, there aren't many people who believe controlling access to the country is a bad thing, but US Government policy on immigration, like most things, is incoherent and is being used as political football by various politicians at all levels.

# ? Apr 20, 2022 02:50

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

Another thing to consider is there are a myriad of statuses that people coming into the United States can claim. Refugee status has to be requested prior to entering the US. Asylum can be requested by people who are already in the US. For people who are already in the US, they can put a pause on the time requirements for applying for further legal status if their country has been granted Temporary Protected Status.

Ukraine has been granted Temporary Protected Status. As defined by the USCIS website:

USCIS.GOV posted:

The Secretary of Homeland Security may designate a foreign country for TPS due to conditions in the country that temporarily prevent the country's nationals from returning safely, or in certain circumstances, where the country is unable to handle the return of its nationals adequately. USCIS may grant TPS to eligible nationals of certain countries (or parts of countries), who are already in the United States. Eligible individuals without nationality who last resided in the designated country may also be granted TPS.

The Secretary may designate a country for TPS due to the following temporary conditions in the country:

Ongoing armed conflict (such as civil war)
An environmental disaster (such as earthquake or hurricane), or an epidemic
Other extraordinary and temporary conditions

Here are the countries currently granted TPS by the US Government:

Burma (Myanmar)
El Salvador
Haiti
Honduras
Nepal
Nicaragua
Syria
Somalia
Sudan
South Sudan
Ukraine
Venezuela
Yemen

Now, people outside of the US can request refugee status. A refugee is defined as follows in the US Code:

https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title8-section1101&num=0&edition=prelim

US Code posted:

(42) The term "refugee" means (A) any person who is outside any country of such person's nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, is outside any country in which such person last habitually resided, and who is unable or unwilling to return to, and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of, that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, or (B) in such special circumstances as the President after appropriate consultation (as defined in section 1157(e) of this title) may specify, any person who is within the country of such person's nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, within the country in which such person is habitually residing, and who is persecuted or who has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. The term "refugee" does not include any person who ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution of any person on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. For purposes of determinations under this chapter, a person who has been forced to abort a pregnancy or to undergo involuntary sterilization, or who has been persecuted for failure or refusal to undergo such a procedure or for other resistance to a coercive population control program, shall be deemed to have been persecuted on account of political opinion, and a person who has a well founded fear that he or she will be forced to undergo such a procedure or subject to persecution for such failure, refusal, or resistance shall be deemed to have a well founded fear of persecution on account of political opinion.

The key terms here are "Demonstrates that they were persecuted or fear persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group."

So under those terms Ukrainians are being persecuted and have a fear of persecution due to their race, nationality, and political opinions, which would qualify them for refugee status. People who are fleeing due to being targeted because they ran afoul of a drug cartel are not eligible unless they fall into one of the areas listed above.

# ? Apr 21, 2022 05:25

Nucleic Acids: Apr 10, 2007

When you see white Ukrainians being given preferential treatment at the border it really puts into perspective who is allowed to be considered a victim and who isn�t.

# ? Apr 21, 2022 16:29

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

Nucleic Acids posted:

When you see white Ukrainians being given preferential treatment at the border it really puts into perspective who is allowed to be considered a victim and who isn�t.

What perspective does it put it in?

# ? Apr 22, 2022 01:05

Nucleic Acids: Apr 10, 2007

PeterCat posted:

What perspective does it put it in?

That we ignore the people victimized by our own imperial aggression.

# ? Apr 22, 2022 01:47

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

Nucleic Acids posted:

That we ignore the people victimized by our own imperial aggression.

Who do you mean?

# ? Apr 22, 2022 01:55

Nucleic Acids: Apr 10, 2007

PeterCat posted:

Who do you mean?

Predominantly people from Central and South America and the Caribbean, but not universally (look to how we�ve handled refugees from Afghanistan after the pull out).

I do think we should be helping Ukrainian refugees considering (at the very least) what the US did over the last thirty years to make this war happen, but there is absolutely a racial double standard on how we are approaching this, just as there always has been when it comes to immigration:

Nucleic Acids fucked around with this message at 14:37 on Apr 22, 2022

# ? Apr 22, 2022 14:12

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

Nucleic Acids posted:

Predominantly people from Central and South America and the Caribbean, but not universally (look to how we�ve handled refugees from Afghanistan after the pull out).

