Immigrant youths and others are calling on President Joe Biden and Congress to shield undocumented immigrants from deportation and build more pathways to U.S. citizenship.
In a small rally outside Corona City Hall on Friday evening, May 20, they demanded an end to the Title 42 public emergency health order, which expires Monday, May 23. Established in 2020 during the Trump Administration, the order allowed for migrants seeking asylum to be turned away from the U.S.-Mexico border to prevent the spread of COVID-19. They also called for an end to the “Remain in Mexico” policy, a Trump-era protocol that requires some asylum seekers at the border to be sent back or wait in Mexico for immigration hearings. Organizer and Corona resident Alan Vargas said the youth-led nonprofit United We Dream spearheaded the rally. They chose Corona City Hall, the office site for Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, because they sought his attention. “He has been speaking out on wanting to keep Title 42 and wanting to go further on other extreme measures … such as wanting to build the wall, increase funding to ICE” and the Border Patrol, Vargas, 21, said. In a Friday statement, Calvert blamed Biden for losing control of the border to drug cartels and human traffickers. “We cannot meaningfully address the humanitarian aspects of legitimate asylum seekers without secure borders,” Calvert said. “Reinstating the Remain in Mexico policy and preserving Title 42 are invaluable tools in this effort.” Vargas — who creates pro-immigration content on TikTok — said there is growing worry in the community, including in his family, about border policies and law enforcement. Last year, after months of in-fighting among Democrats, opposition from Republicans, and technical obstacles, President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act died in Congress. The $1.9 trillion spending bill contained a few immigration provisions watered down from Biden’s original immigration reform proposal known as the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021. As the name suggests, the U.S. Citizenship Act would have established pathways to citizenship for the country’s 11 million undocumented residents, including those with special status designations such as DREAMers — those brought here unlawfully as children — and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders. But lawmakers opted to try passing smaller bills, including severely watered down measures where citizenship provisions were left out altogether. Some trimmed-down bills are still floating around Congress a year later, highlighting the possibility of citizenship for millions of undocumented residents who live and work here remains out of reach.
The U.S. Citizenship Act proposed sweeping immigration reforms, such as expanding legal work access for immigrants and dependents — potentially affecting 13.6 million green card holders in the U.S. — as well as providing a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented residents. According to the Center for American Progress, the U.S.’s undocumented workforce alone contributes an estimated $79.7 billion in federal taxes, in addition to $41 billion in state and local taxes. But the U.S. Citizenship Act was ultimately abandoned by lawmakers in favor of smaller separate bills, given the unlikelihood that such sweeping reforms would gain enough support from Republicans and conservative Democrats to pass the Senate. Some smaller measures have stalled in Congress while others have perished as part of the broader Build Back Better bill. Missouri, Arizona and Louisiana say the move would lead to a ‘crisis’ at the US-Mexico border.
Three states have sued the Biden administration over its plans to lift Title 42, a contentious border policy that has led to the expulsion of the vast majority of people trying to file asylum claims in the United States. Missouri, Arizona and Louisiana – three Republican-governed states – announced on Monday that they are suing the administration of President Joe Biden, arguing that ending the pandemic-era restriction would result in an “unprecedented crisis at the United States southern border”. The development comes after the Biden administration announced on Friday that it would lift Title 42, a public health order put in place under former President Donald Trump back in March 2020. Under the measure, announced at the height of COVID-19 lockdowns in the US, the majority of asylum seekers apprehended at the US-Mexico border have been expelled immediately back to Mexico or their country of origin, without the chance to file asylum claims. The policy is based on recommendations from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), citing the need to protect the country from the further spread of the coronavirus pandemic. As Western nations announce a series of measures against Moscow, Ukraine's president claims at least 137 people have been killed in a full-scale Russian military onslaught. Russia has launched a full-fledged military invasion on Ukraine, beginning with air and missile strikes on Ukrainian military targets before sending troops and tanks across the country's borders from the north, east, and south. On numerous fronts, the Ukrainian military has fought back. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated in a video address early Friday that 137 people had been murdered, including troops and civilians, and that hundreds more had been injured. According to a senior US defense official, Russia may be planning to seize Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, and other vital cities in order to install a more sympathetic government. As Ukrainian military fought back and citizens crowded onto trains and automobiles to flee, US and European leaders moved quickly to impose harsh financial sanctions on Russia. NATO is bolstering its eastern flank. Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/25/russia-ukraine-crisis-what-we-know-so-far
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services have conducted another random selection of H-1B visa applications, the third in a row for the fiscal year 2022. According to a press release of the USCIS, the selection has been conducted upon an assertion that more registrations are needed in order to reach FY 2022 H-1B numerical allocations, including here the advanced degree exemption.
The H-1B visa is a US work visa, which permits companies and other employers in the country to employ highly skilled workers from other countries like chemists, statisticians, scientists, financial analysts, industrial engineers, computer systems analysts, computer hardware engineers, etc. The number of H-1B visas issued by the country’s administration this year has increased, since the approval rates for H-1B in the first three quarters of the US fiscal year were 98.1 percent, compared to 2019 when the rate was 84 percent. Find out more here: https://visaguide.world/news/us/h1b-visa/us-conducts-third-random-selection-of-h-1b-applications-previously-submitted-for-fy-2022/ |