ICE RAIDS: Enterate tus derechos! (Espanol)




 
 
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ICE Raids: Know Your Rights (English)







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*Some* DACA Recipients With Three-Year EADs Must Return EAD by July 17

 

In response to the injunction in Texas v. United States, USCIS is requiring approximately 2,000 individuals to whom 3-year EADs were issued after the injunction to return their EADs to USCIS.
Note that this does not affect EADs that were issued before the injunction.

USCIS has sent letters to affected DACA recipients. The first letter instructs the recipient to return the 3-year EAD and makes it clear that only 3-year EADs issued after February 16, 2015 need to be returned to USCIS. The second letter is being sent to those affected individuals who have not yet returned their 3-year EADs, stating "USCIS must receive your EAD by 7/17/15. Failure to return the invalid EAD without good cause may affect your deferred action and employment authorization."

On July 7, 2015, Judge Hanen in the Texas v. United States litigation issued an Order setting a hearing for August 19, 2015, to discuss the approximately 2,000 three-year EADs that were issued after the injunction was issued. The Order states, "this Court expects the Government to be in full compliance with this Court's injunction. Compliance as to just those aliens living in the Plaintiff States is not full compliance."


NOTE to our clients: If you were issued a work authorization card valid for 3 years AFTER February 16, 2015, please contact our office.

If you have a card valid for 3 years that was issued BEFORE February 16, 2015, you do NOT have to return it.
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Turning away foreign talent — a costly practice for US competitiveness