I do think we should be helping Ukrainian refugees considering (at the very least) what the US did over the last thirty years to make this war happen, but there is absolutely a racial double standard on how we are approaching this, just as there always has been when it comes to immigration:

What the US did to make the war happen?

Y'know, Russia could have just not invaded Ukraine. I mean, it's really easy not to invade a country.

# ? Apr 23, 2022 23:01

Nucleic Acids: Apr 10, 2007

PeterCat posted:

What the US did to make the war happen?

Y'know, Russia could have just not invaded Ukraine. I mean, it's really easy not to invade a country.

NATO expansion east of Germany and everything we did to Russia in the 90s that directly enabled Putin�s rise to power.

# ? Apr 24, 2022 04:51

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

Nucleic Acids posted:

NATO expansion east of Germany and everything we did to Russia in the 90s that directly enabled Putin�s rise to power.

Considering what Russia is doing in Ukraine, joining NATO is the smartest thing a country that shares a border with Russia could do.

But if the United States is responsible for the Ukrainian refugee crisis, why shouldn't it provide refuge for Ukrainians fleeing the war?

# ? Apr 24, 2022 05:34

Nucleic Acids: Apr 10, 2007

PeterCat posted:

Considering what Russia is doing in Ukraine, joining NATO is the smartest thing a country that shares a border with Russia could do.

But if the United States is responsible for the Ukrainian refugee crisis, why shouldn't it provide refuge for Ukrainians fleeing the war?

We should, we just are not providing for the refugees who are the prodcuts of maintaining our current imperial state.

# ? Apr 24, 2022 05:57

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

Nucleic Acids posted:

We should, we just are not providing for the refugees who are the prodcuts of maintaining our current imperial state.

Prove that the US isn't.

# ? Apr 24, 2022 06:12

Nucleic Acids: Apr 10, 2007

PeterCat posted:

Prove that the US isn't.

I am not sure how I can.

# ? Apr 24, 2022 06:27

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

The Southwest Border mission remains dangerous for Soldiers and migrants. One Texas National Guardsman has been missing for 2 days after being swept away while assisting migrants on the Rio Grande.

https://abc13.com/texas-army-national-guard-soldier-missing-eagle-pass-search/11786043/

Also, 2 North Dakota National Guardsmen have been recognized for rescuing migrants from drowning.

Nationalguard.mil posted:

NDNG Soldiers serving at Southwest border rescue migrants
By North Dakota National Guard

DEL RIO, Texas � North Dakota Army National Guardsmen rescued migrants from drowning while crossing the Rio Grande March 22.

Spcs. Luis Alvarado and Gracin Clem, assigned to Joint Task Force North, Task Force Legion in Del Rio, were conducting mobile surveillance camera site operations for Customs and Border Protection when the Soldiers observed five migrants attempting to cross the Rio Grande River.

The migrants were halfway across the river but struggled to stay above water due to strong currents and high winds. Alvarado, fluent in Spanish, shouted instructions to the migrants on how to cross the river safely.

�We�ve heard stories that the water gets pretty rough, but I honestly wasn�t expecting it,� said Alvarado.

Realizing they were unsuccessful in communicating, the two Soldiers immediately reached for the nylon rope lifelines they had received from Border Patrol Agents that morning. Two of the migrants went underwater, and the remaining three were struggling.

�There wasn�t time to be scared; it wasn�t an option,� said Clem.

Clem and Alvarado reacted swiftly by tying two lifelines together to send to the drowning individuals, but the currents proved too swift.

�It wasn�t an option to watch these people drown,� Clem said.

Clem then swam a lifeline to two migrants, rescuing them separately while the other three migrants managed to get across the water.

�You hope that in the moment, you react the right way and can do your job the way you were trained to do it,� Alvarado said.

The migrants reported to CBP agents, who rendered aid and transported them for further treatment and processing.

�We are deeply grateful to these North Dakota National Guard Soldiers for performing truly lifesaving work as they support the efforts to secure the southern border,� said North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. �Their courage and commitment to helping others in their time of need is incredible. Our National Guard Soldiers are the best in the nation and continually live up to their motto of �Always Ready, Always There.��

Alvarado and Clem are assigned to the North Dakota National Guard�s 957th Engineer Company (Multi-role Bridge) and have served at the southwest border since autumn 2021.

