The Department of Homeland Security said thousands of refugees displaced by Russia's invasion of Ukraine have traveled to Mexico hoping to gain refuge in the United States, including one teenager trying to get placement with his aunt and uncle who live in the Southland.
Ivan Yerashov is a typical 14-year-old, whose into sports and his computer. As of a week and a half ago, he also became a Ukrainian refugee. His aunt, Iryna Merezhko, picked him up in Kharkiv after her sister said she and her husband wanted to stay and fight, but they wanted their son brought to safety, a move the family did its best to spin, according to Merezhko. "I told him it will be like a long summer break in California for you, yeah. Don't think about the divided with parents, like a long summer break." After 30 hours on an evacuation train and 40 hours on a plane, the teen and his aunt made their way to a refugee camp in Mexico, where she'd heard the best and easiest way to get her nephew into the country was to go to the border and ask for humanitarian admission. Once in San Diego, though, immigration workers said Yerashov had to stay in a detention center for two or three days until the Merezhko's had a background check and their connection to the teen was verified. A new book on immigration appeals to Americans’ hearts. A book by Ali Noorani, president & CEO of the National Immigration Forum, uses stories, history and the unsettling present to convince Americans that enacting humane immigration reform would be in line with the best traditions of America.
Nearly everything Ali Noorani writes about in his new book Crossing Borders: The Reconciliation of a Nation of Immigrants describes a place he visited personally, giving the book a journalistic sensibility and the benefit of a longtime observer’s touch. This pays benefits on the book’s first page when he describes a trip to Honduras: “In our effort to learn about the root causes of Central American migration to the United States, we expected a sense of fear and hopelessness to run through our meetings. Instead, we met people of determination, focus, and pride. Who wanted more for their country. Who didn’t want to leave their homes. But were leaving because of the failure of institutions—in Honduras and the United States.” Noorani shows that violence is a significant driver of migration from Central America: “In 2017, El Salvador had the highest homicide rate in the world. Honduras ranked number four, with Guatemala at fourteen. Overall, at least 17 of the top 20 most homicidal countries in the world are located in Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.” In March 2022, there were “87 gang-related killings over [a recent] weekend” in El Salvador, according to National Public Radio. The Biden Administration Is Battling in Court to Keep Some Trump-era Immigration Policies in Place3/18/2022
According to immigration activists and Democrats, the president's remarks at the podium and the government's actions in court are at odds. President Biden has threatened to expose President Donald J. Trump's immigration policy as a "moral and national humiliation." But that was not Mr. Biden's legal team's argument earlier this year in a federal courtroom. The case was heard in January by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a three-judge panel of the United States Supreme Court. Trump appointee Judge Justin R. Walker was perplexed. Government lawyers were attempting to uphold a Trump-era public health rule that allows the US to deport migrants without giving them the option to seek asylum in Judge Walker's courtroom. He claims that the administration is moving too slowly on promised reforms and is far too willing to rely on Trump-era policies in the meantime. "The only way I know whether I'm reading a Biden or Trump administration brief is by looking at the signature block," said Lee Gelernt, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer. And those who won a visa lottery, including those who are increasingly at risk in Ukraine, were surprised to learn that federal lawyers are still delaying the processing of their green cards. When it comes to immigration, are Biden and Trump on the same page? Mr. Biden has taken steps to reverse the majority of his predecessor's immigration policy. Mr. Biden has worked to reverse much of his predecessor's immigration policy, including broad bans on Muslim-majority countries and a law that allows officials to deny green cards to immigrants in need of government assistance. He has issued nearly 300 executive acts on immigration, according to the Migration Policy Institute. No, according to Mr. Gelernt, who represents families who were separated at the border in 2018. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children and teenagers are safe from the Trump administration's border policy. "Making the necessary reforms isn't going to happen tomorrow," White House spokeswoman Vedant Patel adds. Mr. Biden warned weeks before taking office that undoing Trump-era policies would take time, in part because doing so too soon might encourage migrants to cross the border. She was denied entry to the United States, however, due to the Trump administration's pandemic restrictions. When Mr. Biden was elected, she had high hopes because he had praised the visa lottery during his campaign and even proposed expanding it by 25,000 visas. Two judges have ordered the Biden administration to deal with the backlog of visas this year. Justice Department lawyers have filed an appeal against the court orders. They claim that the government still lacks the resources needed to process visa applications without delaying future lottery winners. The lawyers also claimed last month that the orders would jeopardize the president's ability to impose future travel restrictions on other visa applicants, such as Russian officials sanctioned by the US for invading Ukraine.
"We always have our suitcases ready and our clothing ready to go," Mr. Demchenko said from his home, before his wife convinced him to end the phone interview. While Mr. Biden established a task force last year to assist in the reunification of juveniles separated from their parents as a result of Mr. Trump's "zero tolerance" policy, the government abandoned settlement talks with some of the 5,500 children's families late last year. He told them that they needed to go to the bomb shelter. George Lynden Melmed was the head counsel for the government's legal immigration agency during President George W. Bush's administration. He claims that there was a schism between a presidential candidate's agenda and his legal team's approach while in office. "Writing talking points is simple; running an agency is far more difficult," he says. Lynden Melmed, general counsel for the government's legal immigration department during President George W. Bush's administration, said there had been a disconnect for years between a presidential candidate's program and his legal team's approach while in office. The administration, however, withdrew from the talks in December and has been attempting to persuade judges to dismiss cases filed by families against a variety of defendants, not just the government. During his presidential campaign, Mr. Biden made no mention of withdrawing the regulation, but he did promise to restore the asylum procedure, which many migrants subject to the public health order were denied. According to a federal appeals court, the administration can no longer use the regulation to deport migrant families to countries where they face persecution or torture. Vice President Kamala Harris went even further as a senator, accusing the Trump administration of using a limited public health power as a broad immigration tool. Judge Walker reminded Ms. Swingle that the Biden administration had previously argued that returning migrants to Mexico while they await asylum cases would not "align with the administration's values" due to the risk of violence and sexual assault on the Mexican side of the border from cartel members. Ms. Swingle, on the other hand, cited the public health crisis as a reason to maintain Mr. Trump's border restrictions. |