July 06, 2015, 01:00 pm
By Rosario Marin
Donald Trump is doubling down on his race-baiting attacks on Mexico. Over the weekend, the Republican presidential hopeful had a public fallout with Univision when he informed the Spanish-language television network he was banning their executives from his Miami golf resort next door to the network’s offices. The move came on the heels of Univision dropping out of Trump’s Miss USA pageant, a decision it made after Trump remarked that Mexico is “sending people that have a lot of problems,” that “are bringing drugs and crime [and] rapists” to the United States.
Trump has since refused to apologize for what many are calling racist comments.
The national conversation sparked by Trump’s controversial foray into the presidential race has added to my growing concern that we as a country are drifting far off-course regarding immigration, seeing only trees in a vast, vast forest.
The world economy is rapidly changing, and our immigration laws are not keeping time with economic progress at great detriment to the future of the United States. Our immigration system needs to be reformed to address the needs of our industries, whether for low or high-skilled people. Certainly there is a fight going on for American businesses to hire the highly skilled individuals they need to keep competitive in the increasingly digital economy, a fight that we are losing.
We’ve known for many years now about the growth potential of the tech sector, but we had no idea that it would outpace other sectors so quickly. There simply aren’t enough native-born people to fill highly specialized STEM field vacancies, and yet, as the industry matures, critical positions seem to multiply. Despite our steadily climbing reliance on the technology sector, we are as yet unable to meet growing industry demand through domestically sourced talent.
For example, as is the case with many STEM education programs at American universities, more than half of the graduate students enrolled at the University of Texas’s Cockrell School of Engineering are foreign-born, and nearly a third of them will be forced to turn down opportunities to work at American tech companies. And so, newly minted diploma in hand, much of our domestically educated but foreign-born talent pool is asked to leave the country following graduation because there are too few visas to satisfy demand. The majority of them will return to their home or other countries where they will utilize their top-tier American education for the benefit of the U.S.’s global competitors.
Additionally, the infrastructure that supports our technology sector much more readily crosses borders than the brick and mortar factories of Detroit and other cities that have seen job flight over the last few decades. If we don’t do something soon, we may wake up tomorrow to find that the next or even current era of tech companies have set up shop in Dublin or Shanghai. Microsoft is exemplifying just such a shift with its decision to open a new training center just across the border in Vancouver, Canada, only a few hours’ drive from its global headquarters in Washington State. Karen Jones, Microsoft’s deputy general counsel, says that the U.S.’s restrictive immigration regulations “clearly did not meet our needs. We have to look to other places.”
Other companies, too, are seeking the more modern immigration regulations to the north. Amazon, Salesforce, Twitter and Facebook all purchased additional office space in Canada and posted numerous job openings to fill the new expansion efforts. Whether it’s Canada or Costa Rica, major U.S. tech companies are demonstrating a willingness to shift operations wherever they need to remain competitive.
To compound the problem, some American policy-makers, like Mr. Trump, are looking at immigration in the wrong way. Immigration reform is vital to sustaining U.S. economic growth and ensuring American competitiveness through an increased talent pool of STEM workers, but it also happens to bolster, rather than detract from, native-born U.S. workers’ incomes.
Since 1990, skilled STEM immigrants have accounted for more than a third of total U.S. productivity, meeting demand for skilled workers and driving industry innovation and productivity. The data show that 187 new American jobs are created for every 100 H-1B visa holders admitted. That’s real growth. Although foreign workers bridge the skills gap across all industries, they are particularly beneficial to the technology sector as economic growth hinges ever-increasingly on innovation driven by the latest global thinking.
Bjorn Billhardt, an immigrant from Germany, in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee this spring, recounted his story of finding great success in the United States, but only because he was lucky enough to have immigrated in the 90s. “Immigrants or their children have founded over 40 percent of fortune 500 companies. Without immigrant entrepreneurs, the United States would not be home to companies like Google, eBay, and Yahoo!,” Billhardt asserts. “It is easy to imagine that if those companies aren’t grown in the U.S., they would have been created overseas, and we would have missed out on that innovation and those American jobs.”
Some have expressed a fear that expansion of the H-1B program could harm American workers, but at what cost to American economic power? To stay at the forefront of today’s economic growth, we urgently need to work within the modern, ever-globalizing economy as it exists, and not as some idealists among us might like to see it.
Translating this growth into long-term economic benefit for the United States hinges on our ability to attract the talent that can fill the positions our evolving economy needs. Should America’s tech industry continue to outgrow immigration reform, we may one day be waving reluctantly as it leaves our shores and goes abroad altogether. Perhaps then, Mr. Trump, you will understand that technological innovation, much like your merchandise, can also be “made in China.”
Marin is co-chairwoman of the American Competitiveness Alliance. She immigrated from Mexico to the United States with her family at the age of 14 and served as the 41st Treasurer of the United States from 2001- 2003. Marin is the author of Leading Between Two Worlds: Lessons from the First Mexican-Born Treasurer of the United States.
See the entire article here. 
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Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti Launches National Effort Backing President's Immigration Executive Actions in Texas v. United States Case



 

#DACAworks
Local and national organizations and leaders urge the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to allow millions of working families and individuals who have immigrated to the U.S. the opportunity to succeed.


Mayor Eric Garcetti has launched an online effort to build public support for President Obama’s immigration executive actions, which are currently stalled by the Texas v. United States case. The letter calls for support of the President’s reform plans, which will provide temporary relief from deportation to immigrants with longstanding ties to the U.S. It will be delivered to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans next Thursday, June 9th.

“Recent Supreme Court triumphs show us that public opinion matters. By raising our voices, we are fulfilling our responsibility as Americans to pursue a more equal and inclusive society. We are asking the Fifth Circuit Court to implement these executive actions, which will build a more robust economy and strengthen core American values,” said Mayor Garcetti.

Despite hundreds of legal experts confirming the constitutionality of these executive actions, the lawsuit continues to bar implementation of the programs. Expanding DACA and implementing DAPA will positively impact our cities, states, and country.

The executive actions would add an estimated $41 billion in new tax revenue to our nation’s economy over the next 10 years. If every eligible person applied for and was granted DACA and DAPA, over the next decade the U.S. GDP would increase by $90 to $210 billion, adding 150,000 jobs.