�These heroic actions demonstrate the unyielding commitment of our Guard members to preserve lives while in the service of our nation,� said Maj. Gen. Al Dohrmann, North Dakota adjutant general. �Our entire chain of command is extremely proud of the actions of all our Soldiers.�

As U.S. Northern Command�s lead, Joint Task Force North provides military support to the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection. The Department of Defense�s mission-enhancing support enables Customs and Border Protection to address security challenges and conduct their law enforcement mission more efficiently along the Southern border.

# ? Apr 24, 2022 21:49

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

The US is ending Title 42 exemptions for Ukrainians, so they will not be permitted entry at POEs on the Mexican border. To be granted refugee parole in the US, the Ukrainians must be sponsored by an individual or group prior to their arrival.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-refugee-sponsorship-program-us-resettlement/

CBS posted:

The Biden administration is launching a program that will allow U.S. citizens and groups to financially sponsor Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion of their country so that they can come to the U.S. sooner, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and President Biden announced Thursday.

Ukrainians who are selected to travel to the U.S. under the initiative will be granted humanitarian parole, allowing them to bypass the visa and refugee programs, which typically take years to complete. While it does not offer permanent status, parole would allow Ukrainians to live and work in the U.S. for two years.

The sponsorship program, dubbed "Uniting for Ukraine" and set to launch on April 25, is the first concrete U.S. policy aimed at fulfilling Mr. Biden's pledge of welcoming up to 100,000 of the 5 million Ukrainians who have fled their homeland as part of the largest refugee crisis since World War II.

"This new humanitarian parole program will complement the existing legal pathways available to Ukrainians, including immigrant visas and refugee processing," Mr. Biden said in remarks at the White House. "It will provide an expedient channel for secure, legal migration from Europe to the United States for Ukrainians who have a U.S. sponsor, such as a family or a [nongovernmental organization]."

The policy, administration officials said, is also designed to discourage Ukrainians from traveling to Mexico to seek entry along the U.S. southern border, where U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processed a record 3,274 Ukrainians in March alone, a jump of more than 1,100% from February.

U.S. immigration officials have processed nearly 15,000 undocumented Ukrainians in the past three months, most of them along the Mexican border, a senior DHS official said during a call with reporters Thursday.

In early March, U.S. officials at border crossings were directed to consider admitting Ukrainians under humanitarian exemptions to the Title 42 pandemic restrictions. But administration officials said on Thursday that U.S. border authorities will no longer process Ukrainians who lack travel documents on April 25.

Starting then, the senior DHS official said, "we will apply Title 42 equally to all nationalities at the border," referring to the migrant expulsion policy that is set to expire on May 23.

"Ukrainian nationals who present and do not have a visa or have not gone through the 'Uniting for Ukraine' program will no longer be paroled, unless they have some other factor that would lead a border official, a CBP officer, to make a case-by-case determination that do they merit a humanitarian exception for Title 42," the senior DHS official added.

The president said the new initiative "will ensure the United States honors its commitment to go to the Ukrainian people and need not go through our southern border."

Once the sponsorship program opens for applications later this month, U.S. individuals or organizations seeking to sponsor Ukrainians overseas will need to file affidavits of financial support and undergo background checks. DHS will then determine whether they qualify to be sponsors.

In order to be granted permission to travel to the U.S., Ukrainians will need to be first identified by their prospective sponsors, as they will not be able to apply for the program directly, administration officials said. Ukrainians will be eligible for the sponsorship initiative if they had resided in Ukraine as of February 11.

If the sponsorship is approved, the Ukrainians identified by U.S. sponsors will need to undergo security screenings overseas to ensure they will not pose a security or public safety risk to the U.S. They will also be required to be vaccinated against communicable diseases.

The sponsorship initiative announced Thursday could benefit thousands of displaced Ukrainians with U.S. ties who, until now, have faced limited options to come to the U.S. directly. An administration official said the U.S. expects the "majority" of Ukrainians welcomed by the U.S. to arrive through the new program.

"We are proud to deliver on President Biden's commitment to welcome 100,000 Ukrainians and others fleeing Russian aggression to the United States," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday.

U.S. visa applicants face lengthy wait times due to massive application backlogs worsened by the pandemic, and many Ukrainians may not qualify for visas. Meanwhile, the U.S. refugee process, which was crippled by COVID-19, takes between 18 to 24 months to complete for the select few allowed to enter the pipeline.

Citing interviews with displaced Ukrainians, administration officials said they created the parole program because their understanding is that many Ukrainians are seeking a temporary safe haven, not permanent resettlement.

Ukrainians who enter the U.S. through the parole program could, however, face legal limbo if they decide to stay permanently since they won't have a clear pathway to U.S. residency, just like the tens of thousands of Afghan evacuees who were paroled last year after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan.

But the administration on Thursday also announced an effort to refer more Ukrainians to the U.S. refugee program, focusing on identifying vulnerable displaced individuals in eastern Europe, including women, children, the elderly, people with severe medical conditions and members of the LGBTQ community.

The State Department, a senior administration official said, is also working to track down 18,000 Ukrainians who had entered the U.S. refugee pipeline before the Russian invasion under the so-called Lautenberg program, which allows religious minorities in former Soviet republics to obtain expedited U.S. resettlement.

U.S. refugee resettlement staff who relocated to Moldova after their Kyiv post was closed due to the war have identified "a number" of Ukrainians in eastern Europe who have pending Lautenberg program cases, the official said.

Administration officials said U.S. embassies and consulates are also working to increase appointments for Ukrainians seeking temporary U.S. visas and to expedite cases of Ukrainians with urgent humanitarian, medical or otherwise "extraordinary" needs.

While the U.S. set out to resettle up to 125,000 refugees from across the globe in fiscal year 2022, fewer than 9,000 refugees have been admitted so far, State Department figures show. In March, just a dozen Ukrainians entered the U.S. as refugees.

Matthew La Corte, an immigration policy analyst at the libertarian-leaning Niskanen Center, said the Ukrainian sponsorship program could help the Biden administration achieve its goal of allowing Americans to sponsor refugees from different countries. Late last year, the U.S. announced a smaller program for groups of U.S. citizens hoping to sponsor Afghan refugees.

"This urgency around Ukraine can ultimately speed up the launch of full private sponsorship, which has the opportunity to help the administration expand the resettlement system," La Corte told CBS News. "They've really struggled, 15 months into the administration, to resettle large numbers of refugees."

# ? Apr 24, 2022 21:59

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

Body of Texas National Guardsman who drowned saving immigrants from a river has been recovered.

https://www.stripes.com/branches/ar...viZ9aeClLtDC6G8

Stripes.com posted:

AUSTIN, Texas � The body of Spc. Bishop E. Evans was found Monday, three days after the Texas National Guard soldier jumped into the Rio Grande to rescue two migrants trying to cross from Mexico into the Texas city of Eagle Pass, the state�s military department reported.

Evans, a 22-year-old from Arlington, took off his uniform jacket and radio before going into the water at about 8:30 a.m. Friday, Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber told The Associated Press.

The Texas Military Department did not say where Evans� body was found or when. The Texas Rangers, part of the Department of Public Safety, have taken the lead on the investigation into the incident.

Evans was on duty Friday along the river as part of a state-sponsored border security mission known as Operation Lone Star. About 10,000 troops are assigned to the mission, with about 6,500 of those working positions along the state�s border with Mexico, Texas National Guard officials have said.

Evans was a field artilleryman assigned to Alpha Battery, 4th Battalion of the 133rd Field Artillery Regiment based in New Braunfels. Evans enlisted in the National Guard in May 2019.

Outside of his assignment to Operation Lone Star, Evans deployed to Operation Spartan Shield in Kuwait.

�During this mobilization, his dedication, talents and tactical prowess led his leadership to regularly assign him to operations in Iraq in support of special operations forces for short periods of time, while then rotating back into Kuwait,� Guard officials said.

Since Friday, multiple agencies have participated in the search for Evans, including the Texas Military Department, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Parks and Wildlife and the U.S. Border Patrol. Dive teams temporarily had to stop their efforts Saturday evening because the current of the Rio Grande increased and made operations unsafe.

Schmerber, a former U.S. Border Patrol officer, told the AP that this was the first incident that he could recall where a Guard member entered the water to rescue someone. He estimated the portion of the river where Evans jumped in was roughly 70 to 80 yards wide.

Only registered members can see post attachments!