Mayor Garcetti has long been committed to municipal action on immigration. He re-established the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and launched the “Step Forward L.A.” campaign, which helps navigate the path to citizenship and aims to assist 100,000 Angelenos across the city with DACA and DAPA processes.

The effort supports actions taken by the Cities United for Immigration Action coalition, a movement co-led by Mayor Garcetti. In April, Mayor Garcetti helped recruit over 70 cities and counties to file an amicus brief in the Texas v. U.S. case, arguing the critical need to fix our country’s broken immigration system.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will start hearing oral arguments on July 10th. Leading up to that date, members of various organizations will present printed copies of Mayor Garcetti’s petition to the Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

To find out more and sign the petition, visit www.lamayor.org/daca_works

Leaders* including Los Angeles County Supervisors Hilda L. Solis and Sheila Kuehl, and Mayors Paul Soglin (Madison, WI), William Peduto (Pittsburgh, PA), Kevin McKeown (Santa Monica, CA), and Lindsey Horvath (West Hollywood) have pledged to back the petition.

Both local and national organizations have supported the petition including:
  • ACLU Southern California
  • Alliance for Citizenship
  • America’s Voice
  • American Federation of Teachers
  • American GI Forum
  • Armenian National Committee of America, Western Region
  • Asian Americans Advancing Justice
  • Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council
  • Avance
  • Bet Tzedek Justice for All
  • Building Skills Partnership
  • Californians Together
  • Care LA
  • Casa de Esperanza
  • Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment
  • Center for Community Change
  • Central American Resource Center (CARECEN)
  • Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice
  • Clinica Romero
  • Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA)
  • Council of Mexican Federations (COFEM)
  • Filipino Migrant Center
  • Franciscan Action Network
  • FWD.Us
  • Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities
  • Immigration Center for Women and Children
  • International Institute of Los Angeles
  • Kids In Need of Defense (KIND)
  • Korean Immigrant Workers Alliance
  • LA County Federation of Labor
  • LA Voice
  • Latino Equality Alliance
  • League of United American Latin Citizens (LULAC)
  • Loyola Immigrant Rights Clinic
  • Maternal and Child Health Access
  • Mexican American Bar Association
  • Muslim Public Affairs Council
  • National Association for Bilingual Education
  • National Immigration Law Center (NILC)
  • National Network for Immigrant & Refugee Rights
  • National Partnership for New Americans
  • OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates
  • Pilipino Workers Center
  • Proyecto Pastoral
  • Public Counsel
  • Restaurant Opportunities Center
  • Salvadoran American Leadership and Educational Fund (SALEF)
  • Thai Community Development Center
  • United We Dream (UWD)
  • Youth Policy Institute

Click here to see the full press release on the Los Angeles Mayor's website.


A Texas court has said no to the President’s Executive Actions, which would allow millions of families and working people who have immigrated to the United States the opportunity to succeed in our great country. Even though legal experts have confirmed that these programs are constitutional, DACA and DAPA are currently held up in the courts. Expanding DACA and instituting DAPA will have a positive impact on cities, states, and the country as a whole.

These programs would add an estimated $41 billion in new tax revenue to nation’s economy over the next ten years.  If every eligible person applied for and was granted DACA and DAPA, over the next decade the U.S. GDP would increase from $90 to $230 billion, adding 150,000 jobs.

The courts pay attention to public opinion, so we are raising our voices across the nation to call on the Fifth Circuit to reverse the District Court’s preliminary injunction, and permit the Administration to implement these programs that are vital to the American economy and our shared American values.

Sign the Petition now!

They will hand deliver the petition to the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans on July 9th. 
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Obama Administration Scales Back Deportations in Policy Shift

 

By Jerry Markon July 2

The Obama administration has begun a profound shift in its enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws, aiming to hasten the integration of long-term illegal immigrants into society rather than targeting them for deportation, according to documents and federal officials.