# ? Apr 26, 2022 00:18

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-us-sponsor-application-form-website/

U.S. launches online portal with application to sponsor Ukrainians fleeing war

https://www.dhs.gov/ukraine

After doing a bit of research, a Ukrainian who seeks Humanitarian Parole in the US must be sponsored by an American citizen or organization. This means that the sponsor agrees to be financially responsible for the Ukrainian refugee, and must prove that the sponsor has the financial means to provide for the refugee once they come to the United States.

The process seems to be some what onerous, as most bureaucratic things are. I'm posting the instructions from the USCIS website to demonstrate this. It is not surprising that it is not as simple as just buying a ticket to the US and declaring refugee status once you hit customs.

USCIS posted:

I-134, Declaration Of Financial Support
Some immigration benefits that involve a temporary stay in the United States require U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to determine whether the applicant or beneficiary of the request has sufficient financial resources or financial support to pay for expenses during the temporary stay. The individual who signs and submits Form I-134 must establish that he or she has both sufficient financial resources and access to those funds to support the beneficiary listed on Form I-134 for the duration of the beneficiary�s stay in the United States.

Form I-134, Declaration of Financial Support, was previously titled �Form I-134, Affidavit of Support�.

We are only accepting online filing of Form I-134 by individuals agreeing to financially support Ukrainians and their immediate family members as part of Uniting for Ukraine.
You must be located in the United States to file Form I-134 online. Ukrainians seeking parole through Uniting for Ukraine may not file Form I-134 on their own behalf.

If you are agreeing to support a parolee outside of Uniting for Ukraine or an applicant for any other immigration benefit, you must file a paper Form I-134 through the appropriate Lockbox location.

Before You Start Your Declaration
Eligibility
Certain individuals applying for parole based on urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit filed on Form I-131, Application for Travel Document, must submit this form with Form I-131. Form I-134 is filed either by the applicant for parole on his or her own behalf, or by another individual on the parole applicant�s behalf.

Certain individuals applying for parole into the United States for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit who are not filing Form I-131 may also be required to submit this form. In such cases, Form I-134 is completed by an individual other than the beneficiary who is agreeing to financially support the beneficiary for the period of his or her temporary stay in the United States.

Note: Whether or not the beneficiary of this Form I-134 will have sufficient means of support while in the United States is an important factor in determining whether to exercise discretion to authorize parole. We require evidence that the beneficiary of this Form I-134 has financial support for the duration of his or her stay in the United States. Lack of evidence of financial support while in the United States is a strong negative factor that may lead to a denial of parole.

Form I-134 may also be requested by Department of State in certain instances.

Do not use Form I-134 if the beneficiary you are agreeing to financially support must have Form I-864, Affidavit of Support Under Section 213A of the INA, filed on his or her behalf instead.

Fee
There is no filing fee to file Form I-134.

Please refer to the instructions for the form(s) you are filing for additional information or you may call the USCIS Contact Center at 800-375-5283. For TTY (deaf or hard of hearing) 800-767-1833.

Documents you may need
You must be located in the United States in order to file Form I-134 on behalf of Ukrainians and their immediate family members as part of Uniting for Ukraine. Ukrainians and their immediate family members requesting parole as part of Uniting for Ukraine may not file Form I-134 on their own behalf.

As the person who agrees to financially support the beneficiary, you must show you have sufficient income or financial resources to support the beneficiary.

Evidence should consist of copies of any of the documents listed below that apply.

Failure to provide evidence of sufficient income or financial resources may result in the denial of the foreign national's application for a visa or his or her removal from the United States.

Submit in duplicate evidence of income and resources, appropriate:

Statement from an officer of the bank or other financial institutions with deposits, identifying the following details regarding the account:

Date account opened
Total amount deposited for the past year; and
Present balance.
Statement(s) from your employer on business stationery showing:

Date and nature of employment;
Salary paid; and
Whether the position is temporary or permanent
Copy of last U.S. federal income tax return filed (tax transcript); or

List containing serial numbers and denominations of bonds and name of record owner(s).

Biometric services appointment
USCIS may require that you appear for an interview or provide biometrics (fingerprints, photograph, and/or signature) at any time to verify your identity, obtain additional information, and conduct background and security checks, including a check of criminal history records maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), before making a decision on your application or petition. After USCIS receives your declaration and ensures it is complete, we will inform you if you need to attend a biometric services appointment. If an appointment is necessary, the notice will provide you the location of you local or designated USCIS application Support Center (ASC) and the date and time of your appointment or, if you are currently overseas, instruct you to contact a U.S. Embassy, U.S. Consulate, or USCIS office outside the United States to set up an appointment.