In recent months, the Department of Homeland Security has taken steps to ensure that the majority of the United States’ 11.3 million undocumented immigrants can stay in this country, with agents narrowing enforcement efforts to three groups of illegal migrants: convicted criminals, terrorism threats or those who recently crossed the border.

While public attention has been focused on the court fight over President Obama’s highly publicized executive action on immigration, DHS has with little fanfare been training thousands of immigration agents nationwide to carry out new policies on everyday enforcement.

The legal battle centers on the constitutionality of a program that would officially shield as many as 5 million eligible illegal immigrants from deportation, mainly parents of children who are U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. A federal judge put the program, known by the acronym DAPA, on hold in February after 26 states sued.

But the shift in DHS’s enforcement priorities, which are separate from the DAPA program and have not been challenged in court, could prove even more far-reaching.

The new policies direct agents to focus on the three priority groups and leave virtually everyone else alone. Demographic data shows that the typical undocumented immigrant has lived in the United States for a decade or more and has established strong community ties.

Although the new measures do not grant illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, their day-to-day lives could be changed in countless ways. Now, for instance, undocumented migrants say they are so afraid to interact with police, for fear of being deported, that they won’t report crimes and often limit their driving to avoid possible traffic stops. The new policies, if carried out on the ground, could dispel such fears, advocates for immigrants say.

In describing the initiatives, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has echoed the language often used by advocates of comprehensive immigration reform, which is stalled on Capitol Hill.

“We are making it clear that we should not expend our limited resources on deporting those who have been here for years, have committed no serious crimes and have, in effect, become integrated members of our society,” Johnson said in a recent speech in Houston. He added: “These people are here, they live among us, and they are not going away.”

Since the new policies took effect in January, Johnson’s instructions have been conveyed to agents throughout the department. “We decided we’re going to draw a clear line between individuals who now have significant equities in the country versus those who are recent entrants,” said one department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.

“If people are not an enforcement priority,” the official said, “. . . bottom line, the secretary has said don’t go after them.”

Broken promises

The United States’ massive dragnet is shrinking rapidly, because of the new enforcement policies and declining flows of new immigrants crossing the southwest border, DHS officials say.

Deportations, for example, are dropping. The Obama administration is on pace to remove 229,000 people from the country this year, a 27 percent fall from last year and nearly 50 percent less than the all-time high in 2012.

Fewer people are also in the pipeline for deportation. The number of occupied beds at immigration detention facilities, which house people arrested for immigration violations, has dropped nearly 20 percent this year.

And on Johnson’s orders, officials are reviewing the entire immigrant detainee population — and each of the 400,000 cases in the nation’s clogged immigration courts — to weed out those who don’t meet the new priorities. About 3,000 people have been released from custody or had their immigration cases dropped, DHS officials said.

“It does have the potential to be extremely significant. It would allow people to live without that noose over their heads of the threat of deportation at all times,’’ said Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, referring to the policy shift.

But Hincapié and other advocates — who have long clashed with the administration over its aggressive enforcement — said there is widespread skepticism in the immigrant community about whether agents on the ground will adjust their activities to match the new priorities.

“It all sounds great, but it means nothing if it’s not applied,” said Kica Matos, director of immigrant rights and racial justice at the Washington-based Center for Community Change. She faulted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), part of DHS, for what she said has been a series of broken promises to more humanely enforce immigration laws.

“DHS is an agency that has terrorized our community for a really long time,” Matos said, “so the level of distrust and fear is really big.”

‘Out of the shadows’

During Obama’s first presidential campaign, he spoke of undocumented immigrants, telling CNN in March 2007: “It’s absolutely vital that we bring those families out of the shadows.”

When his administration took power, the government was adding thousands of new agents hired at the end of President George W. Bush’s term and as a result ramping up enforcement efforts. Under pressure from Obama’s supporters to end Bush’s post-9/11 crackdown on illegal migrants, DHS tried to target these efforts.