If you are required to provide biometrics, at your appointment you must sign an oath reaffirming that:

You provided or authorized all information in the declaration;
You reviewed and understood all of the information contained in, and submitted with your declaration; and;
All of this information was complete, true, and correct at the time of filing.
After You Submit Your Declaration
Track your case online
After you submit your form, you can track its status through your USCIS account. Sign in to your account often to check your case status and read any important messages from USCIS.

Respond to requests for information
If we need more information from you, we will send you a Request for Evidence (RFE) or Request for Information (RFI). You can respond to our request and upload your documents through your USCIS account.

Receive your decision
The decision on the Form I-134 involves a determination of whether you have established a basis of support for the beneficiary seeking an immigration benefit. USCIS will notify you of the decision in writing.

# ? Apr 26, 2022 01:48

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Did we have a separate immigration a/t thread or was it just this one? I know this isn't a policy thing but I got myself into a dumb situation and maybe someone ITT would know what's up. Otherwise I'll delete this if it's too offtopic.

I'm flying to the US next Friday and when getting my stuff ready, I realized that the tickets are booked under my name with my EU citizenship that requires ESTA authorization. I started filling it out but there's a question about previously denied visas. I had my first attempt rejected like 12 years ago, before I got my EU citizenship. I since got two B2 visas, the last one valid until 2028, in my other passport. The name is spelled completely differently in that passport and doesn't match the ticket though.

So, wtf. I don't want to answer "No" and do a fraud, but if I say yes I probably won't get approved for VWP. I feel like it doesn't have to be a an issue as long as they're not anal about the name on the ticket matching a document under which I'd be authorized for entry, but I've no idea if I can rely on that. I'm on hold with the airline trying to see if I can do a name chaneg, and I'l try calling the consulate tomorrow of course but if anyone knows how that works, it would help me sleep at night

# ? May 1, 2022 11:40

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

I would advise contacting the consulate or the US state department.

# ? May 1, 2022 23:53

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

PeterCat posted:

I would advise contacting the consulate or the US state department.

Thanks, yeah that's the way to go. But it was Sunday so I was only able to reach the preclearance desk in Dublin and some sort of CBP info line. Both said it's fine as long as all the documents are valid. Also stopped by the airport and the check-in clerk reviewed everythign and said.

Still, a bit sketchy. It's one thing to have a verbal answer and another to actually get it. So I gave ESTA a shot, answered "YES" on the visa question, and was approved anyway. So a bit of a false alarm, but better safe than sorry. Thanks again.

# ? May 2, 2022 12:26

Celexi: Nov 25, 2006; Slava Ukraini!

mobby_6kl posted:

Thanks, yeah that's the way to go. But it was Sunday so I was only able to reach the preclearance desk in Dublin and some sort of CBP info line. Both said it's fine as long as all the documents are valid. Also stopped by the airport and the check-in clerk reviewed everythign and said.

Still, a bit sketchy. It's one thing to have a verbal answer and another to actually get it. So I gave ESTA a shot, answered "YES" on the visa question, and was approved anyway. So a bit of a false alarm, but better safe than sorry. Thanks again.

You have to be on some pretty bad lists to get denied for Esta. The whole thing is more of a security theater.

# ? May 6, 2022 01:31

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

April, 2022 update from CBP.

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/nation...nited%20States.

cbp.gov posted:

201,000 total encounters along the SWB a 4% decrease from March.
157,555 unique encounters a 2% decrease.
166,814 enounters were single adults, a 2% decrease.

96,908 encounters (41%) were processed under Title 42.
89,642 (54% of single adult encounters) were processed for expulsion under Title 42.
7,058 (13% of all family unit individuals) were processed for expulsion under Title 42.

137,180 encounters were processed under Title 8.
77.172 (46% of single adult encounters) were processed under Title 8.
47,715 (87% of family unit individuals) were processed under Title 8.