“There were no comprehensive, written enforcement priorities,” said John Sandweg, a government affairs consultant who was a top immigration adviser to then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. “Everyone in the country unlawfully was fair game.”

At ICE, then-Director John Morton put out two 2011 memos laying out the agency’s priorities: protecting public safety and national security; and securing the border. In a move cheered by activists, Morton also said agents could exercise “prosecutorial discretion” and decide not to deport certain illegal immigrants taken into custody based on factors such as their length of stay in the United States.

At the same time, DHS expanded a Bush administration program called Secure Communities. It allowed ICE to lodge official requests with local police departments that had arrested someone ICE wanted to deport. The requests called on police to hold the immigrants for up to 48 hours after their scheduled release so ICE could pick them up.

As Secure Communities took hold, deportations kept climbing, reaching an all-time high of more than 409,000 in 2012. Even as Republicans blasted the administration for what they called lax enforcement, prominent Latino and other groups derided Obama as the “deporter in chief.”

“There was a lot of big talk coming out of DHS, big promises that they were going to be more sensitive to immigrant families, said Nick Katz, a staff attorney for Make the Road New York, an immigrant rights group. “And then it didn’t make a fundamental impact on the ground.”

A new plan

Soon after Johnson took office in December 2013, he took on a presidential request. Obama — frustrated by the failure months earlier of legislation that would have given undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship — tasked the new DHS secretary with determining what the administration could do on its own.

A former corporate lawyer and Pentagon general counsel, Johnson immersed himself in the legal details, reading the 2011 ICE memos and earlier internal documents. He spotted what he considered some of the same flaws activists had pointed out, DHS officials said.

The 2011 ICE memos, for example, had put a priority on deporting people who reentered the country illegally after having been removed from the country before, even if the initial deportation was years earlier and they had since lived law-abiding lives in the United States. Long-term illegal immigrants with families and other community ties were being arrested — many under the Secure Communities program — for minor offenses and sent to ICE for deportation.

“These individuals were being picked up based on that priority, nothing else was looked at, and they were removed from the country before they had their day in court,” a second DHS official said.

A rebellion was also brewing against Secure Communities, which had been billed as a way to crack down on immigrants who had committed serious crimes. About 300 communities, including major cities such as Baltimore and Los Angeles, ended or scaled back their participation.

“In some ways, [Secure Communities] got away from itself,” the second DHS official said.

Johnson’s answer was a pair of memos, released in November on the same day as Obama’s much-publicized speech about the new DAPA program.

Johnson spelled out that immigrants could be deported only if they had been convicted of crimes, not just arrested. And he specified that only people who had crossed the border since January 2014 could be deported purely for an immigration violation, not someone who had been deported years earlier, reentered the country and lived a law-abiding life.

He also did away with Secure Communities, replacing it with a new Priority Enforcement Program to begin later this summer. Under this plan, ICE will still coordinate with local police about immigrants who are in custody but will ask to be notified 48 hours before the scheduled release of an immigrant who is targeted for deportation, rather than seeking to have immigrants held beyond their scheduled release.

Immigrant advocates expressed widespread skepticism about Johnson’s changes, saying they fear that long-term immigrants who are low-level offenders will still be targeted.

But Sandweg said they should keep an open mind. “I think these new priorities are in­cred­ibly significant,’’ he said. “They will obviously have an impact on the lives of millions of people.”

See the entire article here.
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The Economic and Political Impact of Immigrants, Latinos and Asians By State

 
 
For Immediate Release

June 2, 2015

Washington D.C. - Today, the American Immigration Council releases an additional 15 updated state fact sheets with accompanying infographics. Immigrants, Latinos, and Asians constitute large and growing shares of the U.S. workforce, tax base, business community, and electorate. These fact sheets highlight their contributions as workers, taxpayers, and entrepreneurs, as well as their expanding political power.

The most recently updated states include:


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