Unaccompanied Children

Encounters of unaccompanied children decreased 14 percent, with 12,221 encounters in April compared with 14,143 in March. In April, the average number of unaccompanied children in CBP custody was 478 per day, compared with an average of 582 per day in March.
Family Unit individuals

Encounters of family unit individuals increased by 45 percent from 37,882 in March to 54,773 in April, which is a 37 percent decrease from the peak of 86,631 in August 2021.

An additional 32,288 encounters occurred by Office of Field Operations officers at a port of entry, an increase of 183 percent compared to March. This is attributed to the high number of Ukrainians processed at southwest border ports of entry. Of the 234,088 total encounters, 28 percent involved individuals who had at least one prior encounter in the previous 12 months, compared to an average one-year re-encounter rate of 15 percent for FY2014-2019.

# ? May 18, 2022 00:30

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

Also, here is the CBP's statement regarding Title 42, which is being revoked in 6 days depending on how the Federal injunction goes:

CBP.gov posted:

Preparations for a Potential Increase in Migration

CBP works to secure and manage our borders while building a fair and orderly immigration system. The CDC has announced that, on May 23, 2022, its Title 42 public health Order will be terminated. As a result, beginning on May 23, 2022, DHS will no longer process families and single adults for expulsion pursuant to Title 42. Instead, DHS will process them for removal under Title 8. Until May 23, 2022, the CDC�s Title 42 Order remains in place, and DHS will continue to process families and single adults for expulsion pursuant to the Order.

Under Title 8, those who attempt to enter the United States without authorization, and who are unable to establish a legal basis to remain in the United States (such as a valid asylum claim), will be quickly removed. Individuals who have been removed are also subject to additional long-term consequences beyond removal from the United States, including bars to future immigration benefits.

DHS has been executing a comprehensive strategy to secure our borders and rebuild our immigration system. DHS began planning last September, and we are leading the execution of a whole-of-government strategy to prepare for and manage any rise in noncitizen encounters.

That includes: 1) surging resources, including personnel, transportation, medical support, and facilities; 2) increasing processing efficiency, while maintaining the integrity of our screening processes, in order to reduce strain on the border; 3) administering consequences for unlawful entry, including expedited removal and criminal prosecution; 4) bolstering the capacity of NGOs and coordinate with state, local and community partners; 5) targeting and disrupting transnational criminal organizations and human smugglers; and 6) deterring irregular migration south of our border, in partnership with other federal agencies and nations.

You can read the Biden-Harris administration's plan here:

https://www.dhs.gov/publication/dhs-plan-southwest-border-security-and-preparedness

# ? May 18, 2022 00:32

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Celexi posted:

You have to be on some pretty bad lists to get denied for Esta. The whole thing is more of a security theater.

Apparently. It was the first time I applied for it and they really try to scare you off answering YES on one of the questions. Like "Are you sure you want to admit you had a visa application rejected? Better double check to make sure you don't gently caress up your trip!".

# ? May 18, 2022 01:24

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# ? Apr 28, 2024 07:29

Big K of Justice: Nov 27, 2005; Anyone seen my ball joints?

PeterCat posted:

After doing a bit of research, a Ukrainian who seeks Humanitarian Parole in the US must be sponsored by an American citizen or organization. This means that the sponsor agrees to be financially responsible for the Ukrainian refugee, and must prove that the sponsor has the financial means to provide for the refugee once they come to the United States.

The process seems to be some what onerous, as most bureaucratic things are. I'm posting the instructions from the USCIS website to demonstrate this. It is not surprising that it is not as simple as just buying a ticket to the US and declaring refugee status once you hit customs.

I-134 for a refugee? I thought that was just reserved for immigrant/non-immigrant visa holders going for a green card... well the upshot is it's a direct line to a Green Card instead of some temporary special visa status with no pathway to GC/Citizenship I would guess. I may be incorrect there. Hopefully it's not some temporary protected status where the can is kicked down the road for a few years.

I had to fill out an I-134 as a visa worker, even though I had already completed over 40 quarters of work and FICA contributions to the point where I would qualify for social security/Medicare. On a work visa :v:

A lot of the visa paperwork processes could be streamlined/simplified but it'll take a mountain of congressional support to do that and immigration reform no matter at what level is generally low priority for most Americans. I naturalize this year, so it'll remain a big priority for me going into the future after dealing with US immigration for 15 years with tons of paperwork.

# ? May 18, 2022 07:19

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > US Immigration Policy Megathread

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